A note to our readers

Another Sunday. Another day where things seem to be moving along quickly. And then they stop.

This time we can pin the blame on Ava and C.I. Three hours ago they wrote a review of Colin Powell and Barbara Waters' exchange on 20/20 that was very funny. Just as we were finishing the editorial, they stated the piece wasn't going up, that they were rewriting it. They kept one joke and that's basically it. They felt that the exchange deserved a stronger response. Having read both versions, we agree that the second version, the one we're running, is the stronger one. (Though we do miss the jokes in the first version.)


For this edition, we thank the following Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), and Mike of Mikey Likes It!. With the exception of the TV review which was done by Ava and C.I. only, those listed contributed to every feature here including the selection of spotlights.

You may note that in our media roundtable, Kat doesn't speak. Kat took notes to give Ava and C.I. a break. Those are the only three who can take notes because they're the only ones fast enough. Besides being occupied with taking notes, Kat also had the fourth topic on the list of things to be discussed. To make sure we got to it, Kat held off on her remarks so that there would be time. When Dona called time on the roundtable, she wasn't aware that Kat hadn't spoken yet. Afterwards, Mike pointed it out and Dona immediately offered to reopen the roundtable but Kat uttered her now famous slogan, "It is what it is." Kat didn't get to speak (and we regret that) but along with taking notes, she was suggesting topics that Jim whittled down to a list of five we were hoping to get to. Kat gets to speak first in the next roundtable.

To help out community members Gina and Krista of the gina & krista round-robin, we put off our planned book discussion and instead focused on children's books that had left an impression. We think you'll enjoy that discussion. And we were thrilled to be able to help out in any way Gina and Krista who do such a wonderful job with their round-robin each week.

For that book discussion, we were lucky to be joined by Folding Star who ran the weblog A Winding Road. We think readers of this site and members of The Common Ills community will also see it as a special treat that Folding Star participated.

Our news review went up as soon as it was done. We're noting "rush transcript." We post that as soon as it's completed. It appears in full length at the site until we're starting to post the other entries, at which point, we go back into the entry and add the code that offers you a sample of what's in store. But that's all we want to alter. Partly because we're lazy and partly because it's a transcript and shouldn't be polished up. We're covering many topics and we have a special report from Dallas who tells us about a relief center for the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in his area. Knowing this would be a lenghty report, Jim and Dona made the decision to make this only mention of Hurricane Katrina which is covered in many other places. Mike brings you up to speed on the rest of the world, Elaine on Iraq and Rebecca offers a nature report. Kat expands her focus from music to cover various entertainment news due to the fact that Betty was participating in an editorial commentary with Cedric and Ty. Jess, as always, gives you the peace report. Common Ills community member Amy e-mailed this week to ask if Jess could mention an event in her area. He was glad to and says that if others have events they would like to noted to e-mail us. (We're arguing over the e-mail address. C.I. says it's thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com. We're all tired but we'll take C.I.'s word that there's no "the" in front of our e-mail address.)

We thank Dallas for his report and for, as always, hunting down links for our entries. We also thank Jess' parents who scanned sources online to help us have additional information for our news review. We thank Francisco for allowing us to rerun his run down of the important headlines from Democracy Now! this week.

We'll note that Cedric has moved his site to another location. (And we'll go into the template after, after, we get all entries up.) We say welcome back to Rebecca who returned from her vacation. We'll also say welcome to Elaine who substituted for Rebecca during her vacation and has also been helping us out here. Why welcome? She's started her own site, Like Maria Said Paz. We wanted to highlight something from her but she asked us to wait a week to have more to choose from.

Hopefully this edition brings you something that makes you laugh or makes you think or just makes you angry.

-- Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and C.I.