A note to our readers

We actually pulled this one together without pulling a nonstop all nighter. It's been so long since we did that, we're as surprised as you are.

C.I. and Ava broke off from the editorial to write their TV review of Hope & Faith. (Ava provided input on the editorial in the final draft stage.) They had attempted to write it last night but Ava (who does read e-mail on her day to answer e-mail) shared an e-mail from a reader named Eddie with C.I. and both were inspired to toss around jokes about CJR Daily that quickly became notes, turned into a sketch, and by the time the rest of us got involved (including Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude as well as Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man) we had a ripe and long overdue parody. But credit the original idea and most of the groundwork to Ava and C.I.

The interview with Betty is something that we all participated in Friday night (and thank you to Betty for making time for that). All means Ty, Jess, Dona, Ava and Jim of Third Estate Sunday Review as well as Rebecca and C.I.

Blog Betty went live, as Rebecca says, Friday. We hope you enjoy the interview with Betty and that you check out her blog. In a world the Bully Boy increasingly attempts to dominate, we could all use a little more laughter and Betty provides that as well as social commentary.

As noted, Ava and C.I. broke off to do the TV review of Hope & Faith late Saturday night. On that, Ava adds that both she and C.I. are aware that McGinley appeared on other shows but when they termed Ted McGinley and Faith Ford "sitcom veterans" they decided to cite the two sitcoms each was best known for. (They've provided links to Ford & McGinley's online biographies so you can go there for further information. They also advise that Faith Ford went from Another World to Murphy Brown yet for some reason Another World isn't mentioned in her filmography at ABC.) If you go to it expecting them to rip the Ripa, confession, we were expecting that as well. Read it to see what they found in Ripa and in the show. (And no, they aren't going "soft." Read it and you'll see.) Reading it, we're willing to check out Hope & Faith.

As we attempt to find a better way to acknowledge our readers, we offer up an intentionally silly advice column. Why anyone would want our advice, for instance, on social etiquette is beyond us, but we're happy to play again. We do get e-mails asking advice about college and other issues. Ava has referred people to resources for a number of issues. Ty had a serious issue raised in an e-mail on his day this week which he attempted to assist with. The questions raised in the e-mails we picked were concerns but not the end of world issues so we took a light hearted approach. Hopefully you'll enjoy our usual smart ass attitude.

Finally our editorial and our blog highlight of Folding Star's A Winding Road which seemed to go in hand in hand with one (editorial) advising what's wrong and the other (A Winding Road) demonstrating how it should it be done.

The death watch as news. Think we're being too hard? Ava, a Catholic, caught 20/20 (she had it on in the background while she and C.I. were exchanging CJR Daily jokes) and a story came on entitled "The Road To Sainthood." ABC and 20/20 may have thought they were being "respectful" but, as Ava notes, networks don't anoint saints, the Church does "thanks all the same but you just disrespected my religion."

The broadcast led off with "Good evening, Pope John Paul II continues to lie near death tonight, so before we begin our program, we go for the latest on his condition . . ." What followed was "bulletin" offering such "breaking news" as "We're told that this morning he recognized it was Friday" and "today it must have required extraordinary strength." Opinion passing as news ("must have"), what happened Friday morning passing as "breaking news." And this wasn't part of "The Road to Sainthood." No, there was much worse to come. Someone's decided this is news. Ghoulish is the only word we could think of to apply to the death watch coverage.

We'll close by again welcoming Betty to the blog world. And as always, thank you to Rebecca, Betty and C.I. for all their help and assistance. And thank you to our readers as well.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, and Ava