Sunday and we're making fairly good time for us. (Dona swears when she's done with her diet soda and two more cigarettes, the edition is done, whether or not the note is.)
First let's note this week's credits:
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
All of the above worked on this edition as did Dallas and we also thank Isaiah for the use of one of his comics.
What have you got?
It's our third annual summer read edition. Yes, there have been two others. The archives are a joke but you can refer to "The summer reads" from last April for links to the summer 2006 edition and the summer 2005 edition. If you check the dates (Jess just did, Dona was curious), we are about the same time period this year as in 2005 but we are several weeks behind 2006.
That may have been why we felt like we were running late on this all month.
Truest statement of the week -- an interview by Amy Goodman that everyone should know about.
Editorial: Iraq silences -- our editorial for this week on the silences surrounding Iraq and wondering why Congress is the only thing disgusting many people currently.
TV: Hidden Yawns -- Ava and C.I. go creative for this review to fit the summer read edition. They'd planned to do something with this show last week, when it was planned that we'd be doing the summer edition before events changed that. In this commentary, Ava and C.I. visit Hidden Yawns, er Palms, and find out what's what.
Base Is Hell -- We had twenty ideas coming into this session but an ex-Marine saw our list Friday and suggested we do something on the "cushy commanders." We're always open to suggestions from people we know. C.I. adds, "Don't say 'ex,' he's in IRR and, as we've seen with
Liam Madden, Cloy Richards and Adam Kokesh, the brass doesn't consider a discharge a discharge anymore." (That also cleverly allows the third set of links for Madden, Richards and Kokesh this edition.) We read the first draft over the phone to our friend right before midnight. He said good but punch it up. We did. This is also the closest we have to a sci-fi piece.
The Tired Tryst -- This was the hardest one to get a handle on. There were probably ten drafts of this until Elaine asked, "What was that thing on Bruce Springsteen back in the 80s?" C.I. immediately said, "Tama Janowitz' 'You and the Boss'?" Yes, said Elaine. Did anyone have a copy of that? C.I. found one. (It ran in Spin's November 1985 issue.) The piece, about a groupie who waylays Bruce Springsteen's first wife to take her place, was written in second person ("you") and with that and Janowitz's own tale, we found our way into this on the eleventh try. In this short story, YOU get to sleep with Bono.
The Asbury Park Murder -- Susan and Dale both e-mailed back in May asking if we could offer some sort of mystery. Susan wanted it so badly, she said "even a really bad attempt would do." Susan, we may have pleased you. (Though not exceeded your expectation!)
Creation Theory -- Barack Ba-Boring gets born.
Samantha Power Between Her Knees -- We were listening to the Tori Amos collection (Tales of a Librarian) a lot recently and it includes "Sweet Dreams" (about Poppy Bush) and the line, "You've even got their zipper between your teeth" which led us to ponder other things. Ty's saying right now, this actually is a sci-fi piece. In this tale, a woman encounters Samantha Powers and is invaded.
Cut The Fat! Newt Takes It Off! -- C.I. had nixed another advice column from Cokie ("too simple unless someone's got something extra to add") which left us wondering what else we could do and "a diet book" was proposed. Who better to write one than Newt! We wrote 12 pieces and whittled them down to what we felt were the best six (after Ty and C.I. pulled a prose poem that they'd worked on).
So that's what you've got and, on this end, we think it's better than 2006 which none of us have still yet to read over since it published. How does it fare compared to 2005? We don't want to make that judgement. We're just glad we're able to post with minimal embarrassment.
Hopefully, you'll enjoy the summer read, fiction edition. If not, take comfort in the fact that you don't have to see it again for twelve more months.
Highlight -- No one caught that it was "Highlight" and not "Highlights" until it posted. We thank Mike, Betty, Wally, Rebecca, Cedric and Elaine for doing this feature.
Ava and C.I. bonus -- If you missed it, doubtful judging by the e-mails that came in, Ava and C.I. did a joint-entry at The Common Ills Tuesday. We repost it here this week.
And that's it. We'll see you next weekend.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.