A note to our readers

Hey --
Oh how the years go by, as Vanessa Williams sings. And the days.

Another edition and, along with Dallas, the following worked on this edition:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, and Ava,
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,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Marcia SICKOFITRDLZ.

We thank everyone. So let's break down this week's edition.

Truest statement of the week -- Marie Cocco. She's become a very strong voice this year and we're happy to note her again.

Truest statement of the week II -- This is the second time Joseph Cannon has been a truest as well. We had six other choices and, if any had enough votes to warrant a third, we would have done a third. Cannon and Cocco were the clear winners.

Editorial: Spending in an economic meltdown -- Our Iraq piece. We knew we'd be noting the hearing in some form and had considered just copying and pasting the transcriptions C.I. did during the week but this was the last thing we all worked on and we had more energy than we thought. The House Budget Committee held a hearing on Iraq's surplus and the Iraqi 'government' spending and the US spending. You'd think it would get attention at any time of the year. Surprisingly, even with an economic meltdown, it didn't. Apparently, we can max out the charge cards and never worry about paying.

TV: Shrinkage and expansion -- I had a wish list for Ava and C.I. to cover in their piece. Turns out they'd been given a number of wish lists already. They had to cover Saturday Night Live because, as Ava explains, "It was a vast improvement and if we're going to call out friends when they're awful, we also have to acknowledge when they do something well." As Dona and Jess told them (with the readers' wish list), this is the sort of thing the readers were hoping for. They both note they don't write under demand or upon request. Translation (to steal their phrase), don't expect them to do this next week. They're covering a lot but between my list, the readers' list, friends' list and their own list, they don't feel they covered nearly enough. But they always hate what they write. Everyone else loved it and there were several belly laughs when I read it out loud. Marcia loved it so much, she said they needed to call her mother. They agreed to do so and interview her but wanted to wait until Marcia's mother was up. (6:00 a.m. EST.) They thank Marcia and her mother.

Real Change vs. Small Change -- Our Nader piece. And tossing this out there now. We have scanned in other buttons. Do readers enjoy this one or would they prefer to see other buttons with the Nader pieces? Ralph's campaign is making real strides, despite a lack of media attention. We almost posted a Ralph video but Ty hollered, "Don't!" Seems there's an issue with videos. A number of you don't want them and have stopped visiting many sites. If we'd known about that (Ty saw those e-mails, C.I.'s gotten similar ones at The Common Ills), we would have tackled the online videos in an article this edition. Short version: They are a nightmare for readers on dial up.

Arthur Krystal delivers a lesson in exclusion -- In the roundtable, we talk about how something ends up getting to be a piece. It's noted that if Rebecca, Mike and I are on board, it's an automatic piece (which doesn't mean it gets posted here, it may only be good enough for the print version as many are) because we are very vocal. One thing we failed to note in the discussion is the Ava and C.I. factor. It's noted that from time to time they will advocate strongly for a piece. But this feature resulted from another Ava and C.I. quality. They don't come to the edition with a one-sentence idea. If they have an idea, they have it sketched it out. They have it sketched out in multiple ways. For example, this was on the topic lists and we were all for it. C.I. had faxed the article to those who participate by phone and those of us here had read the article. We had much to address and thought this would be the longest and hardest hitting piece. We were going to explore Krystal's presentation and our own thoughts. That would have included the topic of sexism and much more. As time ran down, this moved to the "kill pile" because there wouldn't be time to do that article. When Dona and I said that was happening, Ava and C.I. came back with the fact that they also had a way to address the article in a very fast format. They presented it and there was actually very little for us to do other than to take their presentation and write it up. So that's another way something ends up becoming a feature. It's more than just the topic. This ended up being written more quickly than anything else this edition.

Cock Rock Hall of Fame -- At various times, Elaine, C.I., Ava, Kat and Rebecca have pitched this as a topic. It's always shot down or put on the maybe list. (Usually by me -- shot down and maybe-d.) Kat wrote about the topic at her site this week and I grasped what I wasn't hearing when it had been advocated for here. That's part of the process, we're all focused on pitching our topic and a lot of times we (or me, Jim) don't listen closely enough to the pitches others are making. A note on the illustration for this and the feature above (the same illustration). During writing editions, we have to take breaks. Many times, a number of us will run to the store. I always check out the toys. This is something called "Instant Prehistoric 3" which is capsules you drop in water that turn into figures. I have picked that up repeatedly on our late night runs but never purchased it. C.I. told me this morning, "Get it already." And, truth be told, though I hide behind, "This might make for an interesting illustration," the reality is I was just curious about if the capsules really turned into figures. As Mike would say, ":D".


Roundtable -- You love roundtables, we've begun to loathe doing them. They take so much time. Last week, we did one and pretty much everyone pulled from the remarks (I didn't, C.I., Ava and Betty didn't but I'm not sure who else) that not only was it not much but there was no way it flowed when you read it. So it was killed. It was also a time consumer. But we tried it again this week. The illustration is by Betty's oldest son.

Coming Up -- Some things to look for and the candy wrappers were also purchased on our run this morning. I said it was because they might make a good illustration and be a way to note Halloween. Reality, I just wanted the candy. As Ty pointed out by noting there were also Snicker Halloween candy and I wasn't picking those up. (I don't like Snickers.) I ate them and forgot about it. Jess was picking up some of our garbage at one point and pointed to the wrappers saying, "I thought these were going to be an illustration." We didn't have a Halloween piece. We did have this which was titled "Recommended." Dona pointed out that if we called it "Coming Up," we could use the wrappers as an illustration because Halloween is coming up. Next week, the plan is to do something more on The New Adventures of Old Christine, by the way. Marcia and Ruth came up with an idea for that but there wasn't time.

Jerk off Artiste of the Week -- Self-explantory. This was noted by eight readers who e-mailed to express their anger with the latest attack on women and the latest excuse where it's always someone's fault but never Barack's.

E-mails (Dona and Jess) -- I typed up the roundtable. If there are typos, I don't care. While I was doing that, Ava and C.I. were doing their TV commentary and Ty was editing the article on Nader, and Mike, Elaine, Betty, Rebecca, Ruth, Marcia, Kat, Cedric and Wally were working on "Highlights." Dona and Jess decided to attempt a feature covering the e-mails. Normally, a solo or duo piece goes up higher in the mix. Dona and Jess were both adament that this go as far towards the end as possible so that Stacie Adams not mistakenly think that we give a damn what she says.


Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Rebecca, Betty, Kat, Ruth, Cedric, Marcia and Wally wrote this and we thank them for it. I always worry I'll leave someone out when I type up the credit for this each week.


See you next weekend.-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.