A Note to Our Readers

Hey --

Another Sunday.

Here's who did writing on this edition:

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 thank everyone above and we thank Dallas for all of his help and Rebecca for photoshopping the new illustrations.

New content (and no theme):

Highlights -- Mike, Cedric, Betty, Rebecca, Wally and Elaine wrote this feature and selected the highlights. Mike wants us to please note they forgot Isaiah's comic ("Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts 'The Same Old Song'").

All is revealed -- a lot of e-mails came on in on this. Most guessed Sue Storm but couldn't figure out Firestorm. We're not sure whether that has to do with how well Firestorm is known or how badly we illustrated her (we'll take the fall). We'd planned to note the five this week in a sort of "installment" manner but we were surprised by how many were up for guessing who the five were.

The Nation Stats -- It's back. And the stats are still bad.

If he exceeds his reach, you must impeach -- We tried really hard last Sunday to recast this so we could run it online. (A version ran in the print edition and last Friday in the gina & krista round-robin.) We never could. But here's an online version that's completely different than the earlier version some readers saw.

Mailbag -- Easy features to try to get done early. (We gave up on early when we all agreed, the core six and Kat, that we needed a nap.) We grabbed the e-mails quickly, sorry if you weren't included. Maybe next time.

Talking artistic representation with The Common Ills' Isaiah -- We knew this would be a short feature and have visuals. We thank Isaiah for speaking with us and think you'll enjoy this.

The Weeping Rapist -- We have an illustration for this. It won't upload to Flickr. Three times tried, three times failure message. We're giving up.

TV: Aftermath leaves an aftertaste -- Ava and C.I. were of the opinion that they didn't have a review. They'd planned to review another show but it didn't air and they couldn't figure out where the show was in terms of what had been aired. So at the last minute, they decided to tackle Jericho. We think it's funny and hard hitting.

Editorial: Watada, they go after, Watada -- Charges are refiled against Watada, meanwhile a man who attempts rape gets no jail time. The military calls it "justice."

Truest statement of the week -- It was the fifth or sixth phone call, the fifth or sixth person saying, "She means you two!" to Ava and C.I. that finally had them turning this on. Patricia Heaton (who is actually more unattractive in person, something that Ava and C.I. long swore but that the rest of us saw for ourselves recently) wearing the most ridiculous outfit in the world. Whining about those mean people online. Oh Patti, we'll save our tears for Michael Schiavo. Remember the awful things you said about him? We laughed hard as you pretended like your views weren't that out there, we laughed harder when you said you weren't trying to step away from them. We laughed even more when we realized you need to 'freshen up' that surgery and quick. Patti was still yacking about her career when calls started coming in about her new show and the horrors already emerging causing Ava and C.I. to note, "We can't wait, Patti, we can't wait." No doubt, neither than their loyal readers.

So that's what we've got. And FYI for readers of The Common Ills. If C.I.'s unable to finish "And the war drags on . . ." before we all leave for the awards presentation later today, Rebecca's offered to either round it out or do the whole entry so it will be up.

See you next week.




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