Hey --
Another Sunday.
First up, we thank all who participated 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),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
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.
The bulk of the work being done by Ava, C.I., Elaine and Mike. And I'm not joking.
And what did we come up with?
These were chosen quickly in the evening hours. I (Jim) suggested this one.
And Ty nominated Glen Ford. (We only had 8 nominees for truest this week -- the holidays meant a lot of people who usually write and observe were otherwise occupied last week.)
Dona and I went to her folks for Thanksgiving. Ava and C.I. said they'd put together something but if I was working on the edition, they'd expect serious contributions on the editorial. Our plane was late and it took forever to get out of the airport but as soon as I was back, I went right to work with the gang on this editorial.
With no holiday specials, what were they to do? Ava and C.I. thought about offering a preview of December specials and were calling around to see what was planned (besides reruns of old seasonal cartoons) by the networks for next month. Each ended up being pressed by an ABC friend (two different friends) to consider covering Barbara Walters upcoming 'most fascinating people' special. They laughed about that and how fluffy that thing was when what Barbara should do . . . "And thus," Elaine says, another Ava and C.I. classic was born.
Stan, Marcia, Betty, Mike, Jess, Ty, Rebecca and Ruth were the prime workers of this piece.
Elaine said they really should do something to note Rebecca and Marcia's continued book coverage. How about a cutting of the two women's reviews of the book with an illustration of the book cover. It turned out to be just a little bit more than that once everyone got to work on it.
Mike brought this one to the group based on an e-mail he got. Stan covers movies at his site and he and Ann do a 10 best each year (last week of December) so he and Ann were on board. It took longer than anything else -- and only some of that involved picking the films. People were tired and there was talk of killing the piece, Wally told us, but Mike said if Ava and C.I. would go work on their TV article, when they got back there would be a usable article "that would still benefit from an Ava and C.I. polish, please." And Mike was true to his word. Ava and C.I. thought the article stood as is but there was a desire for a little humor in the piece and so Ava and C.I. did a quick polish. (You'll probably be able to tell where, I can and I wasn't even there when this was written.)
Ralph Poynter's very important speech on Lynne Stewart.
A C.I. repost. I am thrilled but had nothing to do with it. Elaine was the one calling for this.
A repost from Workers World.
And Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
See you next week.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.