A note to our readers

Hey --
Sunday, Sunday. First, illustrations will be added later tonight or tomorrow.

A long edition and we thank Dallas and everyone else who 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 them all.

We hoped to do a mailbag but there just was not time. The roundtable took three hours and that's not counting the typing of it. I'll try to answer some questions in here.

Here's what we came up with:

Truest statement of the week -- Delilah Boyd for pointing out what everyone pretends not to notice: No way in hell did a poli sci major at Columbia while Bernardine, Bill and Kathy are in the local papers non-stop never hear of Weather Underground or Bill Ayers. That would have been discussed in poli sci classes.

Truest statement of the week II -- CNN gets a truest because they earned it. While the bulk were insisting, "Nothing to see here, move along," CNN dug in and did actual journalism.

Editorial: Precious Time -- Cameron was among the many Pat Benatar fans e-mailing and he noted his opinion that we didn't quote Pat enough. We were done with everything except the editorial when Ty reminded us of that. We were in a panic but C.I. thought of "Precious Time" which fit with our topic. This was written by all but C.I. and I did an intense edit/revision on it. I say that not in bragging but some who helped write it may be surprised by a few elements added. (If they are, they can talk about it at their sites -- and I won't be upset so don't e-mail them asking, "Are you trying to make Jim mad?" -- and we can talk about it here next week. I don't anticipate any problems but I want to give them the out in case they need it.)

TV: Some moments should stay undercover -- You readers in love with Ava and C.I. just don't know. They are not sugar spice and everything nice as anyone can attest when they were nearly done writing this and I showed up to insist that they had to squeeze one more topic in. As Mike would say ":D". But they got it in and they did a wonderful job of it. They finally do their Chuck review and pair it up with Donna Brazile, Bill Moyers, Dr. Kathy, Amy Goodman, past debates, Saturday Night Live and last week's debate. This is a powerful piece and it is also funny. There would be even more laughs, Ava says right now, had I not shown up when they were nearly done asking them to squeeze in one more topic. Ava also notes that she and C.I. had to drop a documentary they intended to cover as a result.

Roundtable -- The long and winding roundtable. That leads us to . . . Who knows where? The Time goes. Can you tell I'm tired? (Actually, Jess shouted out "The time goes" as I said "Who knows where?" -- I read this as I type it up.) We're covering McCain a great deal in this and there are a number of reasons for that including that I've been hearing C.I.'s responses to various friends with Barack's campaign as to how McCain is blowing it, blowing it! And C.I. says, "No." We also had a huge number of e-mails after Oklahoma community members made their decision to endorse John McCain. That's their business. If you don't live there, you can be happy for them (as we all are) or you can go about your business. But it's their vote and their business and screaming at us about it won't make a damn bit of difference. What does? Not on this topic but Sarita e-mailed asking what we like to have for breakfast when we finish these editions. We'll eat anything. We got very lucky this time because we're having lasanga (meatless and with meat, there are two). C.I. was bored and fixed that up during some of this writing edition. It's in the oven and five minutes away from being done. Smells great. John wanted to know if we had any new favorite film to watch in the moments before we drop off after putting an edition to bed? No. And right now, there's a faction arguing for a Diane Keaton comedy and another faction arguing for Hitchcock. It'll be interesting to see who wins.

Rehabilitated -- Elaine and C.I. brought this short feature to the topic list. Kat knew about it and this is what she didn't want us addressing in the roundtable (she refers to how she's biting her tongue). This is a really good point. If you're going to give up your White benefits and want the world to believe you, why is it that when it's time to run from trouble, you immediately reclaim those White benefits?

The winner and top ten runner ups -- Music feature article. We did two articles on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame recently and received a huge number of e-mails. This is the list feature I mentioned last week and said time ran out but we'd get to it this week. You've got the person who received the most votes (that should be woman who received . . .) and you've got the ten women who were the runner ups.

Bombing of the Pentagon doesn't bother Barack? -- He was eight-years-old! What the hell does that mean? Hey, crazy Diane Rehm, what the hell does that mean because it's not accurate? Does it mean he only disapproves of the actions Weather carried out when he was 8? Figure it out for us, Rehm, and let us know.

Spectacular Dumb Ass Moments from Dumb Asses -- Iwana sent that interview into us last week and swore there was a "ton of stuff" we could use. There was. We had to go short feature due to time. We thank Iwana and would like to return to that interview at some point but can't promise it will happen. Carlton e-mailed that he wishes "the damn election were over already" and we agree with you Carlton. Dona notes that when it is, the nation will exhale, regardless of the outcome because it's as if everyone's holding their breaths. So that's three or four e-mails I worked into the note.

Highlights -- Kat, Mike, Wally, Cedric, Marcia, Rebecca, Betty, Ruth and Elaine wrote this and picked the highlights unless otherwise noted. We thank them for it. And by the way, I didn't get mentioned. I told Elaine that her "The Common Ills" was my favorite piece last week. I meant it. I read over this when Mike said they were done and asked, "Hey, where's the Jim loves this post?" Elaine, modest as always, didn't pass that on. I meant for it to be passed on. So I'll note here that I really loved that piece.

And that's it for this week. We're eating lasanga while we start watching a movie that we'll crash out before the credits roll. Have a great week.



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