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re hanson and west and korcok

Mike--you looked like a judge. Indeed, you looked so scholarly that
even Glen Strickland would have thought you not only a judge but
also a PhD Professor Emeritus.

:)

Jim

re ------------
okay, before Jim and Mark get the entire touchy-feely-crunchy
Northwest to hold hands, sing Kumbayat, and inhale the love, i'd like
to tell my one and only Hanson and West story.

so there i was, new to SIU that spring semester and hanging-out
helping with the team.  Bile and Simerly were coaching, Mary and
Nate and Scott and Bebe were debating, it was the privacy topic, and
i was traveling as scout and best boy.

now, the national circuit was much smaller back then and this was
before the days of e-mail everyone-knows-everyone:  you interacted
with distant teams only occasionally.  oh sure, Macalester was known
to all and so was Florida State and everyone had run afoul of the
Dread Cuban Eddie
Cruz.  so, we had heard that there was this excellent team from
Western
Washington, but we didn't know much about them and had only
vague ideas about what they were arguing.  it became the scout's job
to get the scoop and the flow.

the room was one of those auditorium wanna-be rooms with theater
seats which slope up.  i sat down in the middle and waited for
everyone else to show.  Hanson and West came in, set their
recipe-box on the table, and wrote their names on the board. the
other team came in a bit later. finally the judge came in and sat down
a few seats away from me.  

the debate was not especially remarkable:  Western Washington was
indeed smart and polished and had obviously found a bit of library
time.  it wasn't especially close.  the only real entertainment was Jim
Hanson.

you see he was very articulate and a capable orator: very easy to
listen to.  but his entire constructive was delivered to me.  puzzled, i
kept squinting and sent him confused looks.  misinterpreting my
expressions as a lack of comprehension, Jim explained the most
basic concepts in excruciating detail:  i thought at one point that he
was about to spell out d-e-b-a-t-e.  Jim's rebuttal was exasperated
and frustrated.  at one point i put my hands up in the universal
symbol of "what the hell?" but that only added to the confusion:
finally, i thumbed toward the judge, but Jim kept right on trying to
explain to me.

as soon as the two teams had shaken hands, the judge spoke up
and said
"by the way, i am the judge."  the look on Hanson's face was one i
hope never to forget - you know, one of those shocked, 2x4 in the
face,
"ungh" looks that you only see in old cartoons?

so, anyhow, that's my one and only Hanson and West story.

take care, michael korcok
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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