Coming up at Third

BC Professors Protest Honoring Condoleeza Rice
In Massachusetts, nearly 100 Boston College professors have added their names to a letter protesting their university's decision to award Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice an honorary degree. Rice has been announced as a commencement speaker for graduation ceremonies later this month. The letters' authors, including theology department chair Rev. Kenneth Himes, wrote: "On the levels of both moral principle and practical moral judgment, Secretary Rice's approach to international affairs is in fundamental conflict with Boston College's commitment to the values of the Catholic and Jesuit traditions and is inconsistent with the humanistic values that inspire the university's work."

Above is a headline from Democracy Now! today. Mike asked me to note it.

I went to the e-mails today (that's news, trust me) and read the first five. Everyone was asking about Sunday's edition of The Third Estate Sunday Review. I called up Dona and asked her if she knew why? She said I'd dealt with some things, clarified them, here and maybe people are expecting that I could on this as well?

As I know it, this is what's planned. There will be a feature that's the lyrics of a musical. This was going to be the entire edition but Jim got nervous about how well that could be pulled off.
(Ava and C.I. were willing to attempt their TV commentary in lyric manner.) So it's now going to be a feature and a long one. That was actually at risk but Jess and C.I. came up with a diagram and that calmed Jim. (I'm writing this with everyone's permission, by the way.) Jim truly was afraid that it might be difficult to pull it off. Jess and C.I. came up with a diagram that demonstrated how it would move.

Does that mean it will work? Not necessarily. But forget the "you can't tell until you try" -- the important thing is stepping outside of the usual. It does free you up. You learn something from it. This is without any feedback. Just doing it, teaches you to think a little differently or try a new approach. So success or failure, it will be worth it.

I've heard two lyrics and seen the outline and I think it will work. These will not be full songs. Jim's limited it so don't expect full lyrics and don't worry that you won't be able to follow. That's why Jess and C.I. nailed down a diagram that shows how the thing will flow.

What else? There will be a book feature. Some were really hoping to do that in lyric form. It would have been something to try and probably shaked things up a bit. But now that the musical is one feature only, we'll probably do it in the traditional manner (discussion). Ava and C.I. will be doing a TV commentary, there will be an editorial, a radio program highlight and probably some quick items.

Everyone, including Jim, is excited about the musical feature now. (The diagram helped silence worries.) But that's not what the e-mails were about.

The e-mails were about the topic that the community's interested in. (You know the one.) Near the end of last Sunday's work (we were all in NYC together), C.I. tossed out something. For those who don't want to board the Force Wagon, there's no option, that's what we're told by the Force Wagon crew. C.I. went historical. What did we think of that? We hadn't thought of it. It had never popped into anyone's head. We were finishing the editorial and Jim felt we should either do a write up of it right then or C.I. should write something up at The Common Ills. C.I. said it would be better as a group feature and we should hold it for next week which Dona agreed with saying that it would be so nice to know that they had a firm topic for one feature before Saturday rolled around.

All week, the concerns been that the Times would suggest it or someone else. C.I.'s had no qualms about not posting in the evening this week because it's hard (this is from C.I.) to do an entry and not be drawn to the topic. So you should look for that. And I should put in "planned" because between computer problems and other things, you never know what's going to happen during an edition -- we're always on our toes.

Dona thinks we could be able to finish our edition very quickly since we've got so much planned already. There's been that belief before and computer problems and other things have ended making it last longer.

Ty's on vacation so everyone (even me) has been helping with the e-mails to The Third Estate Sunday Review. (Ty's on vacation from the e-mails -- he usually gets stuck with reading the bulk of them.) Jim asked me if I noted the positive feedback on the TV review. I had read e-mails on that as well. Ava and C.I. blow off their reviews and act like they're nothing special but readers love them. (I love them too.) Last Sunday they did "TV review: Without a Point" which was about Without a Trace. It's a must read if you missed it.

Please make a point to read Rebecca's report on how Goldie and her mother Marlene's house party went last weekend. That's it for me, the advance man for The Third Estate Sunday Review. (I was joking.) I promised to read over Three Cool Old Guys column for tomorrow's gina & krista round-robin so I'm headed out to do that now.