A Note to Our Readers

Hey --
Sunday and we're moving quick. We stopped because . . . we'll get into that in a moment.

Here's who deserves credit for the writing this edition:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim,
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,
and Wally of The Daily Jot

Also thanks to Dallas for all of his help. Thanks to Rebecca, Elaine and Mike who came up with one illustration. Thanks to Rebecca who photoshopped all.

Here's what we've got:

Truest statement of the week -- Dalia Hashad spoke the truest again. We don't usually note much in these but the statement and provide a link. In this instance, an event is planned and we threw that in there as well.

Truest statement of the week II -- This section added since earlier today. This evening, a friend asked Ava, "I thought you and C.I. were going to do something about the Docker Boys? I didn't see anything in the TV commentary." Ava explained that she and C.I. couldn't fit that in, that Dona was asking for a "short piece" so it ended up being worked in that way. I (Jim) came in on the end of that and said, "I don't think we posted it." Read below where I'm talking about the TV commentary and explaining various distractions when we were posting. This was written, the illustration is by Rebecca, Mike and Elaine (Ava and C.I. wrote the text -- other than Carr's quote). We completely forgot about it with the rush and the phone calls. So it is up now. I told Ty I was coming back in to post Ava and C.I.'s thing and that I was adding a quick note. He suggested I answer the question about the long piece? It's not here. It's scheduled for the Sunday before July 4th.

Editorial: The Party of Stella Toddler -- Who knew we had so many Carol Burnett fans among our readers? Ty was checking the e-mails while C.I. was working on the morning entry for The Common Ills and early reaction can be summed up as, "I loved Stella! But Eunice/Miss Wiggins was my favorite!" Of the ones writing this note, only C.I. knew it from it's original airing. Most of us saw the cable reruns around 1997. We'll guess that's true for many of our readers or else they have very strong memories because Ty was reading three e-mails that included not only their favorite Burnett character, but also their summary (with lines quoted) of their favorite skits. (Favorite Eunice skits were: Eunice plays Sorry and Eunice and the gang visit Mickey at his apartment, favorite Miss Wiggins skit was when her boss gets the intercom.) We're glad that Burnett has provided so many of us with so much strong work that has lasted and stayed with us. We think it's too bad we can't say the same about the current Democratic leadership. Ty and my (Jim) favorite Eunice skit is when she performs "Feelings" on national television and we wish we could "gong" the Dems the way Eunice got "gonged."

TV: Friendly faces aren't who we meet -- We're still not as late with the note as we have been. However, we should have been a lot earlier. What happened? Ava and C.I. did a lengthy review of PBS. They did that on their own time and it didn't delay anyone (other than us re-reading it several times to laugh when we should have been writing). They re-reviewed PBS because friends of theirs who are professional whiners and with PBS have kvetched for the last few weeks. (A note on "kvetched" in a moment.) So they took another look at it. The commentary's excellent. It's funny, it's on the money. And it was posted while we were attempting to get the illustration for the editorial to work (it never did) when the phone rings. It's one of their friends. C.I. said, "You're going on speaker." Oh, Ava and C.I. were so unfair. Oh, that wasn't a nice thing to say about David. Oh, how could anyone watch two episodes of NOW (they've watched more than two; however, they have only reviewed two) and not like the show. Oh, the program wasn't insensitive to a poverty stricken women. On and on, it went. A non-stop monologue. When the friend finally came up for air, Ava and C.I. began to demolish every point. (With language they wouldn't use here even if we begged.) The friend disagreed up until they got to the point about the woman's medical condition being disclosed on air. They've added a note to the commentary since it went up. C.I. wrote about this (briefly) in the morning entry at The Common Ills. The phone rings as we're deciding do we want to do the note or go right to bed. No, it's not yet another PBS friend. It's a friend referred to in C.I.'s entry: "And Ava and I thought our friend at Mad TV was a whiner." He wants it known that you should never expect PBS to "appreciate good humor. They think Mark Russell is Lenny Bruce!" Maybe it was his delivery, maybe it was all of us being tired, but that still makes us laugh. So does the commentary. "Be sure to read it"? Like I have to urge anyone coming to this site to do that! (Personal note to Mike: You'll beat me this week again. ":D".)

Chrissy Explains It All (finally) -- When you attack the SDS and specifically Bernardine Dohrn as a supposedly objective writer, it's probably not a good idea to reveal your personal malice mere issues later. This contains the illustration that Elaine, Rebecca and Mike came up with. Full credit to the three of them.

Still sad after all these months -- S-s-s-ad Sirota. And that says it all.

Mailbag -- Kylie e-mailed, "You and Dona really talked for a change." Yes, we did. We intend to stop that immediately! Actually, it had to do with an old feature and we were giving our viewpoint. As Ty rightly noted after, it was a good idea to give it from the other end as well (in terms of what it was like for individuals trying to piece together a report) and Cedric did a great job with that.

And from the world of music . . . -- Bono. You know we have an illustration that Kat did that is dead on perfect. We always say we should use it. (Kat calls it a "squiggle." It's really good.) She did it in like 10 minutes one edition when we were doing something on Bono and said it shouldn't be an illustration. But she's since agreed. Thing is, we only come across it when we're not working on the edition. (It's in a file folder somewhere.) Next time we're going to use it. (Or have a really good excuse for not doing so!)

Dennis Kucinich addresses Iraq's oil -- Kucinich took to the House floor to cover the realities of Iraq and oil. A lot of people missed it because so few covered it. Trina's for Kucinich. She asked for that and we were happy to offer it.

Highlights -- Mike, Betty, Wally, Cedric, Rebecca and Elaine wrote this. We thank them for it.

Until next weekend . . .

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