A note to our readers

We were all prepared to execute a humorous theme this weekend. We'd tossed around a few ideas. We'd even written some paragraphs. Then came the Friday when everything changed -- Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement was announced.

In the midst of the shock we knew a funny issue wasn't the way to go this weekend. Besides, our laughter was lost for most of Friday. (We agreed with Martha that a laugh was needed by Friday evening, needed really bad.)

So what you've got on your screens (or some of you in your hands because we do distribute this on recycled paper) isn't anything we can say we planned or intended.

We think our message gets across more often from the strength of our convictions than our actual words this edition. Originally, our goal was to give you an editiorial to think about and one hard hitting story. Along with that, we'd offer up amusements on topics like reading, music and TV.

We moved away from that because "Karla" was the first to share her story with us. And it was a very big thing for her. And she figured, it's online, it will help people. To be quite honest, nobody really noticed it online. We got a few e-mails on it and that was about all. The print edition we put out on campus did get attention. But Karla shared her story hoping that it could help someone. It wasn't easy for her to share the story. (And Jim nearly scared her off.) We never forgot that and have always felt like somehow we let her down. We didn't know what we were doing blog wise. It was our first edition. Maybe we should have e-mailed it around. But we do feel to this day that we let her down.

Proving that nothing dies online, C.I. highlighted it on Friday in full. C.I. called Ava to make sure and we were more than happy to share anything with C.I. (It works both ways.) We also thought maybe a few more people would see it.

Never underestimate the power of The Common Ills community as Rebecca will tell you.

By that evening we'd had fifty e-mails on it. They continue to come in and Dona's count is that we're at slightly over 500 now. Knowing how difficult it was for Karla to share it and knowing that what sold her on sharing was that her story would get out, we're really thrilled that almost six months later people finally know what she went through.

We haven't seen Karla since May. We don't have her e-mail. But maybe she saw her story at The Common Ills. Or maybe she'll check in here this week since she knows we are firmly pro-choice and wonders what we've got to say about the issue of Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement.
If she reads this, Karla, we thanked you in January when you were brave enough to share your story and we thank you for it now. But there are a lot of e-mails that have come in that are thanking you too. You kept saying that it wasn't something you wanted to discuss but you'd do it because it might help someone. If you were reading the e-mails, you'd see that you have helped a lot of people. We're sorry that we didn't know what we were doing and that we let you down. But finally, people know of your story and it's moved them or helped them relate to something in their own lives. Your goal was achieved and, again, we thank you.

We had talked about how if time was really tight this summer we'd rerun some articles we were proud of. Karla's story was one we all agreed we'd rerun. Our readership has increased since then and we figured that it was an important story and one worth trying to get out one more time. Due to the announcement of O'Connor's retirement, we're rerunning it this week.

We're also spotlighting our very wise and kind friend/mentor/colleague Kat who's made a point to go on the record that she's had an abortion. We thank her for allowing us to reprint her entry.

We also share Folding Star's thoughts on O'Connor's announcement (thank you, Folding Star).

Our blog spotlight goes to Mike of Mikey Likes It! As promised last week, we have an interview with Mike this issue. We think we freaked him out with our Chinese zodiac talk! But Mike's a great guy and a welcome addition to the community of Common Ills members who have started their own sites.

Our editorial is on Karl Rove. Read it and you'll see why.

We did a roundtable at the last minute. We weren't sure where it would go but C.I. was working on an entry for The Common Ills and felt there was too much anger to write it. C.I. suggested a round table and it seemed a great way for all of us to go on the record as supporting reproductive rights. That includes abortion. A lot of times things are dressed in fancy language or pretty phrases that convey all that they mean. So let us be clear that we are pro-choice and that means we support legalized abortion.

We didn't think we could do an editorial on it (because we're so angry). So instead we did an essay as we do from time to time.

So where is the TV review, you all ask. It is the most popular feature week in and week out. Ava's off helping C.I. over at The Common Ills so we'll say thank you to them and we'll say we're sorry to them.

We place tremendous demands on them each week. Their piece is our calling card. Week in, week out, readers come here just for that and don't hesitate to let us know (as when one edition didn't contain a review by them). Most of the time readers will go on check out the editorial and at least one other feature. ("Five Books, Five Minutes" is becoming a popular feature and will return next week.) But we know that a lot of readers come here (or read the print edition) just for that review. We hear about it in e-mails, we hear about it from our friends and family. "I laughed so hard!" "I couldn't belive they said that!" "I'd forgotten all about ___ until they brought it up in their review!"

So that puts a lot of pressure on them. And we sometimes add to the pressure like when we spring a theme (humor issue! 60's edition!) on them at the last or near the last minute. We all tend to expect them to write on demand. This week, we were really wanting them to address Bully Boy's press conference. They wanted to address Summerland. But they taped the press conference and said they'd think about it. We didn't hear another word on it until C.I. posted at The Common Ills that they might, might, review it. We made a case for it and all but demanded/ordered that they do it.

They're not really thrilled with what's up here. We think that has to do with being forced into writing something at a time when they both didn't see anything humorous in the Bully Boy. (O'Connor's retirement changed a lot of things.) We read it and we laughed off asses off. Normally, we post it and then read it right before we get this note to the readers completed. Here we read it first it. They were very down on it.

We were thinking, "Okay, we forced them into this. We owe it to them to fix it." It doesn't need fixing. It's perfect (and perfectly funny and perfectly to the point) as it is. And Ty reminded us that they tend to hate everything after they finish it anyway. It's only a few days later or a week later that they'll agree there was "one" funny part. So although great writers and great TV critics, we don't think they're that good at evaluating their own TV reviews!

Rebecca's shared her opinions on how the two of them got together and they coincide with the way we remember it. They were the ones from the start off to the side making jokes while we were being serious about the TV reviews. We would laugh, if we were paying attention, but we'd think, "Funny, now let's get back to work." And as Ty's saying right now, it was honestly a little shocking because we'd never heard Ava cut up like up that. Team her up with C.I. and the two of them can't stop cracking jokes unless it's time to make a political point (and if they combine a political point with a joke . . .). At the end of the spring semester, and Ava may be embarrassed by this if she reads it, one of our favorite professors made a point of telling Ava how alive her writing was now. We agree and wish we could claim credit for that but that's through her and C.I. As Rebecca's noted, C.I. gave Ava the encouragement that we didn't make time for. Probably because we expect things to be good and probably because we're all a little competative. Ava's not competative. And to her, it probably seemed like she wasn't appreciated so let us say "for the record" that we always appreciated you Ava, we just didn't realize how much we appreciated you.

People ask, when they see the profile, why "Ava." That's how she's listed. When Mike started blogging, C.I. referred to him as "Michael" repeatedly. And when asked why, C.I. explained in a post that there was already a member who'd been quoted as "Mike." (The member has decided to go with Michael and let Mike take Mike which is no doubt going to cause a little confusion for anyone who's on holiday and comes back without reading about that.) Ava was a Common Ills member (still is) and there was already someone with her first name. To avoid confusion, she went by her middle name. Her family does call her that (and they call her "Ave Maria" as well) but it's her middle name. At some point, we'll get off our lazy butts and take out the quotation marks because to anyone who comes here, she's Ava.

I explained the whole Ava and C.I. teaming (I being Jim) at The Common Ills on Friday but we all wanted to make a point to say that we didn't realize how strong and talented Ava was. And that we didn't give the encouragement we should have. Before anyone writes in, "Is Ava leaving!" No, she's not leaving. (But she will take over The Common Ills if C.I. steps down for health reasons. And C.I.'s noted that at The Common Ills so we don't feel like we're talking out of school.) (And if anyone could carry it on the spirit, it's Ava. But naturally, we don't want to see that day come not just because we like working with Ava here.)

So we think there's something of value in this edition and we hope you find something that makes you laugh or makes you angry. We'd e-mailed Colin that we would do a "Dear Third Estate Sunday Review" this edition. We e-mailed that on Tuesday. Obviously everything changed Friday. We'll try to get one in the next edition.

We thank Rebecca for all her help (editorial, roundtable, interview with Mike, essay), we thank Betty for all her help (the same minus the interview) and Kat (the same minus interview). We thank Mike for agreeing to be interviewed and for his help with the editorial, roundtable and essay. Honorary Third Estate Sunday Reviewer C.I. helped with everything but this note and the interview. (And of course co-wrote the TV review with Ava.)

We thank Dallas for, as always, hunting down links. Dallas, we'd love for you to be a participant in a roundtable. And we thank Ruth for words of encouragement this week when we told her we weren't sure (on Friday afternoon) that we could even put together an edition this week because we were so angry and mad. We'll also thank Bill Scher just because he's a good guy.

-- Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty and Ava (here in spirit although off co-writing with C.I.)

P.S. And we thank Maria and C.I. for allowing us to repost her Democracy Now! post. Get the word out that Democracy Now! is offering Headlines in Spanish.