Mailbag

"Short features!" cried Dona yet again. Ten e-mails was the limit she set. Ty picked them, blame him if you weren't picked.

Ty: Jill e-mails to note last week's "Roundtable:" "Ava described why she and C.I. reviewed Washington Week ["TV: Washington Weak"] but she forgot to credit Rebecca, right?"

Ava: That is right. I was spitting out that answer, for obvious reasons. Full reasons: Flyboy was laughing at it and Rebecca was on the phone with C.I. and went to see what her husband was laughing at. She told us we had to review it, it was hysterical. So Rebecca needs credit there, absolutely. After that, it was a show on Friday and our regular readers with young families can't all afford sitters so even though the networks write off Fridays, it is a big night to them. We try to review all the Friday programs for that reason. After that, it was a show that women would and do watch. Jill is correct, it started with Rebecca.

Ty: Joe writes, this was about Rebecca, that he enjoys hearing about her pregnancy and hopes she hasn't stopped writing about it due to an e-mail she got saying she was blowing her credibility.

Rebecca: Some days, I don't want to write about it. It would be nothing but complaints about back pains and how many trips I made to the bathroom that day. If I have something interesting to note, I will do it if time permits. I'm also starting to get tired a lot earlier. That may be because I've stopped taking naps during the day. I know Joe, he's a regular reader who e-mails me all the time, but just to explain for anyone who doesn't know, this is the first pregnancy I've carried to term. I've had one abortion and, before that, multiple miscarriages. When I learned I was pregnant, the early months were very critical so I was on bed rest and sleeping any chance I got. I'll try to write about it this week for Joe. But, Tuesday, we learn the gender, we've finally decided we want to know. Any of my regular readers who wants to know, I'll share in an e-mail. I'm not posting that up at my site. I say that now, but I'm the worst at keeping a secret. So, I don't intend to post that at my site, let me put it that way.

Ty: This one came in this morning and it's about Ruth's Report where she notes Houston community member Barbara held a women only event and a number spoke at that but Elaine, Kat and Dona didn't. CZ wonders why that was?

Dona: Kat or Elaine?

Kat: There were multiple things at every stop. We spent a week in Texas, we were speaking on Iraq and meeting community members. Barbara had invited Ruth ahead of time. She also asked Ruth if Rebecca would be able to come along, this was Rebecca's first trip during her pregnancy? They had agreed to it. The rest of us learned of it when we arrived in Houston at the same time that other members wanted to show us spots in their city. We were also invited by Paul to go out to eat. It was at that time that Barbara mentioned the event to the rest of us.

Elaine: Mike had stitches the night before, or early that morning, and I was guilt-ridden about that. I declined noting that I was going to do something with Mike. It should also be noted that Paul and Kat were in an intense discussion about music at the time the invitation came.

Dona: We all had different things at every stop. I don't know that I said no. Elaine had and Kat had. At which point, C.I. and Ava said they'd go and Betty and Trina then said they'd go as well. Barbara has kids and Betty's kids were on that trip so it would give them a chance to play with other kids. I honestly don't think I ever said no.

Elaine: You were on the phone.

Dona: That's why I didn't say no. Yeah, we were changing one stop on East Texas, adding a stop, and I was having to work out the time for that. They had already left with Barbara when I got off the phone.

Betty: Let me just add that it was a lot of fun and that Barbara wasn't upset that everyone couldn't participate. She was happy to have anyone who was able but that was in her house and she'd already invited 30 friends and family over so it was packed in the living room.

Ty: Captain Broccoli writes to ask why C.I. hasn't signed him up for Hilda's Mix?

C.I.: First, I haven't seen an e-mail. Ava, Jess, Martha, Shirley and Eli also work the public e-mail account. Second, that's a community newsletter and it's only available to the community. Third, I don't select who receives Hilda's Mix, El Espirito, Polly's Brew, the gina & krista round-robin, or the UK Computer Gurus. I contribute to the newsletters, or drag them down with my bad writing, but I am not in charge of any and I do not determine who gets to receive one and who doesn't. Gina and Krista created their round-robin as a place where members could address different issues. That was largely as a result of Krista having shared at The Common Ills and then feeling she'd made a foolish statement, I didn't think it was foolish, and wanting a more private forum. The community newsletters are very popular but they are for the community and many times someone will say something there due to the "keep it in the community" nature of it. After Kayla was kind enough to allow us to post a photo of her and her newborn baby at The Common Ills, that photo was taken by at least two other sites and made fun of. I don't know what the joke is about a newborn child, I guess I'm just not a 'good sport.' But after that happened, I stated no more photos would go up, personal photos, at The Common Ills. Kayla handled it much better than I did but I am still angry that two people thought it was 'funny' to make fun of newborn child. If someone wants to make fun of me, and that was the point of the ridicule, please have it. I won't read it and I won't care. But to use an innocent child and write snide things about it? I thought that was sad.

Jim: But you didn't scream, "Abuse!"

C.I.: No. And I honestly should have known better. I believe that was Thanksgiving. I had opened the e-mail and Kayla's husband had e-mailed it and said she wanted to share it with the community. She'd just given birth whenever it was, the baby was a day old tops. I was very happy for Kayla and her husband and not thinking. It was my stupidity that allowed it to be posted and my stupidity allowed for two people to ridicule it. I take the blame for it, full responsibility, and that's why we don't post personal photos at The Common Ills. For the same reason, the newsletters are for the community and not available to non-members.

Ty: Mark wants to know what's the deal with the note to the readers going up without text?

Jim: I'm answering that for the last time. C.I. posts Sunday mornings at The Common Ills and tries to link to all our new content. If we post the note, with just links in it and the title, C.I. can grab that and link to it. Then, on good Sundays, when C.I.'s posted, we -- Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, C.I. and me -- do the note together.

Ty: That question comes up about twice a month.

Jim: I know. It's been explained frequently.

Ty: Birddoggie82 writes to say that he feels like we've moved away MyTV's Fascist House, our collages, and he's okay with that but misses the book discussions and also wonders if we're grabbing any videos or movies as we have in the past?

Mike: Can I grab? That's my fault. We had a lot of things to note last fall and I had a semester that kicked my ass. Books kept piling up, DVDs kept piling up. So I'm the one who stopped that. Not on purpose but because I just didn't have the time.

Jim: Since Mike couldn't participate, we all felt we'd table what we could. However, we do discuss a book this edition. The things that piled up we're of two minds on. One camp says, time has passed, move on. The other feels we should go back and grab some of that stuff. When we can get a majority opinion, we'll know what we're doing with regards to that but at this point, we don't know.

Ty: Glenda was one of many writing in about last week's "Roundtable" -- and most were commenting either on Jess or on Rebecca. Glenda wants to thank Rebecca and Elaine for not pulling the section on when Rebecca felt left out. She writes, "I'm 32 years old so I'm old enough to know better but just last Christmas I was going through that same thing. Like Rebecca, I dealt with it on my own and stopped my pouting but it was nice to see I wasn't the only one who's been there."

Elaine: I'll let Rebecca grab that but just say I've never pulled anything by someone else. I did ask Mike to pull something once because he was addressing an issue that was coming out in therapy. He didn't know that. But since it is known that we are involved, I didn't want there to be any question of, "Did my doctor spill my secrets?" Even in that case, I asked Mike, I didn't tell him. I also didn't tell him which part so he pulled a huge section of his comments.

Rebecca: I'm glad Glenda could identify and there were a lot of people writing me about that. I think it's something fairly common and I don't pretend that I live on a cloud. I'm as capable as petty as anyone else.

Ty: Same piece, Joel wants to know if Jess feels any better this week?

Jess: Yes, thanks for asking. The second C.I. pulled that link, I felt better. I mean instantly. Mike and Rebecca would pull it the next day and probably knowing that was coming also made me feel better. But I don't appreciate some ass tearing apart what my parents stand for when he doesn't know the first thing about them or any other hippie. Mom said to pass on that she loved Rebecca's joke in it about how he was angry because some "chic" wouldn't "ball" him in the 60s. About the editing of that piece, it should also be noted that no one pulled anything. Dona and Jim did a quick lookover after it was typed. But no one was in the mood to edit it or pull from it. I think we all just wanted it to end. For me, it ended when C.I. pulled the link to that site.

Dona: I'm watching the time, are we at ten yet?

Ty: Almost, we're at number nine. Ethan notes that Mike's mentioned at his site that we're already planning the short story/fiction summer edition. He wonders why that is and also what else we have planned for the future?

Jess: Nothing for the last question. For the first, we weren't happy with the second go round. The first year, our summer read, it was strong. Mike addressed this. We had a lot of stuff to choose from. We had writing we'd done from class. We were pulling from Dona and C.I.'s journals for ideas. It was really varied and had strong writing. With last year, we felt there was (a) a sameness to them and (b) that we blew one of the strongest ideas. Don't make Dallas look this up because this is where the archiving screws up when we switched to Beta. If it's important to anyone, next week we'll do a piece that just links to our summer reads.

Cedric: Jess is talking about an idea I had and I doubt I presented it well. It was a big deal to C.I. who returned to that topic the next week and we worked out a short story combing my idea and one C.I. had. But I do think there was some strong stuff there. I think we were all exhausted at the end and I doubt anyone's bothered to go back and read any of that.

Jess: I honestly haven't.

Wally: I agree about the tired part and not going back to reread but I remember Dona saying, when we were working on it, "Everything's in first person!" I don't know if we fixed that or even addressed that but that was one of the sameness issues about them that was raised while we were working on it. In terms of planning, C.I.'s given us the first line to a short story and C.I., Kat and Ty have the idea for another. We're all supposed to be thinking up additional ideas. That'll be in June so there is time but I don't know that we're really "planning" planning it at this point. I do know that one thing I felt was missing was a horror story like the first summer had, the thing Ty thought up.

Ty: Thank you, Wally. And, Dona, this is the last question. This has come in over and over since an earlier roundtable where Elaine suggested the need for economic boycotts of those profiting from the war and C.I. agreed but stated the first thought that comes to mind is how they, C.I. and Ava, could do a TV review since GE owns NBC, et al. People want to know, every week this question comes in several times, if there is a boycott does that mean no TV review?

Ava: No. But if this mailbag doesn't end soon, it does. We still haven't had time to write our review this edition or even talk about what we're reviewing. No, we will do a TV piece. We'll drop back and cover shows no longer producing new episodes. Or we'd do a theme piece on modern TV. But we would contribute something. C.I.?

C.I.: We hadn't planned it as such but Ty says a lot of people saw last week's ["TV: The not-so-universal White Boy blues"] as the sort of thing we'd do in the case of boycott. That is true. Obviously, with The Wonder Years just airing on I we hadn't sat down and watched each episode on I. We were already familiar with the show. So that may be a good example of the sort of thing we'd do.

Ty: And that's our ten questions for this mailbag.