Yes, they should be. Phsstpok does ping them, so we all know.
Josh, we'll pray for you; a good and successful surgery!
thank you both for your kind words about the thread. I appreciate all those who participate, particularly the Sunday regulars, but my main purpose is to get the stage set for the Sunday thread, not get a lot of discussion about the issues. The things I hope to see posted here the most are other links or background info about the people who will be on the shows. That's why I have always put the (not the live thread) into the heading. I want to save the debates for tomorrow.
The Sunday thread gives me an important insight into how our community, and much of the world, is viewing the current news events, and being prepared for it has become important to me. I found myself doing this kind of research for myself, anyway, so putting up the thread gave me a way to organize my thoughts. Also, by making my research into a regular thread forced me to do it each week, something a procrastinator like I am would always put off. Even if I'm relatively late, like this week, I feel really good about people looking forward to seeing this stuff, so that drives me to do what I want to do but might put off.
The move to the (probably way overdone) analysis has been pure fun for me. I enjoy passing out my "wisdom" this way and would love nothing better than to know that a few people find it either funny or informative, and especially love it when someone thinks it's both. In my ideal world I'd take over for Novak when he finally hangs it up and would skewer the powerful in Washington from my lofty perch. I think I'm much better off putting my amateur offerings in front of my friends here. I make far too many off hand statements based on "what I heard" that I can't fully document for writing professionally to be a good idea. Of course, I could do as the professionals do and attribute anything vague like that to an anonymous source.
Dave, I particularly appreciate your prayers and the wishes of all the others who have dropped me notes. My big regret from the Boston trip is that I spent my time with my co-workers and didn't spend more time exploring Boston with you. What time we did have together I really enjoyed.
See you guys tomorrow.