A note to our readers

Hey --

One long and crazy Sunday.



As usual our delay is Flickr. We thank everyone who participated in the writing of this edition which is 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),

Trina of Trina's Kitchen,

Ruth of Ruth's Report,

Wally of The Daily Jot,

Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,

Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,

Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends

and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.



We've got a variety of articles this week and we're holding the book and comic book pieces. Both need more work. Isaiah helped with the comic book piece and he helped with one piece that actually made the edition.



So what do we got?

Truest statement of the week -- It's the reporters who cover areas and regions that the enlisted come from who tend to get the realities correct. More and more, so many of the 'coastal' papers have just drifted off from reality.

Truest statement of the week II -- See above. And good for this newspaper for grasping that the Iraq War continues and that we need to be calling for it to be ended.

Editorial: The results hold a lesson -- Isaiah worked on this as did Trina. I (Jim) and glad Isaiah worked on this. Otherwise we'd have used him and had nothing to show for it (translation, I would have wasted his time). (The comic book feature will run next weekend.) This is our photo essay. It started out as an article and was stronger that way in many ways. We were at a loss for an editorial (and very tired) so we reworked this into an editorial. It works in a different way as such.

TV: Drinking in a time of cholera -- I'm sorry but I love the title I gave Ava and C.I.'s piece. They do write about drinking (early on and in the final paragraph) and I'm always making jokes about the book Love In A Time Of Cholera so I just love my title. As wonderful as I think it is, Ava and C.I.'s article is only more so. This is covering a wide scope and the sort of thing that some of the new readers not only love but expect. New readers, a tip, never expect from Ava and C.I. They hate expectations and if they feel they're being asked to sing the same song, they'll instead break out another one. They will deliberately go the opposite direction just because of expectations. So enjoy this one and grasp it may be awhile before you get anything similar.

KBR burn pits kill and wound US service members -- The reporting for this article was done by Ava, C.I., Kat and Wally. They attended the hearing and C.I. took extensive notes (as usual). The rest of us helped with writing the article after the four of them finished the first draft.

How ABC pissed off everyone (Ava and C.I.) -- We were feeling the edition wasn't strong enough. Ironic because we postponed one feature that was on Iraq and, if we hadn't postponed it for next week, we'd be heavy, heavy with Iraq. Dona and I asked Ava and C.I. if they could do another feature this week. They said they didn't have it in them to do another review. Well, we wondered, any juicy gossip. No. In fact, everyone at every network was too busy griping about ABC (except ABC which they said was just lost) to offer any good gossip. What's up there? Okay, Ava and C.I. said, we've got an article. And indeed they did.


Iraq -- The Iraq feature. This went on longer than they usually do and, even so, C.I. stresses there are a multitude of things left out and not mentioned.


For those about to download . . . -- This was a reader suggested article. We're happy to do it. Those who wanted to download now have no excuses.


The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle -- David Solnit and his sister Rebecca Solnit have written a book that is released this month.


Highlights -- Mike, Elaine, Rebecca, Betty, Ruth, Marcia, Ann, Cedric and Wally wrote this and selected highlights unless otherwise noted. We thank them.

And that's what we ended up with. We'll see you next week and articles should include one on comic books and one on books. We'll be covering current events as well. For Melrose Place freaks waiting for Ava and C.I. to tackle that, they're waiting for Heather Locklear's return. Ty asked that I note that since so many e-mails are coming in on that.



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