A note to our readers

Hey --
A long, long edition. But we're done. At last.

First let's talk who helped with this edition:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, 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.

Thanks to all who helped. We missed Dona and Ty (who more than earned time off).

Truest statement of the week -- Cindy was a clear shot. But there weren't a lot of nominees this week due to so many taking the week off due to the holidays -- and due to so few truth tellers.

Truest statement of the week II -- On the plus, it allowed us to highlight this very true remark.


Editorial: Barack The Never Ending Liar -- Exactly what does the left plan to do? This left has been calling out the lies. Others can't make the same claim. They should be ashamed of themselves.

TV: What's the return policy? -- Ava and C.I. did two TV commentaries this week. This was actually edited down (by them) and was much longer. (The extended version runs in Tuesday's Hilda's Mix.)

TV: Good As He's Been To You -- I (Jim) do the headlines for pretty much all the pieces. This is another Ava and C.I. article and when I wrote the headline, I thought it was a McCartney song. It's a Dylan song. They thought I meant to do that. I should kept my big mouth shut.

The Iraq War's British roots -- Trina and Wally helped with this one and Dona did as well but said, "No credit." I'll get to that in a moment. So everyone listed above worked on this piece. It was our big one for the edition.

Roundtable -- We roundtabled because I wasn't sure how Iraq would go and there was a lot to cover. We hadn't written the 'British roots' article yet and I wanted to get C.I. to go over a few things on that to be sure we had them if we didn't anywhere else. Marcia also wanted to address a movie issue so a roundtable was the perfect way to go.

The numbers and the outrage -- Jess, Ava and C.I. wrote this at the last minute. We had forgotten this and were already starting to post.

Don't Steal This Look! -- Rebecca, Ann, Marcia, Ruth, Kat, Betty, Stan, Cedric and Mike wrote this. Elaine went on to sleep. Jess and I were typing up completed pieces and Ava and C.I. were working on their TV commentaries.

When Bully Met Poodle -- This is where Dona came in. She called around four to make sure things were okay (four this morning) and that we didn't need any help. Jess was assuring her everything was okay when she heard Ava and C.I. arguing with me (or me arguing with them). About? Ava and C.I. wanted this article on its own. It was part of the 'British roots' article -- the first paragraph word for word. They argued (a) the article was too long, (b) including this with the article might trivialize the article, (c) making it its own article would mean it would get more attention (which meant more attention for the Iraq Inquiry) and I'm forgetting (d) (and Ava and C.I. say, "We're tired, just finish this note."). So Dona heard us arguing and asked to speak to me. She had one question: "Is it a short feature?" Yeah. "So why are you arguing with them. I'll pretend for just one moment that they're completely wrong and you're 100% right, there's still the issue of variety in lengths. You need to break it up." So that's what happened. Thank you to Dona.

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

I think that's everything. Hopefully you found something that made you laugh or enraged you. See you next weekend.


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