My friend Matt Frese posted, despondently, last night on Facebook, after the Washington Capitals’ 2-0 Game 7 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL quarterfinals. He asked the following simple question, in the form of a statement: Not sure…
You Had Me at Hashbrowns
Jazz Fest Friday, 3 AM. Second weekend. One of the busiest times of the year, falling somewhere below Mardi Gras, Halloween, and arguably St. Patrick’s Day, but above most other festivals and happenings that dot the landscape of New Orleans’…
Record 4 Million French Voters Resist Binary Runoff
The headlines about France today correctly report that previously unelected businessman Emmanuel Macron crushed legacy politician Marine Le Pen in yesterday’s runoff for the French Presidency. This was expected and unsurprising, though the media wanted to treat it like a…
The Health of a Nation
Last night, I had a dream that I was in an airplane and it was landing and I kept looking up front at the cockpit and wanting to see outside but it was blocked, just this blue door and white…
APDA Nationals 2017: A Debate Odyssey
It is three-thirty in the afternoon on a Thursday, the day before the first American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) Championships to ever be held at Rutgers University will commence. I am in a grungy but comfortable New Brunswick apartment just…
Shoes on the Highway
Shoes on the Highway by Storey Clayton 6 April 2017 I saw two shoes on the highway one and then another as I sped up the overpass they were strewn, not placed on the road, not the shoulder clearly flung…
School Protection in Out-Rounds at NPDA Nationals 2017: an analysis
While my overall interaction with 2017 NPDA Nationals was overwhelmingly wonderful, some of the joy was marred at times by confusion over a very strange tab policy that was included in this tournament. The tab policy was to protect schools…
Tulane Debate Reaches NPDA Nationals Quarterfinals in Historic Upset
The Tulane University Debate Team reached the quarterfinals of the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) National Championships last Sunday at the Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The partnership of Claire Kueffner ’18 and Khristyan Trejo ’19 finished in the…
Seventeen Years of Blogging
Yesterday was the seventeenth anniversary of Introspection, my first blog. It lasted for just seven years and change before the daily short-format gave way to this more haphazard long format, now nearly ten years into process. My first post was…
They Showed Us Our Past
When we found them, we were not thinking of our history, even while we were watching theirs. We were thinking of visitation, of proof of life, of how similar or different they were from us. We were thinking of little…