The Word Wrangler and the Pointy Stick

Way back in the mists of time in November 2007, there were two Municipal Liasons for the St Louis region of NaNoWriMo, Denise and Jen. It was decided that since we were engaged in regional Word Wars with the I-70 corridor, we needed an official cheerleader, someone to rally the troops, keep track of our regional progress, and lead the taunts on our opponents forums about their puny word count.  Denise created the position and there was a vote to chose between the contenders.  I left that day with the Pointy Stick of office as the new Word Wrangler:

The Pointy Stick came to all the official write-ins, and all the unofficial ones I went to.  It got waved in the air to rally the troops, I threatened to poke people with it if they didn't keep writing, and I accidentally bopped several people on the head completely unintentionally.  Lack of due diligence while holding a plastic spear can do that, and I did apologise.  We slaughtered the opposition in the nicest possible way and a good time was had by G.R.O.W.L (the Gateway Region Of Wordwarrior Legends) and W.H.A.T (the Warmongering Hoosier Attack Team from Indianapolis) and D.A.N.G. (Dayton Area NaNo Group).

In November 2008, the Pointy Stick was back.  At the kick-off party I made a speech about Word Wars, standing on a chair holding aloft the Pointy Stick, which is utterly unlike me the other 11 months of the year.  The Word Wars continued, the Pointy Stick travelled with me to write-ins, and our regional word count again rocked.

This year's kick-off party is on Saturday.  The Pointy Stick is back and I'm not afraid to use it...

If you participate in NaNoWriMo, please donate to keep it going.  They're a charity, so it's US tax deductible, and it costs a lot to keep running.  It would be awesome to see it fully funded by the end of November and we have a long way to go before we're there.