A Note to Our Readers

Hey --
Another Sunday. We postponed the edition for three reasons.

1) I (Jim) ate a lot of turkey during the writing edition and was yawning throughout.

2) Elaine was visiting and she and C.I. had a lot to catch up on but no time prior to the writing edition to really talk.

3) Mike was visiting (of course, he and Elaine are a couple) and he's really guilted us by pointing out (rightly) at his site that there were a lot of promises made, when we were living in New York, that we'd drive over and do things. That, outside of protests, never happened. So with Mike in our midst we wanted to really give him a strong Sunday to go out on.

4) It's also true we wanted them (Elaine and Mike) to get some sleep before heading back east.

Here's who participated 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

Here's what we produced:

Truest statement of the week -- one of the benefits of being late is that C.I. just doesn't care. If it's a week where C.I. gets the truest statement, you can be sure it was a long session and C.I. just wanted it over. C.I.'s was the only vote against this pick.

Editorial: Are you helping or hurting? -- This topic really it a fire under our readers when C.I. addressed it at The Common Ills last week. Not only did some e-mail saying that it had to be a truest nominee and/or a highlight (it's both), but others wrote to say that we had to address this topic. Reader Brianna even reminded us, "This started out as a place to give voice to college students." Indeed it did -- way to lobby, Brianna. When this topic was addressed early last week in a snapshot, Ava called me and said, "Jim, I think I know the editorial topic for Sunday." So we were on the same wavelength as the readers. Good when that happens.

TV: The either or -- What would be the reaction? That was a concern of Ava and C.I.'s because they know that there are readers who stop by only for their TV commentaries. Early reaction is understanding and agreement. If anyone does end up offended that they won't be covering TV entertainment programs, too bad. They've made their decision and, as I noted last week, we almost didn't end up with a commentary as they weighed the various perspectives. They spent a huge amount of time on Friday and Saturday (and a sizeable amount of time on Thursday) seeking input from writers on strike. They will continue their TV commentaries during the strike but they will not cover entertainment shows. They may or may not grab CBS (they've never reviewed 60 Minutes, the only network news weekly they haven't) but if CBS News writers go on strike, they will not be covering any news program or special on CBS. One complaint has come on -- not about their focus for the duration about the strike, but about the fact that they didn't mention Gwen will be doing a live chat online. No, they didn't mention it. They decided not to. Gwen announced on air that it would be live and at noon on Thursday. They weren't in the mood to translate Gwen to the United States which is not all in the Eastern Standard time zone.

Howard goes down -- Skip and Olive, long term community members and readers of this site, were among those requesting that we highlight C.I.'s commentary on the Australian election and that we also "consider" (Olive, always worded so nicely) also doing a feature on it ourselves. We agree this is big and that most US outlets will miss the significance of the loss (Howard's loss) and how it began some time ago.

Shame of the Senate, shame of the magazine -- The long promised feature. We honestly forgot. It was intended and announced for at least two weeks ago. When we're working on these editions, we're trying to get something useable. That then goes into the print version. Then we're attempting to get something worth sharing online. A number of things get forgotten. Thanks to the readers who reminded us. We picked it up this week. And we'll be addressing The Nation further before the end of the year (and most regular readers should know exactly what that means). Two other things still haven't made it online. First is the issue of the primary schedules (we did run something in our print version on that). Hopefully, we'll address it in the future. We did plan to do Joshua Key this week (another announced and postponed feature) but due to something happening in other areas of the country, we've got it penciled in for next Sunday with the hopes of pairing it up with another feature.

Tuesday Pacifica Radio Archives broadcast -- It's this Tuesday. We've noted it before. We support the Pacifica Radio Archives. (We actually considered scanning vouchers that we still haven't used from last year but we were too tired.) If you're able to enjoy audio and you are able to stream, there's no reason not to listen. (Those in broadcast areas can listen over the airwaves.)

The hiring and firing of Peter Laufer -- This was raised in an e-mail on Monday. By Tuesday, the topic was mentioned in four e-mails. Each day it was a topic in the e-mails. We're not sure whether anyone will be pleased with our take on it. (We are sure that we'll hear Sasha Lilley is again 'miffed.') That's our take on it and we spent a great deal of time speaking to people at KPFA about this topic. We thank them for their time.

Passings -- What gives? Amy Goodman notes a death on Monday and that's it? The AP, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times (late on the last one) did get around to noting the passing. C.I. says it's due to the holiday and everyone knows if you want to announce a divorce, you do so in this period because the press is on holiday. We hope that explains it.

Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Kat, Rebecca, Betty, Cedric and Wally wrote this and picked the highlights (unless otherwise noted). We thank them for it.

Thanksgiving note -- our note that we'd be posting late.

See you next weekend. Listen to the Pacifica Radio Archives broadcast!

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