Mailbag

Ty: We're doing another mailbag and I've tried to pull e-mails on a number of topics. First off, I wrote a "Ty's Corner" awhile back and mentioned links and said just e-mail us and we'll try to work in a link somewhere and then added, "We don't link to pornography. We're a site for the left so keep that in mind as well." That seems pretty clear to me. I would assume someone e-mailing us about "adult toys" could grasp that, no, we're not linking. It would have seemed to be just spam mail were it not for the fact that it was a personal e-mail and mentions another site we link to. But let me repeat, we're not linking to porn and that includes "adult toys." Now, staying with the issue of porn but dropping to something that appeared at all sites except this one and Mikes -- "Roundtable," "Talking," "the roundtable," "Roundtable and snapshot," "The roundtable," "Iraq, sexual assault, feminism and more," "Discussion and Iraq snapshot," "Movies, Iraq, sexual assault and more" "A roundtable," "Roundtable time" and "Roundtable" -- an e-mail came in from a woman who asked that her name not be used but wanted Marcia to know, "You are referring to erotica, not porn." Marcia?



Marcia: No, I'm referring to porn. In the roundtable, we're talking about a woman in her underwear for a photo -- not porn. And I'm noting that I do have porn. I'm a lesbian, I have videos of lesbians making out. It's porn. I'm not going to call it "erotica." I know that's supposed to be the 'thing to do.' That 'thing to do' has been going on since before I was born. I don't see any changes. Except an increase in the smear that feminists don't like sex. I like sex. I made the personal decision, and did so a few years ago, to stop using the term "erotica." I've outlined the reasons for that. I'm glad she didn't use her name because I'd be calling her out by name noting that we're tackling how many issues in that roundtable -- including military sexual assault -- and her big concern is that I used "porn" when she thinks I should have used "erotica"?



Ty: Same roundtable, Ericzzz e-mails to ask Elaine what she means by, "She posed in her underwear -- in designer underwear, it was a fashion shoot, it's not her personal underwear. Do people know anything about photo shoots? I know C.I. will say, 'No.' I've heard her say it plenty of times. But, the photo you see in the magazine or wherever, that's not necessarily the one the model or photographer planned. It's the one that turned out best. The one that sells."



Elaine: That's clear to me, I'm sorry if it wasn't for Ericzzz and I don't mean that sarcastically. At photo shoots, C.I. will say "no." I've heard her say "no" plenty of times. What is absolutely not clear is where I should have then gone from that. In a photo shoot, many photographers will tell a woman to try this or try that. The sort of thing C.I. says a firm "no" to. But a lot of woman do get tricked. "Okay, but let's try one without the blouse, just to see how it looks." That's where I was heading. The subject in a photo shoot is attempting to be agreeable, is attempting to do their part to make a photo arresting. Your only feedback is the photographer until the prints are developed. You're putting all your trust in them and it can be difficult to say "no." The nature of the relationship is one of dependency because you're the one whom everyone is going to see in the picture and you're depending on the photographer to present you in a flattering light. So it can be very difficult to say "no" for a variety of reasons. Thanks to Ericzzz for e-mailing because I had meant to go into that but didn't.



Ty: We'll come back to that roundtable but there's an e-mail for Dona that arrived Saturday afternoon. Julianne writes that Dona "seems level-headed and organized and I'm guessing she has features in mind for future editions on any given week. When things are going badly during a writing edition, why not just pop out one of those features?"



Dona: That's a good question. We've got, for example, Dolly Parton and Mel Brooks on a list of planned features. With Parton, we're thinking a look at some of her singles, with Brooks his films. When a writing edition is falling apart -- as this one appears to be, honestly -- it's generally too late to start on one of those features. It is 5:30 on the East Coast. Ty was going to do a "Ty's Corner" to cover a number of topics and we put that on hold to do "Mailbag" due to the fact that a transcript piece would really break things up -- one of the reasons I'm arguing that since Ava and C.I. participated in the roundtable Friday, Third should repost it here. Ava and C.I. being part of the six of us that are The Third Estate Sunday Review. And Jim's response? I think Ty has a question on that.



Ty: I do. I'll go to it now. It's joked in the roundtable that Ann, Cedric's wife, is brought into that roundtable just because they know it will kill Jim. Meaning that Rebecca's roundtable got Ann as a participant and Third didn't. It's joked. But some are taking the joke very seriously and e-mailing about it.



Jim: Am I ticked? Yeah. Raging, screaming ticked? No. But of course I would have preferred to have had Ann here participating. And that's why the joke's funny. They're not being mean spirited. It's as if I was inclined to blush -- I'm not -- and they joked, "That'll make Jim blush." It's not an insult to me and I didn't take the joke that way. And, yeah, I would have preferred that we had Ann talk here at Third. I'm famous for staking things out in the roundtables for the gina & krista round-robin --



Wally: And did that just last Thursday night.



Jim: Yes, I did. That's going to be our editorial. But I'm known for that, I'm known for asking C.I. not to write about a topic or not to write about it again that week because I want to use the topic at Third. That's just who I am. I wasn't offended by the joke. I was laughing when I read it.



Ty: Alan e-mails about last month's "1 Book, 5 Minutes," a book discussion on Janis Ian's Society's Child: My Autobiography. Alan wants to know why more book discussions can't be done? For the record, we've answered this question before. We'll include this question in one mailbag this year and that's it. Alan adds, "Reading is important and everyone is cutting back on book sections." Jess, you want to tackle this?



Jess: Hello, Alan. Did you understand that? Good, you are reading. That's what you are doing right now. Regardless of whether we talk about books or not, you are reading. Reading is important and we used to include book discussions all the time. In part, we don't do it now because it's much more difficult to have a discussion when you've got over 15 people participating. You don't see that number around a table on TV. In part, we don't see a great deal of books worth recommending. Janis Ian's book was picked as the best book for the year by the TCI community and it was our responsibility to have discussed it if for no other reason than that. But it also happens that we all loved the book and recommend it highly. If there's another book we feel is worth a discussion, we'll discuss it. I know there's one we're seriously considering.



Ty: On Janis Ian's book, Janice e-mails that she loved the book and checked it out at her library after she read the book discussion. Janis writes, "I was especially curious about the woman who sells the house because it was clearly something that a lot of you were offended by. I saw why it was offensive and one thing I would add is that what the woman did really fell under kicking someone when they're already down. I felt very sorry for Janis Ian during that because she really had nothing. She was trying to rebuild her career, the IRS was taking all of her checks and all she had was the house she co-owned and this woman sells it out from under her. It was low and it was dirty." I don't know if we mentioned it in the book discussion or not but back when we started doing those in 2005, we always pointed out that you could check bookstores and your libraries and that we are big supporters of public libraries. And that's pertinent to the next e-mail from community member Diane who writes of a development that she finds troubling. At her library system --



C.I.: Diane lives in Dallas, Texas and she won't mind that being noted. She's noted it before in comments she's wanted shared at The Common Ills.



Ty: Okay, thank you for adding that because it does allow us to pin it down. At their library system, there's a new policy. All the libraries have a cart by the check out desks and the cart has the latest DVDs and books. And to check out any of those, you pay five dollars. That's a one week check out and, after one week, you are fined. Diane finds this troubling because a public library is supposed to be a public library. It is not supposed to offer two levels of service, it is supposed to treat all patrons equally.



Betty: Can I jump in? I agree with Diane. As you're describing it, there is not one level, there is two. If I want -- I'm having a hard time thinking of a book that's just come out.



C.I.: Let me offer Dallas the chance to come in on this. If he wants to.



Dallas: Sure. Okay, Betty, an example could be Mark Wahlberg's The Happening. That's one I saw last month, a DVD, on the cart at my branch. They emphasize the DVDs and any book that they think would be a bestseller. John Grisham's got a new book out and you've got copies on the cart of it. Does that help?



Betty: Yes, it does, thanks. Okay, so I want The Happening. Or better yet, because I do have kids, one of my kids wants it. I've got pay five dollars? We're checking out, we've got our books and whatever else, and we're checking out and my son sees The Happening and he starts saying, "Mommy, I need that." I mean, first off, that offends me because, as a parent, I'm used to that in the grocery store, I shouldn't have to put up with it in a public library. This, "Let's put some pricey items by the register" being what I shouldn't have to put up wiht. Second, it offends me because I may not have five dollars and does this mean I'm less of a patron? Yeah, it does because there are things that I do not have access too in this alleged public library.



Mike: I think --



C.I.: Mike, can we come back to you in a second? Is that okay?



Mike: Sure.



C.I.: Okay, Dallas, help me out because community members in your area have written suggesting a feature on Red Box. Do I have that right, Red Box?



Dallas: Red Box is a new thing in the city. It's been in a few places for maybe a year or so and now it's pretty much spread all over the city. How it works is that you've got, for example, a Wal Greens drug store and Red Box puts its machine outside by the entrance. You go up with your credit card and you can rent a DVD for a buck and tax. For one day, that's the cost. You can rent more than one at a time. But it's a self-serve machine. You press the screen for the DVD choices, you swipe your card, you type in your info, the machine spits out your DVD. You return it to the machine as well.



C.I.: Okay, the reason I'm asking you this is The Happening, not a new movie, why is anyone going to pay five dollars to borrow that DVD from the library when they get it for a dollar out of Red Box. Forget the other video rentals for a moment.



Dallas: That's a good point and when I saw someone pick up The Happening, someone in line ahead of me, and they were told it was five dollars, they said no thank you. That was at my library. Thursday I was downtown and a woman picked up The Rocker at the main branch. She walked over to the man saying, "Next in line" and, while I was still waiting in line, came back over to put The Rocker back. She said to me, "They want you to pay for this." I don't know how it's working out but I know it's upsetting people.



C.I.: Mike's waiting and I'm sorry to make him wait but Dallas lives there, he knows this story. So I just want a few more details. This is a cart of items, items new to the library, and the cart is right next to the check out desk?



Dallas: Right. It's called street something. Like "street date" or something. "Street Smart Express"! That's what it's called. Okay. So what I see, and I go to my branch and downtown, what I see is a lot of items on the cart that never get checked out. I don't know how much of a money maker it is but when you're charging for things you should be providing for free, I guess any amount qualifies for a 'money maker.' I go to the library at least once a week, at least. I have never seen anyone check out an item from that cart. I have twice seen people pick up items, learn that there was a cost and put them back.



C.I.: Mike, you can speak in a second but I'm going to be really brutal here. They're a public library. If they're making a profit off the rental -- and it is a rental if people are paying money for the items -- there may be liability issues. CDs? I believe the US Copyright Act of 1984 made it very clear that sound recordings could not be rented. Parts of the act have been repealed or modified but, unless I'm mistaken, that section still stands. In addition, the book publishing business is having dire problems. If public libraries are profiting from books via rental fees you better believe the publishers are going to want a stake of that money. It's stupid and it's idiotic to push that program. The only thing that may make them reconsider is whether or not it is also illegal? If they continue the program, someone may decide to put the matter before a judge. I'm going to toss to Mike now because I'm pretty sure he's going to the money issue and thanks for letting me jump in, Mike.



Mike: No problem. Yeah, I was going to the money. If I go in to a library and see that, my attitude is going to be, "They're charging? Why the hell am I paying taxes?" And I say that, please note, with a mother who goes to every meeting when there's talk of cutting the budget for our local libraries. She goes to protest those cuts. I firmly believe public libraries need more money not less. But if they're charging, my attitude's going to change.



Stan: I'd agree with Mike. They're charging five dollars for a rental. Blockbuster doesn't get away with that. My attitude would be, well, you're on your own. We don't give tax money to Blockbuster to stay in business. I find that really offensive and agree with Betty and Diane that it's creating two levels of customers.



Rebecca: Can I use my sole time any way I want? I haven't spoken yet and I would gladly toss my time to C.I. who stopped quickly but I think might have more to say re: legal.



Ty: C.I.?




C.I.: Well, I did stop quickly. That's because I was sitting there building the case in my head. Let's use the Jonas Brothers as an example, okay? Let's say their latest CD comes out Tuesday and the Dallas public library system decides they're going to put it on their Street Smart Express cart and charge people five dollars a pop. Again, I think it's debatable whether they have that right or not. But here's what I do know. Just sticking with sound recordings, they are opening up a can of worms because, as Betty and Diane are saying, charging money means that it's not available to all. There are two levels -- Stan made the point as well. This matters, and bear with me a second, because if we're suing because we want money, we're going to build the case. And one of the things we'll use is all of our power. For example, currently libraries can make a copy -- a single copy -- of a sound recording and allow that to go out for distribution to protect their original. But that right is built around -- this in writing, this in the Copyright Act of 1984 -- the premise that they have an archive that's open to the public. Define archive. Define whether or not the Jonas Brothers' new CD is in that archive. That's how the case would be played out in court. It wouldn't just be, "Five dollars!" It would go to the heart of the system, it would go to every existing law. When the Jonas Brothers CD is entered into the library system, it is part of the archive immediately. Is it available for all? "Open to the public"? The library may say, "Yes, after X number of days, it moves off our Street Smart Express Cart into the general system." The copyright holder may argue, "Then it's not available. Then it's not open to the public." That's when a judge has to decide or Congress finds itself being asked to revist the law. Or both. That's it except to ask if we can get some sort of link to this program because I know an e-mail or two will come in saying it was made up. We've got an idiot insisting I'm wrong about who wrote Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop." It was Christine McVie, not Lindsey Buckingham, I don't care what Danny Goldberg's stupid book says. And we'll do a short entry on that next week. But can we get a link in here when this is published going to something at the Dallas library system's website on this program?



Dallas: Yeah.



Ruth: I will jump in quickly just to say I have not heard of such a thing before. The whole point of a public library system is that its items are available to the public. The idea that if you have five dollars to toss around for every book, movie and CD you want to check out means you can get a better level of service goes against the entire concept that a public libary was built around. I really find that concept of charging to be distasteful.



Ty: Just tossing it out there, is anyone supporting the decision to charge five dollars for new, presumably popular, items?



Cedric: I don't know if it comes off in the reading, but Ruth's entire response was said in a shocked voice and I share her shock. I'm just kind of thrown by the whole idea that a library would charge money to borrow items. Or, for that matter, display such items at the check out counter. I find that offensive. My father died when I was a kid. My grandparents pretty much raised me. They still had kids at home. When we went to the library, which we did all the time, it was because we could get books and I think cassettes and records, and get them without having to pay. That was a very big deal. And the idea that someone who is in the same situation I was, someone whose grandparents really do not have the money to raise another kid, some kid like me is going to be at the library and see all the pretty new items on that cart and know that he or she can't have them because, even though this a public library, only the people who pay can pick them up off that cart and walk out with them. That just really ticks me off. I want

Wally to speak to this because he lost his father when he was a little kid and his mother and grandfather raised him. I want to see if it's just me?



Wally: No. You know that a lot of our experiences were similar. And if it was the weekend, my grandfather took me to the library. During the summer, he took me several times a week to the library. And I mean, it was exciting. It was fun. And I remember this one librarian I hated who would tell me I was in the adult section. I wasn't playing, I was talking. I was looking at books. I don't remember how old I was but we went to the library all the time and I started reading fiction -- not children's fiction or young adult -- early because of that. So I remember my grandfather coming up during this woman's little tirade against me and my grandfather saying, "Any book in this libary he intends to read, he can check out. This is a public library." And that was great because who doesn't like their grandfather sticking up for them but it was also great because I'd never really thought about it like that but it was true, everything in that public library that could be taken out, I could check out. That card, and I had my own card, made me a library member and I was the same as any other library member. We couldn't have afforded the new stuff, growing up, if they'd done a cart and charged five dollars for the items. That's just reality. And, no, the library wouldn't have felt like my library.



Ty: Okay, Dona's giving me a signal to wind down. I'm going to go to another e-mail, our last, and I'm choosing it because Kat hasn't spoken. She's the only one who hasn't. Kat, Mallory wants to know why there aren't more CD reviews from you at The Common Ills and why there are not more music pieces here?



Kat: My reviews? Didn't I already write two for January? I only agreed to 12 pieces a year and one of those is the year-in-review. So I think I'm ahead of the schedule currently. In terms of here, Dona mentioned we'd long been planning a Dolly Parton piece. It goes to what we have time for and what we manage to get to on any given week. We've actually done a great deal of music pieces in the last three months here. I don't believe that we have anything planned for this week but we've don't have time for it this week.



Ty: Tossing to Ava who I just realized didn't speak.



Ava: Questions or comments or complaints can be e-mailed to us at thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com. When possible, we will include them in a mailbag or work them into another feature such as a roundtable. We're not a blog, we're an online magazine. "Mailbag" is a feature created to try to address questions, comments and complaints. It appears regularly. You're writing an e-mail does not require us to respond in any form including in a "Mailbag" feature. For example, anyone asking about a book discussion again this year will be blown off because we have addressed it and addressed and addressed it. If your question or comment or complaint is for one person in particular, name them. Third Estate is Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, C.I. and myself. All others participating -- except for Dallas -- have their own websites. The roundtable Rebecca ran resulted in questions here because so many of us participated in it. Point, most of the time, your issues with what went on at some other site -- positive or negative -- are not going to be included in a "Mailbag."