Patrick Weber New Student Regent! Debaters Rule!

You'd be smiling, too, if you were the newly appointed Student Regent, South Dakota Board of Regents.

Patrick Weber, pictured at JazzFest 2010. Screen cap from SF Jazz & Blues online video

"Holy crap!" I just shouted, unnecessarily scaring my wife. No, it wasn't my rain barrel tipping over (when I discovered that this morning, I just shrugged). It was the appointment of Patrick L. Weber of Montrose as student regent on the South Dakota Board of Regents.

Weber was one of my best students at Montrose HS. He was a star in one-act play, oral interpretation, and, yes debate. He went to Nationals in Lincoln-Douglas debate. He was the first Montrose student to win an SDSU Briggs scholarship (followed the next year by another Fighting Irish debater, the worthy Mr. Patrick Kane).

At SDSU, Weber was on his way to becoming a mathematician, but his involvement with the SDSU Students' Association, including some successful lobbying experiences on behalf of his fellow students in Pierre, inclined him to return to his rhetorical passions and enroll in USD's law school. Some observers might blame that turn of events on Patrick's falling in with the wrong crowd, including some kid named Daugaard.... ;-) Sibby, of course, will lament the ascension to power of another young person corrupted by my evil secular humanist teachings. PP will likely join Sibby in saying I orchestrated Weber's appointment to forward my plot to undermine the GOP. Tee hee!

All kidding aside, I say wowza, Patrick! Way to go! The debate world celebrates your raising our banner in the Regents' board room.

But wait: does this mean Patrick is now my boss? Once again, holy crap!