Charlie e-mails to note that Betty had a new entry up at her blog, Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man entitled "The Great Thomas Friedman Cracks Another One:"
Like a ripped pillow, stuff and stuffing seep out of my husband Thomas Friedman's head. It ain't always pretty.
Thomas Friedman hates it when I say "ain't." While he finds it amusing to use it from time to time for"street cred," he really hates it when I use it.
Just the other day, I was dusting the end tables and singing softly to myself. "If you need me. . . call me . . . ain't no mountain high enough to keep me from you."
"Betinna!" Thomas Friedman hollered, his voice climbing ever higher on each syllable.
He's been drinking a lot of Mountain Dew since his book tour so, assuming he was blocked again and needed his prune juice, I headed for the kitchen. He started right after me insisting that I not use "that word."
What word?
"Wouldn't it be better to sing 'Isn't no mountain high enough?' I think it would be. I think the best way of conveying a message is to use proper grammar."
"Thomas Friedman," I said, slamming down the bag of prunes, "the song is titled 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough.' If it was good enough for Diana Ross, it is good enough for me."
"But it does not sound pretty, Betinna," Thomas Friedman said gingerly lifting and examining the bag of prunes.
Carl gives up a heads up to A Winding Road, Folding Star is noting MoveOn.org's latest activism call:
I also want to note the following, which I received in an email (as many of you may have) from Moveon.org. The expected showdown on the Filibuster seems to be heading our way next week and Moveon has created a petition to protect it that we should all take the time to sign. Signing the petition is important, but I'd like to also remind you that emails and especially calls to a Senator's offices carry a lot of weight as well.
Make sure you're being heard on this issue now. Here's an excerpt from the Moveon email, with a link to the petition:
On Tuesday May 24th, the Senate will vote on a motion to end debate on judicial nominations, and when that motion fails Senator Bill Frist will launch the "nuclear option" an unprecedented parliamentary maneuver to break the rules of the Senate and seize absolute control over lifetime appointments to the highest courts in the land. The vote is going to be incredibly close, and there are as many as 6 votes still up in the air more than enough to win. We must act now.
We've launched an emergency petition and, starting Monday, we'll deliver your signatures and comments to the Senate floor every three hours until the vote is complete. As the debate rages on, Senators fighting to preserve our independent courts will read your statements from the floor of congress. And every senator, every 3 hours, will receive thousands of pages from their constituents demanding that they stand up and do the right thing.
We have less than 72 hours to win this vote and save our courts. Please sign today.
Ben notes that Rebecca's thoughts regarding e-mails (discussed in The Third Estate Sunday Review roundtable) were also addressed at her site Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude:
a female blogger e-mailed me this week about a nasty e-mail she received. she was told that she wasn't a feminist. not because of the issues she wrote about or her opinions but because a woman wrote her about questions regarding college scholarship. the blogger took the time to write back and recommended that the woman visit a few web sites and said good luck.
but the woman felt the reply was 'insufficient' and that it was evidence of a masculine manner of thought because a true feminist would drop everything to assist in the name of 'sisterhood.'
the blogger was feeling so bad and i said 'f**k it.' really that's what i feel. this woman blogs once a day and she doesn't blog about college to begin with. it's as though some 1 e-mailed helen thomas asking for help with selecting a mini-skirt. just because you love thomas' writing (and i do) doesn't mean that she's your be all end all resource.
Lynda e-mails to say how much she enjoyed the "Five Books, Five Minutes" article at The Third Estate Sunday Review. As Lynda notes, it's difficult to pull quote "because it's so brief but I've got two books from the five that I want to read now." Lynda also wonders if Ava and my TV review might go into next week's Third Estate Sunday Review or up here?
The answer to that is no. We write them and intend them to go up then. Once we were informed of the theme, it was obvious that our TV review didn't fit this week's edition. We killed a Living With Fran review earlier when the theme became humorous piece for all articles. When we we did a review on Living With Fran later, we didn't pull out the same review -- we wrote a new one. There is a chance, a very small chance, that we'll be doing two TV reviews next week. We've already watched the two shows last night and Jim checked the e-mails to find that the reaction was more vocal than he expected.
Lynda also wonders if the summer, traditionally repeat city, will mean that there will be no more TV reviews until the fall. There will be TV reviews this summer. There will be some new programming this summer and we'd also like to attempt to grab a few shows that Third Estate Sunday Review readers have requested we review.
The e-mail address is common_ills@yahoo.com.
