The Third Estate Sunday Review E-mail Bag

We're going over some of the e-mails, not all, that have come in this week. Ty picked fifty and, from those, we selected the ones to respond to here. In some instances, as Ty would point out, one of the ones chosen by him was chosen because others had commented on the same topic.

A note on the e-mails, Ty is working the account the best that he can. Dona and Jim (Dona laughs at "and Jim") try to help out. Ava and Jess are working the e-mail accounts for The Common Ills, as is C.I., so they're busy. The burden falls on Ty. (He'll be taking at least two weeks off from the e-mails in December.) He catches as many as he can and, when it gets really backed up, sends out a "help!" at which point everyone of the core six attempts to. An individual response depends upon whether the person who reads your e-mail thinks one is needed or not. If we do a suggested feature, we don't give a heads up. We had a woman e-mail two weeks ago complaining that we'd done her suggestion several months back and hadn't alerted her to that. We won't. If you're suggesting something and want it covered, we think you should be suggesting it to a site you read. It's not our job to even take suggestions. If we like it, we do it(and note that it was suggested -- usually in our "A Note to the Readers"). We don't have time to turn out an edition, read every e-mail and also write back and also do "heads up, we're covering that!" By the end of any edition, we're all tired and ready to go to sleep.

Bobbo44x e-mails to object to our praise for Green Stone Media noting that, "You have a lot of nerve piling on independent media and then praising this fluff."

Bobbo, GreenStone Media has a stated mission, to carve out space for women's voices. That's its goal. Evaluating it means evaluating how it lives up to that goal. It is not an attempt to provide investigative reporting. It is attempting to reach an audience that has largely tuned out on radio for some time now. We applaud their efforts and find the shows humorous and well put together. Bobbo also felt that he could go his "whole life without ever knowing what those girls think." We're sure his life reflects that and we're sorry for him. Others would do well to check out GreenStone Media. [For the record, Bobbo is the only one who complained this week about the feature or the recommendation.]

Lynn e-mails about music and Paul Simon's new CD Surprise which "I love, love and thank you for noting it. I generally get my music from BMG's club and reading the comments on Surprise were reason enough to go to a store and purchase a CD which I probably haven't done in five years." Lynn had comments about Kat and about Ava and C.I.'s remarks in the roundtable she's referring to. Lynn was only one of many to wonder about Ava and C.I.'s disagreement on the CD.

Addressing Kat first, she's in Ireland where a family members is dying. She had hoped to piece together some writing while she was there and have a music review. It's turned out to be much harder than she expected (and she expected it to be hard). What is being attempted, with her permission, is C.I. going through her drafts (Kat calls them "scribbles") to attempt to piece together a review of one CD. The goal is to get something up by the last day of this month. (C.I. notes all words will be Kat's. "This will be piecing together, not rewriting.") Kat made that request of C.I. because it was done on a review she felt was too long (C.I. disagreed) and she begged for editing help on. She was thrilled with the way that turned out (neither of them can recall which one it was, but Kat stated that it was noted at her site, C.I.'s editing help on the review). So look for a review by the end of October.

Surprise is "the favorite" CD of one of us right now (Jim). We can all listen to it, including Ava. Ava and C.I. addressed the CD before the roundtable and felt there were some interesting points to be raised. (C.I. sees Ava's point, calls it "valid" and wishes it had been discussed.) What happened was that the readers weren't the only ones surprised. We were surprised during the roundtable. (Ava says there was a "loud gasp.") At which point, Ava dropped the topic because "if it was shocking the ones participating, it was probably going to be lost on the readers." Ava has no interest in revisiting the topic but C.I. sums it up by explaining that Simon is addressing Iraq through spirituality and, "to some," that might seem an easier way to address it. "This was a topic we were planning to explore at length," C.I. states. "That's why I'm going on and on at that point during the roundtable. Ava was planning to respond and then we thought there would be a lively debate. When the gasp came up, I looked at Ava and she shook her head. So we dropped it, both of us. But it is worthy of exploration."

Dona, who did not gasp, explains the gasp as occurring because "we're just not used to those two have any sort of conflicting opinions. That was the edition we were doing with just the core six of us and we were concerned about it in terms of producing it and in terms of it being interested. Jim had expressly asked everyone two days prior to bring something more than 'loved it!' to the table. To that end, they'd worked out an avenue that they thought we could all pursue. I regret that the shock prevented us from doing that. I wish we had addressed it because I talked to Ava that evening about it and she had some strong points. Her attitude then was 'at least he's talking about the war' which I agree with but I do think we would have been better served in that roundtable by exploring the issue and, had we gone beyond the core six, I'm sure we would have. Had others been participating, someone would have grabbed it and run with it because the others are on the phone. I think it was the shock on all of our faces, including my own, that led to Ava and C.I., and let me stress that 'and C.I.,' to shut that down."

Jess adds that "especially with Kat in Ireland," we're all concerned about the music coverage in the community and notes that Elaine has picked up some of that slack. We're doing our postponed feature this week (postponed due to the paint not being dry on the illustration) and we will try to note music more regularly.

Candace, Gilbert and Savannah are among those who wrote to say that the editorials on war resisters and the lack of coverage need to be written and that it needs to be covered repeatedly until the situation improves. We agree. Kyle Snyder, a war resister who went to Canada, is returning to the United States in November. It will be interesting to see whether or not the coverage has improved any when that happens.

Z1833 e-mailed wondering if "the rest of you" could weigh in now that Ava and C.I. have on their reviews. That's a wonderful idea and one we would like to do this edition. However, we're doing this as an easy piece. The first four hours of this edition were repeated error messages from Blogger/Blogspot. We've scaled back our edition right now. (And are only able to log in to our account on one computer even now. The rest continue to get the error messages.) We will have a new review from Ava and C.I. and we will have the editorial. After that, we're honestly not sure. We were about to give up completely when Betty hollered into the phone, "I'm in!" Betty's typing this feature and did the editorial. We thank her for that. We have no idea what the problem with Blogger/Blogspot is. If it's over in time, we hope to work on Z1833's suggestion which is a good one.

Also commenting on Ava and C.I.'s backstory on the reviews is Annie who writes that she enjoyed that and that she started coming to this site when she found Ava and C.I.'s review of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey's 'Tour of Duty' 'special.' She writes that she's come back every week for the reviews and that she does read the other features ("many of which I enjoy"). We get that a lot and their reviews are the site's calling card. We're all aware of that and have been for some time. Along time ago, there was talk (from Jim) about how they'd get a week off. They've never had that. There was one week where they tackled criticism of a movie and they followed that with two reviews (covering three shows) to make up for it. What we are considering is a 'best of' or 'clip job' of some of their criticism reduced to one line or paragraph. We're trying to work on that bit by bit so that at some point in the future we can say, "Take the weekend off. You've earned it."

Marvin writes to say that the highlights are his favorite part of each edition because "I often miss stuff." Also citing the highlights is Korey who enjoys them "because they're the first things up. When you guys run late, I'll just read over the highlights while I wait for the new stuff to go up." Korey also notes that Ava and C.I.'s review of Shark went up "right around midnight" EST last Saturday. It did. It was up for about twenty minutes. That was a mistake. They'd finished it and we were reading over it when, instead of hitting the "save as draft" button, one of us accidentally hit "publish post." When that was realized, it was pulled so that the artwork could be added. Korey, you're spending too much time at this site!


Ty (not our Ty) e-mailed about the illustration Jess did for the TV commentaries. He felt sure it was a stethoscope. He is correct. Our Ty says there were 121 guesses and that not-our-Ty was the only one who guessed correctly. Jess was letting the illustration dry and intended to then paint in a TV screen with the idea that Ava and C.I. are commenting on the health of TV entertainment. He forgot and then time ran out. He hated the illustration (though readers wrote in to say they enjoyed it). He congratulates not-our-Ty on guessing what it was and notes that Rebecca photo shopped it for all the ones who enjoyed the illustration.

On the topic of illustrations, DreamsVA5 wants a preference for illustrations "and not photos" noted. DreamsVA5 feels "it shows more creativity." Echoing that is William who says he's enjoyed the illustrations and has picked up a set of water colors "and it really helps me unwind." We agree with the last point. The painting and charcoal, et al, is always the most enjoyable point for the core six because we're doing them together. When we're all together, all of us work on the illustrations not just the core six. (Ty notes that Kat always worked on the illustrations until she had to go to Ireland).

BBall enjoyed the illustration in last week's editorial but noted, "I enjoy them all. Some are great, some are so-so but it's nice to see people trying. I enjoy the attempts to make it more visual." We'd agree with the evaluation (especially "so-so") and we'll note that we can reprint Isaiah's comics anytime with his permission. We've used him before to get original illustrations here as well; however, he's now doing a comic for the gina & krista round-robin and Polly's Brew so when we decided to work on visuals, we really didn't want to impose on him. One of our big concerns was that there's not a "face" on an issue and we were thinking of Darrell Anderson. We wanted his "face" to be present. Running someone else's photos creates a risk of legal objections and hurt feelings. Ty remembered that Isaiah had done an illustration of Jane Fonda so that they could note Monster-In-Law at The Common Ills and suggested we do our own illustration of Darrell Anderson. That's really what started it and then, when we were all together and playing around, it was so much fun that we've continued.

Last week, it was a choice between trying to get the illustrations up or working on more content and Jim argued strongly for illustrations noting that many of our readers are enjoying it. We do have problems (as many e-mails noted) with the illustrations not showing up in full. (That's also a problem for Cedric in his Friday entry where the illustrations are cut in half.) That's beyond our control. We can play with it and play with it but we really have no control over it. Due to those problems, we decided not to try a collage this week. If only half of it showed up, that would be a problem. When only half the illustrations (other illustrations) show up, that doesn't have to be a problem (in one instance, we thought it improved the illustration).

Kendrick wishes we'd do a "Truest statement of the week" every edition. We wish that too. It's a simple feature after we've selected to what to go with. But the reality is time is limited and we wish more than we do. If you can figure out a way to add more hours in the day, develop it and become rich.

Nolanda wrote that she'd noticed there was independent publication we do not note anymore even when criticizing others. No, we don't. And like Nolanda, we don't care for it. It's on it's last legs and we won't be the ones to pull the plug but when it collapses, we do have the parody at the ready including the title.

Louis wonders why we still have the "read more" option. We'd planned to return to that. Originally, you'd see the first few paragraphs and then click on "read more" to continue reading the feature. It let the page load more quickly and we like the way that looked. After about six months of this site, the Blogger/Blogspot problems began in earnest. As those continued, we put the "read more" option on hold thinking we might go back to it. We won't be going back to it for a number of reasons including the time required for the code to be put in. We need to take it out and as soon Kendrick figures out how to add more hours to the day, we'll get right on that.

Brandy saw the comments on junk food in last week's note and, pointing out that we often write about what music we listened to during an edition, wondered about food. In answer to her questions, Jess is a vegetarian. He is not a vegan. When we noted that Ty had cooked dinner a few weeks back, that was because we were all thrilled. We stay up all night on these editions and we're falling over when we finally get to bed. Ty cooking meant that the core six could eat. We were all tired to cook. We were too tired to order in. And none of us wanted to face anyone outside the front door. What Ty fixed was sandwiches. He cooked bacon, made toast and cooked some soybean.

What do we eat? At various times, any of us are munching on something. Right now C.I.'s eating some pumpkin seeds. Mike just stated, "Pumpkin seeds are not food!"

Mike's eating Ben & Jerry's Dave Matthews blend of ice cream which Jess once suggested to C.I. and, after eating it, C.I. hasn't been able to listen to the Dave Matthews Band since. (Jess likes the flavor, C.I. loathes it.) Rebecca says that she and Elaine are snacking on some food Trina prepared including fudge. Dona's made some French onion dip so the core six will be having that soon. Betty weighs in with Whoppers. Wally's snacking on pretzels, Cedric's eating some leftovers (meatloaf from a recipe by Trina that she intends to post after Halloween).

The core six (or all of us when we're all together) usually nibble on platters throughout. On the platters right now are grapes, pine apple chunks, carrots, brocoli and celery. For the five of us who left grey NY for sunny CA, the move has meant a lot more nutrients. In the old days, the five of us (Dona, Jim, Ty, Jess and Ava) would be scarfing down Bugles, Cheetos, fried cheese, etc. Drinks include, but are not limited to, iced tea, water, diet colas (Rebecca and Dona especially can't live without their diet colas), V8, tomato juice, apple juice and Wally loves Jolt cola. We also indulge in beer and margaritas from time to time. (Margaritas when Kat's here. She makes the best margaritas in the world.)