A Note to Our Readers

Another Sunday. Are you bothered by the delays?

We were too. It was technical hell. But we think this edition matters so here we are, with no sleep since Saturday morning, still trying to finish this entry. Trying to reconstruct lost features.
Pushing on, pressing on. (The one person who loves to point out typos should be prepared for a blistering reply -- some of us are on the 31st hour without sleep and none of us is claiming perfect vision at this point.)

Highlights? Even there we had problems. We'd hoped to have more but when Ruth's report never hit the site, we knew we were doomed there as well.

We thank everyone who allowed us to repost the following:

Coalicion de iglesias estadounidenses acusan a Washington de "infundir terror"
Blog Spotlight: Rebecca on the real surreal life
Blog Spotlight: Elaine on truth and fiction
Blog Spotlight: Cedric on when to go
Kitchen Spotlight: Trina's got Brushetta in the Kitchen

New content?

"Editorial: Use your voice" is about the coming month, the third anniversary of the invasion, the beginning of the occupation without end. Will you speak out or will you remain silent?

"And the "tone" screamers scream on (smart people ignore them) " is about "tone." Some are fretting over "tone" again. The most useless aspect of the national debate currently. BuzzFlash was urged to watch it's tone. BuzzFlash is standing firm and so should you. Someone starts talking "tone" to you -- tune them out.

"TV Review: America's Funniest F**king Videos" is Ava and C.I.'s latest TV review. We wanted this up as soon as they finished it. They declined. They wanted to get the reaction of a friend at ABC first. The only argument we had with them over this (no, we didn't argue "Post it now!" -- we've learned that lesson at least) was asking them to go back and take out some qualifiers. This is a critique, it's opinion. They've established what they heard. (We all heard it too when they asked us one by one to listen to something and tell them what we heard.) Ironically enough, if we hadn't had so many technical problems, we wouldn't have this review. They both recorded Friday's America's Funniest Videos but they never had time to watch. When multiple techincal problems ensued, they end up going off to watch the show. C.I. was sick all week and wasn't really sure if there was a TV review inside. Ava was fine with taking a week off. (We were fine with it as well and suggested it when the technical problems first started.) The problems ended up giving them time to watch the show and once they did, they had to write about it. Again, we've heard the recording. We know what was said. We're guessing most people missed it or this would be the water cooler topic of the weekend. (They take it beyond the water cooler.)

"Nancy Chang and Danny Schechter on Media Silence (add your own voice to the mix) " this was a much longer feature that we worked several hours on Saturday night and lost it. It is what it is (to steal from Kat) and hopefully it still has something of value.

An announcement in the form of "NSA Hearings This Tuesday."

"Ten Years of Democracy Now! (May there be many, many more)" was a swipe from Ruth to note the 10th anniversary of Democracy Now! We'd hoped to be able to come up with something of our own. (And this may hit the site six or seven times if all the e-mail attempts to make this a spotlight ever show up.)

"Corporate Magaines Still Suck (your guide to Time Magazine)" was a funny parody that took three hours to write and was then lost. With no time (and too little energy) to recapture the jokes we turned it into a review/parody.

"Interview with Ruth of Ruth's Public Radio Report" is an interview with everyone's favorite (Ruth) where she explains her feelings regarding another effort to "save" PBS and NPR.

"On pop culture criticism" is another attempt to note that the fine work that Laura Flanders does. (Even when she's got a really bad guest and we think she had one yesterday.) We're not doing summaries of the show or synopsis for those who keep asking. We're running with the one thing that stands out each Saturday and exploring that.

Ava and C.I. wrote the TV review.

Some people had to bail (it's five o'clock in NY right now). (Some should have bailed like C.I. who will start work on Sunday entries at The Common Ills in about two hours.) But everyone had input on the features even if they weren't able to continue the marathon. The credit goes to:

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.

We'll see you next Sunday.

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