A note to our readers

Hey --

Another edition. We're about to fall over. A really long edition.

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.

And Dallas. We thank all who helped.

From thanks to apologies.

Community member Iwana had a suggestion C.I. brought over. We loved it. We planned to do it. Iwana, time ran out. We'll pick it up next week and that's a promise. Apologies also go out to readers who e-mailed for two reasons. First, we have a feature that a list which will do next week. Second, Ty wanted to do a "Ty's Corner" (and we wanted him to as well) but we'd still be working if he had. We did the roundtable as the very last thing and we were already late. It needed to be typed up. Ty grabbed that. (Thank you, Ty.) And . . . You almost had a review of Chuck. That's what Ava and C.I. had on deck. They thought they could cover it with the debate but had too many things to cover. Fine, they decided to do another commentary this edition and pair it with a fraud. But we asked them to do something else. Next week, we hope to have a humor piece which wasn't good enough this week online but made it into print edition. We're hoping we'll either be funnier next week or Ava and C.I. will be able to help out (they were doing their TV commentary when we were working on it).

Let's move to what we have:

Truest statement of the week -- Violet Socks was the obvious choice.

Truest stament of the week II -- This took forever. We went back and forth on it for two reasons. 1) We don't like to highlight politicians for a "truest" and 2) we didn't want to panic Nader readers into thinking we were choosing another ticket. Rosa Clemente's comment comes from her debate with Matt Gonzalez. But the reality was it said a lot that needed to be said. Rosa earned her truest.

Editorial: Sour Grape Girls, Tears Dry On Their Own -- Amy Winehouse. We love her. There's a positive in today's world. Sadly, Amy Winehouse makes much more sense than the leaders of the feminist movement these days. You'll note the f-word. If it offends you, don't drop by. If you're a community member, you got an e-mail from C.I. Friday evening warning you that this would be an explicit edition. And it really is. We like this editorial a lot.

TV: The Comedy of Errors -- "What is taking Ava and C.I. so long?" someone wondered when they were off writing this. (No, it wasn't me.) We were working on the humor piece that wasn't coming together so we were very aware of every minute they were gone. They came back, we set the humor piece aside and I read this out loud. We wouldn't have the roundtable if it weren't for this. As usual, their commentary gave the rest of us new determination to continue despite being tired. This is really wonderful. So wonderful that I wanted to raid sections. They said no and point out that there's a special thing going on for English Lit majors. It's your own little treat if you catch their structure and segues. They worked forever on this with special attention to that and said nothing could be pulled out without altering everything.

The Vagina Strikes Back! (Ava and C.I.) -- This is the piece that had to be written. And it was late. All of us in the core six were working like crazy editing and typing. Ava and C.I. planned to go off and write their piece on Chuck and the fraud. We stopped them (Dona and I stopped them) and said we really needed this piece instead. What piece? That was Ava and C.I.'s question. Dona and I were explaining it and tossing out title ideas and, as Dona and I got stuck on vagina being in it and tossing out movie titles, they looked at each other, looked at us and then said together (those two are in sync), "The Vagina Strikes Back!" Dona and I cried, "Yes!" They noted they were about to fall asleep and had no real structure so it would be a talking piece. We were fine with it. When they finished it, they handed it to us and asked us to edit it. We read it and didn't change anything. (They generally don't ask us to edit their stuff -- in fact, we don't remember ever being asked to before, but they were tired and not sure this was what we were asking for.) This really is amazing. Last week, you were all spoiled with not one, not two, but three pieces by Ava and C.I. We promise, to acknowledge Buddy's e-mail last week, not to continue to assign them multiple pieces.

Again, whose media center? -- Yeah, time to ask the question again as it traffics in non-stop Sarah Palin bashing. Apparently Palin's not so bad. I mean, if she were, would they have to make up lies?

Goodbye To All That WMC Style -- This actually was C.I.'s idea but C.I. and Ava didn't write anything in it. They headed off to do their TV commentary and we came up with this. We like it and think it says a lot (we thank Rebecca and Elaine who were happy to spill about earlier times and we thank C.I. who, at Rebecca and Elaine's request, fact-checked those events).

Roundtable -- There were many other topics. We were going to try to note The New Adventures of Old Christine (airing Wednesdays on CBS in the first half-hour of prime time). We'll attempt to note your suggestions re: that show next week. We ended up focusing on race. Dona wanted it noted that she didn't realize C.I.'s entire contribution to the roundtable was "You have turned my life into a paperback novel." Dona says, "If I'd realized that, I would have insisted C.I. and Mike get the closing thoughts." Illustration by Betty's eldest son and we thank him for it.


Bail Out Barry screws the tax payers -- Short pieces is always Dona's cry. This edition we have two of them.

Green Party Women's Caucus stands up -- A reposting of an open letter. Be sure to read it and we praise the Green Party Women's Caucus for issuing the open letter.

Authoritarina Fool of the Week -- Another short piece. Robin Morgan slimes democracy.

Sponsor a Team Nader volunteer -- Nader repost.

Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Kat, Rebecca, Betty, Cedric, Ruth, Wally and Marcia wrote this and picked all highlights.

And, what do you know, we're finally through. Just as Amy Winehouse's again singing "Tears Dryl On Their Own" from the speakers. See you next week.

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