A Note to Our Readers

Hey --
Sunday. If were back in NY, we'd be cold and blue, and much later than now . . . California . . .

Hey, it is only 10:00 a.m. where we are as we finish this note (or start it).

We honestly wanted a short edition, planned short pieces. We hit a wall several times. In the middle of the editorial (the last thing we write other than this), C.I. and Dona both insisted we had two pieces in one editorial. We looked. Well what do you know. One more article. We needed three more paragraphs before it was done, but maybe it rounded out the offerings.

Here's who helped with the writing of 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 all the above, we thank Dallas for his help, for locating links, for being a soundboard. We thank Rebecca for photoshopping, We thank Isaiah for the use of his comic (including cropping one portion of it).

Now let's get into new content:


Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Cedric, Kat, Betty, Rebecca and Wally wrote this (and picked except where noted). We thank them for doing this feature.

Reality -- Robert Knight had a very strong week last week -- and that would be true of any week. A strong job ended up looking like a miracle because so few would tackle it. So credit Knight with the breavery to addres the topic when others took a pass. (Everyone worked on this and all below except for the TV commentary.)

On music and Kat reviews Holly Near's Show Up --Over two years ago, we started this site and, in our first edition, we highlighted a really important review by Kat. We do so again this week.

The Nation Stats -- Maybe when the laughable StudentNation goes to campuses, female students and male students alike should holler out, "Why does The Nation not care for women writers?"

Crazy John -- John McCain, John McCain, that grumpy old pain. Showboat is either lying intentionally or off his rocker.

Mailbag -- Ty told us there were too many e-mails this week and we needed to offer this feature. (How many, the rest of us will be helping out later today -- much, much later). This ends up being a roundtable and not at all the quick feature that was planned.

Loving the Dems -- Mmm mmm good! -- Yes, we're being sarcastic.

The Big Waah -- Torture matters but sometimes we need to say, "Just because we will take care of the new baby doesn't mean we won't still take care of you."

TV: Nothing Great About Cheese -- An excellent piece by Ava and C.I. Not at all planned. Ty mentioned the e-mails and, while doing so, brought up that the last few weeks have been all about a Rod Stewart special. Ava and C.I. had seen it. They watched the DVD to refresh and then wrote the review.

Editorial: War resistance continues and increases -- Where are the war resisters? Out there and growing but you've got a better chance of learning about them from big media than small media.

Truest statement of the week -- Marcia picked this one. She wrote three e-mails last week about a feature we ran last Sunday. She loved it and then she found the quote and said we had to go with it because it's touching on a point in our essay. Well, we didn't "have to" run it. But we like Marcia and it was one of the most important quotes of last week.

That's it. We're done for today.


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