A Note to Our Readers

Hey --

Another late Sunday session. As C.I. noted at The Common Ills (at my, Jim's, request), we spent a lot of wasted time this edition. Over ninety minutes attempting to force a a feature that never paid off.

It was a mistake and what finally made it obvious wasn't taking another pass at it but taking a break from it. We'll attempt to note something we were trying to work the feature for next week. We can't do a straight forward piece because this is our "It's summer! Here's our fiction edition" edition.

Before we get to that, we have the following highlights this edition and we thank everyone for allowing us to repost:

Music Spotlight: Kat on Janis Ian's Folk Is The New Black
Highlight: A conversation in three parts
Blog Spotlight: Mike interviews Kat
Humor Spotlight: Wally's Bully Boy Press
Neuvo video confirma acusaciones de masacre estadounidense en Ishaqi
Blog Spotlight: Elaine's mini-essay
Kitchen Spotlight: Potatoes Anna in the Kitchen

We thank Dallas for hunting down links. Except where otherwise noted, all new content was worked on by the following:

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.


It is the fiction edition. The print edition went out with this note but did have additional fiction that we're fine with being read/skimmed/ignored and then tossed but didn't think it was up to the standard of forever-on-the-net-haunting-and-mocking-us.

The 90 minutes we wasted working on a feature was a waste. Ava and C.I. were doing their TV review. We said, "While you're doing that, we'll turn this out, you can read over it and add your input but we're on track." We weren't. We couldn't force it and, as C.I. noted, trying to was also a waste because it meant that Ty's idea for a science fiction piece was put on hold. We should have worked on that instead.

But that's hindsight. When Ava and C.I. rejoined us and found out that we were stuck with three paragraphs and weren't pleased with that tiny amount in any way, they looked over it and noted that this was already covered in a short story we had completed.

It is, from a different angle. But we were all too proud to say, "You're right." Not after 90 minutes. So we tried for another half-hour with input from them as well and kept hearing from C.I. and Ava, "This isn't going to work."

Again, pride prevented dropping it and saying, "You're right." (Though this point, I -- Jim -- was the only hold out.)

C.I. went off and did The Common Ills entry. Came back and reminded us (me) that we had no editorial, only some general notes. Dallas had found a thing about some "lefties" trashing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s examination of the 2004 vote, so we quickly worked on that and got back onto track as a result.

Here's what we have.

"Song of the War Hawks" -- where are the poems? Shirley and Liz both wondered that. So here's an attempt at one in our fiction edition.

"Super Laura?" Oh we had a lot of ideas for this. Until Dona pointed out, "You know what, I doubt Laura Flanders would want to be seen as a super hero who swoops in to save the world. Her whole point is that we've got to save ourselves." Dona, wet blanket or savior -- you decide. Seriously, her point was correct. So we redid this piece. But tried to do so with a more creative approach. Probably didn't succeed.

"Once upon a time there were plenty of Baby Dumbasses" -- "We've got to address this!" said Jess. "It's our fiction issue," reminded Dona. "Half-fairy-tale, half-commentary," suggested someone. So that's what it is. This is about the ones attacking RFK Jr.'s election piece with something other than analysis.

"Sherman's Story" -- what can we say about this one? Not a whole lot. Sherman's a fictional portrait with a basis. We'll leave it at that.

"From a diary found in the Mayflower Hotel" -- are Bully Boy and Laura Bush having problems? Marital problems? Over an affair he may be having with Condi Rice? (Wayne Madsen has reported this.) We don't know. But we thought Laura could provide the humor for this edition. How tired are we all? I typed and read aloud "Laura Flanders" instead of "Laura Bush" and everyone was fine with it. Seconds later, Ty pointed out, "You mean Laura Bush."

"The ones we never know" -- we never really know the victims, the ones killed in the chaos and violence that is the illegal occupation. We'd tossed around doing something like this for awhile and then a news item came up and it was, "We really need to do this." We agreed but decided to hold it for the fiction edition.

"TV: TESR Investigates" -- written solely by Ava and C.I. They created roles for the rest of us and we enjoyed that. But it's their writing. They're taking on CSI and actually wanted to do Pepper Dennis instead until we asked, pretty please, could they do a creative type critique? What's the take on it, they wondered? "Just be kids again," we offered. "Already done that," came the reply. So they spent 90 minutes on this one, largely going over the script for Thursday's episode, as they tried to figure out their angle. The angle they finally decided upon was "TESR Investigates." Third Estate Sunday Review Investigates. They're critiquing the show in a format similar to the shows. I missed it the first read until I got to Heart's "Barracuda." (C.I. notes that the song was written by Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson, Roger Fisher and Michael Derosier.) When I got to "Barracuda," I burst out laughing, realizing it was their take on alternate rock track to "Won't Get Fooled Again" (the song by the Who that CSI uses for its theme). At which point, I went back to the top to begin reading again. It's hilarious.


"Editorial: The Clearing" -- took longer than expected. I knew there was a quote in the Robert Redford movie. C.I. was sure there wasn't. I was remembering one. Ty found the script online and he and Dona read it aloud to us very quickly. The quote wasn't there. I must have confused it with another Redford movie. We did manage to tie the movie in.

That's what you've got this edition.

See you next week.

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