A note to our readers

Hey --
Another Sunday. And we are dragging. First let's give credits. Along with Dallas, the following helped 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,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ
and Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends.

We thank everyone for their help. And what did we come up with?


Truest statement of the week -- This was the clear winner.

Editorial: The fear paralysis -- The last thing we wrote. This was supposed to be epic. As Jess said, "Let's just make our points and be done already." Agreed. It was a long, long process.

TV: Fate laughs at 2006's handicappers -- Ava and C.I. weigh in on the program people have waited nearly three years for. It was worth the wait. By the way, they want it noted that a Sunday in April (probably the first Sunday) will be think piece -- pulling strands on a theme -- and not a review of a week's program or programs. They're noting that now for a reason that will make sense later. I love the title but was worried. (I write the headlines.) Would people get it? "You're talking horse racing, right?" And if you don't get the flatness of the voice, you needed to see their faces. But, in case anyone doesn't get it, "handicappers" refers to horse racing guessers -- and here to those who said Katie Couric couldn't do the job of anchoring before she'd ever anchored.


Military sexual assault -- This could have been longer but we edited this down and hopefully made it tighter. If not, we weakened it. (We is Ty, Jess, Dona and myself.) Ava and C.I. volunteered to start typing features if it meant avoiding editing this. (They didn't want anything to do with that task.)

Congrats America, you elected a Jewish mother -- a short feature. Dona loves them and so do a number of you. (I personally enjoy this one.)

Mailbag -- We hadn't done the editorial (which we planned to be epic) and we hadn't done the MSA article. Dona pointed out that the appearance of the edition would be pretty blah and we could break it up with a transcript piece. Ty was going to do a "Ty's Corner" but volunteered some of the e-mails he'd pulled for that. Dallas participates. When I mentioned that after, he said, "Yeah, and probably the only time this year." Only Wally or C.I. can get him to speak up in the transcript pieces. Seriously.

And that's why you don't let Republicans in the do... -- In the door. Ava and C.I. hated my headline and they now say, "In the do? What's the 'do,' Jim?" Point is, they wanted "some" in the headline. I said tht would be too many words and it would also prevent us from having the full title display. They point to "in the do" and laugh.

The Shirley goes to . . . -- New feature suggested by reader Lurlisa. Thank you!

The backstory on the White House press briefings -- While Ava and C.I. wrote their TV commentary, the rest of us worked on this. When we told them our topic, they said, "We're not even reading it."

Hypocrisy Corrente Style -- So dropping people from a blogroll is bad form? What about dropping your entire blogroll?

ETAN says drop charges against Jose Belo -- Reposting of ETAN announcement that was sent here to late to be noted last week. (Kat and Elaine noted it and C.I. included it in the snapshot last week.)


Roundtable -- And a repost of the roundtable Rebecca did Friday night.

Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Stan, Marcia, Wally, Cedric, Betty, Kat, Ruth and Rebecca wrote this and picked highlights. We thank them for it. We hoped to use the first groupings linked for an article here this week but time ran out.

That's how it goes some times.

See you next week.

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