I've written a letter to the RWA board about the debacle Betsy described, but I haven't hit send yet. I'm writing from anger, and PMS-driven anger, at that. So, am I saying anything I'll come to regret here?

I was unable to attend the conference in Reno last week, but I have since read detailed descriptions of the RITA/GH awards ceremony. As a result, I am now glad that finances and the demands of mothering a toddler kept me home toiling away on my work-in-progress.

I won't detail all my objections to the content of the ceremony, since I know very well mine isn't the only message you're receiving on this topic. Suffice it to say that I consider playing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" over footage of Tiananmen Square to be in appallingly poor taste, showing a lack of respect for the courage and dignity of the protesters. Also, I understand that many laudatory images of Reagan and the Bushes were displayed, but that the only Clinton footage referenced the Lewinsky scandal. Since when is RWA an arm of the GOP? Where was the footage or Iran-Contra, Enron, and Halliburton? Did Karl Rove and Ken Starr join the Board while I wasn't looking?

I’m an unpublished writer in my second year of RWA membership. I joined, as I expect most people in my position do, in hopes of learning useful craft tips and industry know-how and developing contacts to help me get published and stay that way. What I didn’t sign up for was to see the cultural battles I’m all too familiar with from the 2000 and ‘04 elections re-enacted in miniature. So I’m thoroughly disgusted with the Graphical Standards issue, the survey in the July RWR that seemed designed to exclude gay and lesbian stories from the genre, and now this controversy. If it weren't for the wonderful support and advice I receive from the Beau Monde and Greater Seattle chapters, I would be revoking my membership now.

In the future, please use the awards ceremonies to celebrate romance and its authors, not to push a partisan political agenda.

Susan, that sounds like a polite and reasonable response to objectionable behavior to me. I see nothing inflammatory, though of course the people responsible for the debacle will probably take any criticism personally.

What is Stella and why are beloved SportsNight characters showing up on it?

Random sketch show on Comedy Central-- it was being promoted incessantly in June.

Thanks, Matt. I'll go ahead and send. The funny thing is that if the buzz I'm hearing is true, even the Board didn't know what the content of the ceremony would be beforehand, and that many of them are just as appalled as the rest of us. I'm sending it to the reps from my region (basically all the West except CA), with permission to forward to the whole Board. I don't know them or their views, though they both live in conservative cities (Colorado Springs and SLC).

What sort of cherries are the cherries that sara enjoys so much? I have Rainier cherries, and I think they don't suck as much as the Bing ones. I might even be enjoying these.

I fought today, even though I had intended resting my cricky cracky back. I'm such a sucker for peer pressure. Fighting is fun.

I think they are Rainiers, ita.

These I like. I give them a thumbs up.

Rainiers are yummy. I got some tonight, too, cause I realized the season is probably over soon.

Oh, usage experts?

I should highlight the name of a ship on an ex-Navy guy's resume, right? And is the format H.M.S. Surprise or H.M.S. Surprise?

I love Rainers. Now I want cherries.