A note to our readers

Sunday morning and we're wrapping it up.

We did something different this week. We posted the highlights and Maria's entry (thank you, Maria) after our break. Usually we wait and post those later. Ty's already read one e-mail from someone afraid that those being up, and nothing else, when he checked at four might mean that we weren't posting new content this week? We are. It's all up now.

In this edition, you'll find "Five Book, Five Minutes" and the books discussed were all suggested by readers. On that, Dona asks that we note the following. From e-mail suggestions, we whittle it down to what we think might be interesting (to read or discuss) and from there we utilize the libraries. (Or most of us do.) The suggestion for the book containing various press pieces on Madonna came at the end of October. We had to hold off discussing it until everyone participating had read the book. Two participants had to wait a bit longer than the rest of us since the book was not in their library system. We think you'll enjoy the discussion (especially those e-mailing to request more music noted in the editions).

Be sure to check out two Pacifica Radio programming notes via Ruth. One airs in less than three hours (and Tom Hayden is a guest). If you miss it, you can catch an archived broadcast.

The holidays are closing in and one reader requested a list of Christmas movies. We tried to add a little more than a list and selected ten movies. (The reader will be surprised by the person selecting the eleventh movie and we thank her for participating.) Jess says to note that although we're being humorous with many of our comments about the movies, we were serious about the selections and those are movies that were holiday movies to everyone participating.

Our essay this edition is on Bob Woodward and hopefully there's a new angle in this essay.

Our editorial is on Bully Boy's "big" speech this week. We thank Isaiah for allowing us to use his illustration. We also thank Dallas for hunting down links for all features.

All of the above (with the exception of Ruth's notes and Maria's entry) were written by:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz
and Wally of The Daily Jot

The TV review was, of course, written by Ava & C.I. This week they critique Everybody Hates Chris.

We thank Rebecca, Mike & Betty, Cedric and C.I. for allowing us to reprint their entries as spotlights. And our apologies to Wally because C.I. just asked, "We did post Wally's entry on Florida, right?" No, we didn't. Our apologies. We meant to. If you missed it, click here.

Another thing you might find interesting is a post Cedric wrote last night while we were taking a break discussing the process that produces these editions.

A few have asked where is the news review, when will it return? Dona's plan originally was that it would provide us with an easy entry because we'd spend 15 minutes discussing possible stories, then, with the clock counting down from sixty minutes, C.I. would introduce it and we'd come forward and do our news summaries, critiques, what have you. Since it's a transcript and the deadline was sixty minutes, it should be an easy entry, right?

Well we have added people who contribute each week. Rebecca was on vacation when the feature started, Wally wasn't blogging and we weren't sure that everyone would want to work on something to deliver each week. (Ty felt he'd want to stay behind the scenes and focus on research.) With so many people and so many topics to cover, the feature was taking more than an hour. We're hoping to return to it soon but we've honestly all enjoyed the break.

We hope you've found something that made you laugh or made your wrinkle your brow. We aren't The New York Bland. We do take suggestions seriously so feel free to weigh in if there's a book or a feature you'd like covered. (Dona says, "We take them seriously meaning we consider them. This isn't Burger King. You don't walk up to the counter and place an order.")

See you next week.

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