A note to our readers

Hey --

Along with Dallas, the following helped with 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),
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

We thank them all and here's what we came up with.

Truest statement of the week -- Congratulations to Caro for having the truest.

Truest statement of the week II -- Panning for gold, we also found Tariq Ali's statements.

Editorial: It's not hurt feelings -- Betty came up with the topic and, in conversations with Dona, Jess, Ava and C.I., we realized it was actually three pieces. One of which is slated to be next week's editorial. And, no, an apology won't cut it.

TV: The Good, the Barack and the Ugly -- Ava and C.I. Everyone was e-mailing on this -- even more so after C.I. tried to cut down on the e-mails by explaining at TCI that she and Ava would cover the topic here. Barack and SNL. Originally, they were planning to do a review of The Good Wife as one article and then a piece on SNL. Then Ty told them how many e-mails came in. "How many?" Realizing that a huge number of people were planning on reading their SNL piece, they decided to combine it with The Good Wife in the hopes of raising awareness on the CBS drama.

Getting the help you need -- I think this is the piece I'm proudest of. ("I" is Jim.) The first draft was written by Betty, Kat, Wally, Ty, Dona, Jess, Ava, C.I. and myself. And I loved it. Then we tossed it out to others and they made it even stronger. Then Ava, C.I. and Trina did an edit that tightened the whole thing up. It is probably my favorite piece -- after the TV article, don't attack me in e-mails, Ava & C.I. groupies! -- in this edition. And there are illustrations planned. Flickr's been a pain in the ass. After two hours of trying, C.I. said, "Let's just publish as is and I'll put the illustrations in tonight." Sunday morning is the worst time to upload to Flickr.


Baby Comics -- Same thing here as above re: illustrations. We hadn't done a comic piece in awhile. As many e-mails reminded.

Iraq -- This could have been more, on the 33rd floor. As the song says. But we were tired. It is what it is, as Kat says.

Roundtable -- An e-mail and music roundtable. Illustration by Betty's oldest kids.

Halloween (Dona) -- Dona's go round at writing about Halloween. That leaves me.

Senator Byron Dorgan on shoddy contractors -- Byron Dorgan's office issued this statement.

Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Rebecca, Ruth, Betty, Marcia, Kat, Cedric, Wally, Stan and Ann wrote this and we thank them for it.


See you next week.

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