A note to our readers

Hey --
Latest we have ever been.

Thank you to all who worked on this edition which includes Dallas and the following:

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,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.


It was the worst edition ever. Time wasted, you name it. This will be a shorter note than usual because I (Jim) am aware that C.I.'s still got to do The Common Ills and she's also got to do two entries because Isaiah wanted to continue working with Third which meant C.I. benched him. We had worked or 'worked' all night and only Ava and C.I. had an article. At which point a stoppage was called and everyone went to sleep. Isaiah wanted to rejoin the group this evening and C.I. allowed that only if Isaiah would take the night off. So she's got two entries tonight.

• Truest statement of the week
  

To speed up our process when we regrouped, we farmed truest out to Mike and the gang -- to Mike, Cedric, Elaine, Rebecca, Ann, Stan, Marcia, Ruth, Isaiah and Trina. I think that's everyone. I hope so. That ended up being more work for them than they planned. This one went to Somerby.

• Truest statement of the week II

And this one went to a writer new to truest.

• Editorial: Robert Gates speaks

We had two long editorials we did this evening. They didn't work. Finally, Dona said: "Let's just do what we threatened last week only with Gates." So we did. We hope to roundtable the SOFA next week, FYI.

• TV: Comedy dos and don'ts

Strongest piece of writing. Ava and C.I. wrote this. They were done and rejoined us in the midst of a loud argument. They said, "You know what? We're going to polish our piece." And they left. When they came back there was no more arguing but nothing was accomplished. At one point -- Dona was sick -- Dona was saying, "Let's just post Ava and C.I.'s article and leave it at that." We did come close to doing that.

• Easy Come, Easy Go

Elaine suggested this piece. We were desperate for content and quick content this evening when we regrouped. Elaine said the midterms were the easiest thing to write about and that ended up into this piece. Rebecca found the photo and if her photo shop had worked, it would have been a standalone. She wanted to emphasize the woman on the far right by making a square of her as big as the photo but Rebecca had problems with photo shop.

• Sundays before dawn

This is explained in the roundtable. I believe this is Betty, Wally, Jess and Ty. The illustration is of Fisherman's Wharf and Kat and Rebecca worked on the illustration which is a photo Kat added touches to physically and then Rebecca photo shopped electronically.

• On those truest statments . . .

We had the gang pick truests. As part of their picking process they had to search. The problem with that was that it led to a discussion that they ended up writing up. "You don't have to use this," Mike and Rebecca told us over the phone. Don't have to? We're thrilled to be able to. Great piece and thank you to them for that. Ask Rebecca or Mike where the illustration is from, we have no idea.

• Roundtable

While they were picking out truest -- and, it turns out, writing an article -- we were roundtabling. We grabbed as many e-mails as we could. Christian, I hope to grab your e-mail next week. We ran out of time. If I'm not able to, Ty says he'll try to write a Ty's Corner on it.

• Valerie Wants To Share (parody)

A parody piece we planned for back when Valerie made her idiotic remarks. We were unable to find time for it then. When we regrouped, Ava and C.I. worked hard on finding pieces that we never made time for. That's how Betty, Wally, Ty and Jess' poem ended up in this edition as well.

• US targeting Papuan Churches

From ETAN.

• Highlights

Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.

And we thank you for reading. We'll see you next weekend. Peace.

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