The crux of the dispute is how much writers should earn when their work is re-purposed on the Internet. Studios–contending that new media is too new to develop any realistic business model for it–say that such Internet use is for "promotional" purposes, limiting the pay to $250 for a year of re-use, and $1,200 for scripts original to the Internet. Writers are currently paid more than $18,000 for the first network television rerun of a single episode, and a minimum of $30,823 for a one-hour script.
As a counter-proposal, writers (with the slogan "If they make money, we make money") have proposed a simple payment of 2.5% of revenue from all new-media distribution, which seemed utterly reasonable in the eyes of the industry and the public. Yet such a cut of the "distributors’ gross" was firmly rejected by the studios. Writers are wary of "producers’ gross," as it is dependent on Hollywood’s notorious bookkeeping. No wonder early polls showed as much as 15-to-1 support in favor of the writers (Pepperdine University study, November 2007)….
…While the debate does affect how to divide pieces of the digital media pie (for which writers, after all, create the recipes), the work stoppage is really about the writers’ desire to be treated as partners in a creative endeavor, a concept that studios have moved further and further away from. Residuals reward creators, just as stock options reward employees, or royalties reward patent-holders. It’s funny that with all the MBAs running the show, studios fail to understand that simple principle of commerce.
He goes on to talk about the recent independent deal struck between Media Rights Capital (MRC) and the WGA which laid out a payment schedule for internet work that is forward-thinking and fair. New paradigm equals negotiated deal for all sides — the AMPTP could learn something here.
Moguls, take Robert Elisberg’s advice and think with your bottom line and not your egos. As Callie Khouri discusses in her Voices4Action video, the studios cannot scream "unfair" at writer requests for pennies on the residual end credibly while touting huge potential internet profit margins and cutting deals with Apple for even more new media distribution bucks.
Especially in light of the NBC Universal’s self-reported braggidocio that they could see more than $1 Billion dollars in digital revenue by the end of this year. Given the recent round of contract cancellations under force majeure contract provisions, studio posturing looks awfully hollow:
By eliminating the deals now, the studios will no longer be obligated to pay the writers even if the strike ends in the next month or two. The action saves the media companies tens of millions of dollars in payments, and is the first real sign of belt-tightening caused by the strike.
But hey, it’s just hardball and lunch at the Ivy on the company dime to the AMPTP. Especially factoring in the increased profit on the bottom line in the short run from scuttling these contracts all at once. Too bad the moguls of the AMPTP are stuck in the past, because the Weinstein Brothers and MRC are moving ahead into the future with new movies and shows.
Long-term profits go to the swift, not the stodgy, AMPTP. Better get back to the table…before the WGA, SAG and DGA figure out a way to bypass your old-school dinosaur tactics altogether.
(YouTube of Pet Shop Boys.)
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
I WISH I had $200,000, but I only have $20 million!
Hi Christy.
Good morning Christy!
Hi Christy…
Yet such a cut of the “distributors’ gross” was firmly rejected by the studios. Writers are wary of “producers’ gross,” as it is dependent on Hollywood’s notorious bookkeeping.
How can “gross” be debatable? “Net” I can understand, and would be a completely foolish move on the part of the writers. Economy is a *long* way from my strong suit, but shouldn’t “gross” be pretty much immune from accounting chicanery?
Morning all. I have no idea what the NBC/Universal exec was thinking throwing out that billion dollar earnings potential number in a public forum, but file that under “short-sighted, shoot yourself in your greedy foot idiocy.” It was reported on a blog on Variety — from the annual Consumer Electronics trade show in Vegas. And, given how pro-studios Variety’s reporting has been through all of this, I was really shocked they reported it at all.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Two words for you: Peter Jackson.
It is all about money. Reason and reasonableness has nothing to do with it. If the studios get more than their share, that’s good business as the term is presently defined. The writers are at a disadvantage and may well end up the losers. Too bad the community cannot rouse itself to agree on meaningful ways to support them.
Is “producer’s gross” after payment to stars?
I think that all the MBAs running the show understand this very well. What they can’t figure out is how all these MBA-less writers managed to grasp this.
*g*
All too often, “rewards for me, and not for thee” is the business school mantra. How else do you explain the CEO of Countrywide Mortgage getting $115 million in severance, after running his organization into the ground (and destabilizing the housing market and stock market along the way)?
OT: WALL STREET JOURNAL BREAKING: “Home construction plunged in December, tumbling to its lowest point in 16 years, while a sign of future groundbreakings also dropped sharply”.
The Bush Tax Cuts for the Bush Family and Cronies just keep on working.
Republics could spin this by saying that the striking writers are refusing to work to buy houses.
Oh, they understand this paradigm. Their problem is, IMHO, that they think of the revenue as a pie, to be divided up, ignoring the idea that the pie is not a fixed shape, that it grows or shrinks is mainly in the control of the creators and not the distributors, themselves. If the shape of the pie is changeable, their ability to ‘manage” becomes harder. They want easier.
Bush has an MBA. That alone devalues the degree.
United Hollywood had some notes earlier in the week on things folks can do to support the writers and the WGA.
$115 million is chump change..IIRC, this guy has sucked ~$2 billion out of Countrywide over the past two years by exercising stock options and selling his stock.
oh. ok. hey, I admitted my ignorance right up front – did ya have to laugh at me? (sulk)
btw, “vertical integration” sounds kind Huckabee-dog-whistlish, doesn’t it?
From Christy’s link @ 7:
There’s Bush’s problem: he should have hired Peter Jackson instead of Halliburton and KBR.
I wasn’t laughing at you. I was laughing at the notion that the “bottom line” in Hollywood isn’t malleable depending on who is fudging the numbers. It is as though every principle of accounting is fungible. Sad, but true…
Yes, and ultimately that’s why New Line settled with Peter Jackson for an undisclosed but very large sum of money.
O.o
The article I linked to puts the number at around $750M over the last ten years.
But $115M is “chump change?” I could manage to deal with a little chump change like that. In fact, if you wanted to throw 1/100th of that chump change at me, I could suck it up and get by for a while. You know, until I got back on my feet.
Bush probably would if the kickbacks for the Bush family exceeded those from Halliburton and KBR. All that learnin’ for the MBA really pays off.
What gets me is how short-sighted and petulant the studios seem to be, based on all of the reports in financial media that I’ve been trying to keep up with the last couple of weeks. The Taylor article is in Forbes, not exactly a union-friendly publication. And it makes the AMPTP look like a bunch of snivelling, greedy morons who don’t understand basic contract negotiations in the age of the internet and cooperative enterprise. Just bizarre…
I think the studios are not short sighted. I think they believe that they can break the union & benefit in the long run.
You can have the best director, actors, editors, photographers in the world on a film, and if the script is bad, it’ll be a shitty movie, and likely not sell well. Conversely, mediocre directing, acting, editing, etc can look good if the script is good and is more likely to sell. This disrespect for writers is unbelievable since it could very well be the most important part of the process.
OT: In case it hasn’t been mentioned here yet…
Sen Leahy endores Obama. Barack sure has been racking ‘em up recently. Will all these endorsements be enough to overcome the Clinton name recognition?
http://tpmelectioncentral.com/…..ennedy.php
CEO’s run companies into the ground (Citi, Merril, Countrywide…)leave with millions in severance; market values of the corporations plummit; hedge funds and sovereign controlled investment funds from China, Middle East buy eqiuity positions on the cheap; massive layoffs; government bailouts; repeat…
This is the Republican Party, US Chamber/Commerce/WSJ Bush family version of “free enterprise.” What BULLSHIT. This should be the mantra of the Democratic party/nomonee. It’s class warfare and we are losing.
They were thinking about their own stock prices. “No, this strike isn’t going to hurt us much. Don’t sell our stock. Don’t downgrade your assessment of our company. Don’t drive the price down. We’re going to be just fine. In fact, let me tell you just how fine we’re going to be . . .”
Except they forgot that when the talk like that so that stock market analysts can hear them, lots of other folks can hear them too. Like writers. And when writers hear something like that, they tend to . . . what’s the word? . . . WRITE about it.
They’re running out of feet to shoot at NBC/Universal.
I actually knew a guy when I lived in L.A. who was an “industry” accountant. “Sort-sighted and petulant” works as a pretty dead-on description. Based on that acquaintance alone, I guess I should have known that even “gross”, in L.A., wouldn’t mean the same thing as it does everywhere that is *not* L.A.
The most important part of that settlement being that Jackson will executive produce “The Hobbit”. Bilbo lives!
CEO’s run companies into the ground…(and) leave with millions in severance;
hmmm, there’s a job I’m eminently qualified for…
Yeah, I know. Cannot wait…if it is up to the same standard that the Ring triology was, it will be amazing. I love all those books. To see them really come to life on screen is wonderful.
Is everyone else having crappy weather today? We started the morning with a bunch of wet snow, and have moved on to sleety rain now.
Quite the day for staying inside, I have to say.
Right on. I’ve started a business from scratch with no financial backing or family connections…nothing but 100% on my own. It’s still really small, and I’m continually amazed at how much the deck is stacked against people like me. Repukes have absolutely no concern in fostering entrepreneurship.
I’d like to change what “pro-business” means in the general public discourse. It’s usually used to describe a Repuke, when it should be the exact opposite.
Christy, in the United Hollywood story about the $1B, they quote “NBC Universal’s president of Integrated Media Beth Comstock” as the person who dropped the big number out there.
Comstock? Comstock? Any relation to Babs?
Looks like we’re (in DC) getting your weather now. Think I’ll head home soon, pick up the kids and watch “The Two Towers” this afternoon. It’s a popcorn and hot chocolate kind of day!
Now that sounds like a lovely idea!
OT..The Huckster again..The New Man on Dog??
TPM
Is everyone else having crapy weather today?
Well, if you’re a fan of cold, wet and gray – we’ve been having *lovely* weather since about mid-December…
OT here is a letter I sent to Senator Obama re FISA:
It looks as if the ignominious Harry Reid is going to bring the Bush backed version of the FISA bill with its basket warrants and immunity for lawbreaking telecoms to the Senate floor for consideration.
Here is a chance for you to exercise some of that leadership you are always talking about. If you and Hillary Clinton (This about something that is bigger than the two of you) stand with Chrisotpher Dodd to filibuster, this most recent sellout of Harry Reid to the Administration can be beaten and I will see that maybe you really do have what it takes to be President. If on the other hand all you do is give a speech against the Intel version of FISA and vote against what you know will pass, then I will know that you don’t.
Hi Christy.
Badly EPU’d downstairs. Great sounding topic here. Can’t wait to catch up reading.
Our weather in n.e. OH isn’t bad at all, yet. But the last few days have been a weird, shifting mix all over the state.
Staying in would be nice, but… reality intrudes.
logic is a dangerous weapon in the hands of a fundie!
Yeah, and it takes some of those guys two or three years to put the company down the tubes. I know I could do it in one.
Hi everyone. The sad irony is that this is about the web, and potential for profit for either studio heads (investors) or writers. How will this profit bear out? I believe it is predicated on the end of net neutrality, and the charging of readers/viewers each time they make a hit. This, in addition to the issue of potential control of political content on the web, is why I am so opposed to net neutrality. And from the vantage of education it will further differentiate the haves and have nots, both in the U.S. and with respect to the poorer countries of the world.
Of all the things to worry about fixing in 2008, the definition of marriage seems not to be one of them. Is the reason that the economy is so bad right now is that the definition of marriage is wrong? The Huckster is scary.
Just caught your last comment downstairs. I was also trained as a scientist (chem major undergrad). I think of it this way. Nothing is ever proved. Just a set of hypotheses waiting to de disproved.
I’m not optimistic, because of this sort of attitude (from today’s Hollywood Reporter):
Meanwhile, studio negotiators must grapple with their own knotty dilemma in deciding when, and how, to resume negotiations with the WGA. As one management-side source put it, “The tough question is how do you reward the DGA for good behavior and not the WGA for bad behavior?”
It’s not enough for them to negotiate with us? Now they’re parenting too?
goodgawd! the guys totally pandering. and i suppose the faithfull are expected to lap up every luscious crumb of whizdumb?! I hope NOT.
There’s already fissure in the ranks. From the NYTimes on January 11:
LOS ANGELES — When Hollywood’s studios walked away from the bargaining table last month, striking screenwriters came out swinging. They filed a legal complaint, boycotted an awards show and picketed late-night television programs.
But the militant tactics may be creating fissures within the guild.
In particular, some writers wonder whether they are actually doing more harm to themselves than their opponents.
“It’s a classic rope-a-dope, like the Ali-Foreman fight,” said John Ridley, referring to the 1974 boxing match in Zaire during which George Foreman outpunched Muhammad Ali for seven rounds, only to fall, exhausted, in the eighth.
Mr. Ridley, an open critic of the striking writers guilds whose credits include the “Barbershop” and “Third Watch” television series, created ripples here last week when he became the first prominent writer to break publicly with the Writers Guild of America West by declaring “financial core” status. Such standing allows someone to pay union dues and work for employers under its contract without observing its rules as an active member.
Yep! ;->
Not exactly a fissure, when Ridley wasn’t on board from the get go as I understand it.
Somebody needs to encourage the writers and remind them that this stuff is always hard. Every inch of union ground surrendered requires immense effort to reclaim. That’s why losing ground on union accomplishments is so tragic. Stick together, stand strong, and you’ll win; quibble and you’ll fail. As writers, they could probably say that better than me…
From Business Week, circa 2005, on Comstock’s previous post in the GE/NBC/Universal corporate conglomerate:
For the writers, though, the official GE/NBC/Universal position says that there’s apparently no moving forward. No innovation champions allowed when it comes to re-imagining pay structures for the writers.
Maybe the WGA needs to bring in some anthropologists when the negotiations restart.
Of all the things to worry about fixing in 2008, the definition of marriage seems not to be one of them.
Republicans candidates choose their own election issues.
“Being a Republican means never having to say I Hear You”.
Hugh! Fantastic letter!
Ridley is the only writer to go financial core so far. He speaks for no one.
It’s not exactly pandering. It’s a trial baloon. Republics are searching for any issue besides them and their Party to use in the election. The sad part is that the Democrats will probably let them get away with defining the issue.
Heh heh. OH’s Sen. Voinovich, poor fella, knows one of his constituents feels otherwise. *g*
For starters, he could get a long term commitment from Websters that the definition of marriage would contain no reference to numbers greater than two or organisms other than the human species.
Oh oh oh! Can I pop it puleeze!?!
Or would that be sacrilegious?
I hear the studios will be ordering livery soon.
it’s really bizzare the industry wants to take the position “we don’t know what we’re making so we don’t want to pay them until we do know”
the writers are producing a product that they still own, it’s intelectual property, the industry leases the product, they will price according to their expenses and the profit they can acrue and that is that
they just want to steal from the developers of a product the industry does not own
the writers need to frame the debate like that;
“they want to steal from us, this is our property not theirs and through our agreements we are co partners…they don’t want us to have profit from our property they want to steal it”
or something less verbose but that’s the idea
Oooo…man, that’s good. We would all be wise to send similar letters.
oh dear oh dear.
and that bumper sticker would say…. [?]
I noticed that on Monday 5 major studios cancelled deals with 65 writers, deciding that the TV season for those shows was over.
It could bleed into next season; but what is worrisom for the writers is that it could become a snowball.
CBS, 20th Century Fox, NBC Universal, and Warner Bros. Television, ABC were the companies.
I don’t know, maybe one of the international symbols. A circle containing the silhouette of a man, a woman, and a camel, with a diagonal line across them.
OT
CHS, you have mail.
I like mail
I got your email. Interesting indeed…*g*
Well, give me your email & I’ll forward it to you. It’s not a secret. *g*
my name at sprintpcs.com
You’re right about Ridley. OK, how about this one:
Just playing devil’s advocate. Of course I support the writers. But it’s been an interesting confrontation in which it appears that AMPTP holds the cards.
(Same link as my 47.)
This writers strike has been very successful in weaning me from commercial television. If it goes on much longer, it may have that effect on many others and that impact could well be permanent. As for movies? I prefer the ones from the 30s and 40s anyway.
OfT – all right, then. One case settled so far today – now if I can blow up one more before 5:00, I’m a happy guy.
Christy,
In your link on Peter Jackson’s suit, I found this paragraph to be quite entertaining:
This would be the same “net profit” deals that had James Garner suing the TV studios because the execs had so larded up the production costs that there was no way anyone could ever be paid a profit IIRC. Bottomline, the studios bring all these types of bad things totally on themselves as they (like many corporate honchos) are systemically incapable of straight dealing and honesty. As always, there are rare exceptions.
You have mail.
I am a little disturbed by reports of layoffs. This is the firt source Ifound googling.
Any thoughts?
I have a Q about “larding up” production costs. I’ve seen a handful of movie sets, mostly in NYC. They seem to consist of scores of people standing around doing nothing for hours, interrupted by seconds of real work. Is there some reason why these productions are so inefficient to the naked eye?
Anyone on any so-called economic stimulus package? I can’t say I’m not worried.
Waaaay OT. I was just over at Amazon looking for a movie. Saw “Rendition” and read the Editorial review:
What say, all of you? Notice, Bush’s name is not even mentioned.
I don’t get it. Why temp? And why the middle class? Why not target it at the working class?
The economic stimulus package is just so much political kabuki. Bush and the Congress are pissing into the wind. If they had been serious about any of this, they would have tightened mortgage lending practices back in 2004. This is all about acting like they are doing something now without any real expectation that it will have much of an effect.
Who was this written by?
Uh this makes me nervous. Especially with Chuck Mukasey Schumer calling for reform. Of course, I am unreasonably suspicious at times.
Tempory to be focussed on countercyclical & to avoid charges of Ds ballooning longer term deficit prospects (though I learned from Bernanke testimony that pay-go applies over a 5-year period); middle class because they’re so much larger than working class & therefore can provide mor oomph (that’s a technical word *g*) to the economy.
Good discussion on economy in prior thread. Didn’t notice whether you were there or not.
Because most people think they are middle class, even if they aren’t. Tula had an interesting post about people’s self-classification.
Oh ’scuse me. I read on and remind myself Chimp is far scarier than Schumer.
Goody, goody./Snark.
Back to the WGA sorry. It must be the anxiety.
Amazon dot com
Didn’t see that.
I would think so too. I mean I would think the working class is much larger than the middle class. Middle class sounds sort of pushing it for some and worn around the edges.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters…..ref=slogin
The headline says it all about how low we have sunk.
Think Schumer’s right on economic stimulus, and for once the D framing (3Ts: timely, targeted, temporary) might be catchy enough.
thanx!
going on a cruise with friends and will read later when I hook up to their satalit
have good times firedogs
Enjoy your cruise!
Wha, wha, what!? Did you fall when you were skiing?
I really don’t know the answer; I just recall Garner suing (I believe Warners) as he was supposed to get net profit participation on The Rockford Files and the way they had done the bookkeeping, it was supposedly losing money even after being one of the top rated shows for years and in syndication.
Okay let’s here your side of it. I skimmed the last thread.
Hey, only Rs are allowed to selectively edit. What I actually wrote was
Five minutes in the time-out corner for you.
A friendly reminder that you need to get out and enjoy this glorious day!
Alternately, here’s my theory…
Dead & Dismal Economist Joe Schumpeter, a favorite of the AEI crowd, declared that capitalism is the process of “creative destruction”. It is therefore a little disappointing to learn tha George Bush used the Cliff Notes version of Schumpeter for his Harvard MBA. Somehow, he’s got the destruction part down pat, but the “creative”… not so much.
Greg Palast has more on the Judas kiss that Bush planted on the King of all Arabie this week. Welcome to the brave new world of debt slavery.
lol! CHS might have to pull the blog over if you two keep this up! *g
This is why the writers want their cut off the gross because studios can make even the most profitable shows appear like turkeys on the books. I think there is a similar situation in pro sports where very wealthy owners always plead extreme poverty when it comes to negotiations with players.
I was just busting on eCahn, because I have never heard her say anything even remotely good about Schumer. I don’t even know what she’s referring to.
Alternatively, PhysioProf & I could settle it with a ski-off.
Wow. Who ever said accounting was boring?
hey, as long as Bushie gets to wear his fur-lined robe, what’s to complain about?
I don’t know how to ski. How about thumb-wrestling?
I got a lot of practice with my niece and nephew over the holidays.
I googled and lurked and found a possibly wingnutty site. Didn’t stay long enough to determine, but it said: Schumer has no right to demand anything from the preznit, because he has failed to get things passed in past three years (or something like that, paraphrase.)
It’s the economy, silly.
Pinch me.
Yeah. I think there’s a minor problem about timing differences. Schumpeter thought creation came first, which then made the old industries obsolete, or destroyed them. W & the Rs think destruction comes first.
I figured you didn’t ski, which was exactly why I suggested a ski-off. But if you reject that, and I reject thumb-wrestling, how about a drinking contest?
It’d be nice to have a discussion of the economy in laypersons terms (minus the wacky statements from Chimp and Boehner.)
Jane could speak to this ? much better than I, as she has been involved in the production end of filming, but I’ll take a stab @ it since I’m sitting here waiting for an airport shuttle. Every time I’ve been around a location shoot visiting friends or on a studio lot or soundstage, it looks the same to me as you’ve described.
And if you went backstage on Broadway or in London or @ any playhouse anywhere really, you’d see the same thing- people “standing around.” Jobs are very specific in both the film & theater business & not everyone is doing that job when you are watching. Not everyone standing there works on the set, but peripheral to the actual set. Look @ any “crawl” of depts. & sub-depts. after a film or tv show & you’ll see it- jobs that have nothing to do with actual filming of scenes but are necessary to make those scenes possible to film.
Folks working those jobs many times describe the actual nuts ‘n bolts of filming a show/movie as “hurry up & wait, hurry up & wait.”
Why not just a good old spelling bee. followed by a pie throwing contest or something.
OT Froomkin Up “Contempt for the law”
Okay when have tax rebates really, really helped the working class?
I think we can count on King George being ermined vermin the rest of his daze.
My cynical outsider’s view of why movie production (& TV, & perhaps some theater) is so inefficient is “Because they can.” In other words, the industry is so profitable it doesn’t have to worry about being efficient. But I don’t know anything about it, so I await education.
You’re on! It’ll be like Raiders of the Lost Ark, except with a different outcome.
Now we’re getting close to the edge of civility. A spelling bea in the daze of speel check? And pie throwing, when my hair is longer than his and my arms are shorter. Neither seems fair. *g*
Nobody wants to go against me in a spelling bee. Trust me on this.
America is being led by the west end of a horse heading east.
Reminds me of the temps that corps use. Stand around, wait, don’t get paid much, be on call, that sort of thing. No health insurance. Actually I heard Yale U does that with kitchen workers.
Bragging presents a direct challenge.
Fixed it for you.
I think it’s more like why when people are in Las Vegas, they don’t even think about money as real after a while, and spend outlandish sums on dumb worthless shit, like three-foot tall Remington bronzes of majestic horses.
Is there a way to have a fair spelling bee on the Internet?
Er, They were apparently doing film in New Haven for the Indian Jones movie (at Yale of course, god forbid they should film our “ghettoes.) locals like me got unreasonably teed when those chose Mystic(puke) over New Haven, the original site of Amistad. Steven Spielberg that is. Never liked him after that.
Be careful. I’ve seldom noticed any typos in PhysioProf’s comments.
Hmm. Maybe you could meet up with some of us in NYC for a drinking/spelling/thumb-wrestling triathlon?
Or we could combine a spelling bee & a drinking contest at the next meet-up. Have to take a drink on every misspelled work.
JINX!
Hey eCAHN, poor Ray’s a professional writer. Ain’t that the real truth?
He sed whut he set out to, in perfect style.
Boyohboy, u sci-econs just go ta meddlin’ & cain’t quit. *g*
Have to have a timer, so there will be no googling no Microsoft.
Or something like that. Gotta be a way to handicapp. Typing with one arm maybe?
Once again, I think Jane could probably speak to how tightly each of those depts. I mentioned is usually budgeted. My understanding is that very tightly is the norm.
My understanding of it also (and we’re not talking about the “above the line people” like director, actors, a well known DP, etc.) is expenditure of every dollar must be explained thoroughly to the Accting Dept. of each production.
Got to go.
You’re in New York? Okay, but I’ll bring my tough girlfriend with me, if you don’t mind.
A challenge is a challenge. Pride always trumps my own stupidity. *puffing*
Tula’s upstairs with unhealthy care.
mui1
Do I pick up that you’re in New Haven? Would you like to consider coming to NYC for the next FDL meetup?
hey. ‘e keeps citing hizzun ohn blog. mebbe cheque over there fir sum type O’s.
Yes. And I could do that with advance notice. You guys always seem to meet up on an impromptu weekday.
Faux! EPU’d agin. I’m comin’ Tula! waaaaayyyy-t!
Re:
How would you propose to have a spelling bee at all? Scrabble I can see, but you’d have to have a website devoted to giving auditory clues to the contestants I suppose, and then you still couldn’t keep the clever elk from consulting an online dictionary.
Speaking of which, here’s a couple of my favorite online reference sources:
One Look Dictionary
Dictionary of Difficult Words
Give me your email & I’ll add you to the list.
Re:
The poverty I’ll cop to. The professional part? Not so much. But I’m open to suggestions on paying gigs for my logomachical jigs.
supermui@lycos.com
Anyone seen Selise lately?
I think I must be missing out on the Ray-teasing on every thread. How did this start anyway?
You’ve got mail.
Though I saw Selise online within the last couple of weeks, but can’t remember exactly when.
Re:
My mother meet my father at the Trianon ballroom…
Version Two: “It was a dark and moanless knight…”
Contributions help (everything on United Hollywood was a solicitation of one form or another). I was thinking of something more personal and committed. Its easy to give money especially if you have it. Our problem, and its general, is most of us think “this too, shall pass” and after it passes we return to what was before. If that’s true, and only time will tell, all we need do is wait.
One thing that folks who live on either coast can regularly do is join in with the WGA folks who are picketing. Jane and Howie have done so several times with the WGA-W, and a number of our readers in the NYC area did so with the WGA-E not too long ago. Anyone who lives in those areas where WGA actions are ongoing can find information about this on their websites. They pretty much always welcome some extra support.
Since we’re @ the very end of a thread (& what I thought earlier was an airport ride turned out to be not one, still waiting for ride to a delayed flight)…may I say that I think I’ll only be reading here from now on, not commenting except perhaps very very occasionally, if at all.
Comments here seem so inbred, so chat-roomish & exclusive lately, I’m not interested much, except in the links people post, which are extremely informative & helpful. Thanks, commenters who include links. Many commenters are using FDL day & night as a personal chat room w/backchat on political opinions thrown in, which I can get many places elsewhere if I really want it.
I’ll just read from now on. FDL is a great place for that, & thanks for that. Thanks for the great headline posts, Jane, Christy, and one & all. You are doing a great job on the front page posts this election year.
MarieRoget, I know I would be sad if you stopped contributing. Who else would thought of the idea of sending Lieberman a Phil Ochs song. (One tailor made for HoJoe.)I think things got so contentious over the Democratic primary, that some of us have called a tacit temporary truce. We are all pretty much progressives after all. Please don’t leave.
I do not believe my marching on a picket line which is 60 miles away or buying pickets hamburgers will influence the producers one bit. I believe if 10,000 people did the same thing, the result would be no different. I agree with eCAHNomics (23) that the producers hope to break the writer’s union. They may succeed. Solidarity is hard to come by. There already are cracks in the dike.
John Edwards is right when he says large corporations are not pushovers. It will be difficult for him to take them on, assuming he is elected president, when both sides of the aisle in Congress have, for the most part, been bought and paid for.
I know attempts to reach consensus and act upon it strikes many as socialistic. Perhaps they are, but Ben Franklin is as right today as he was in his day. The choice is hanging together or separately. Hanging together means finding a way to fight fire with fire.
“there’s a job I’m emineminentenently qualified for…” — Dubya
Thanks for the kind words, mui1.