As we wrote here earlier today, the WGA constitution lays out a few timelines for when the strike could be called off. One permissible timeline would have a ratification vote completed by Wednesday.

In light of that option, many members have contacted U.H. privately or posted comments stating the importance of having time to digest the deal points and make up their minds in a responsible way. Keenly aware that there are pilots, tv shows, movies, jobs and a popular ceremony hanging in the balance, they are not asking for weeks, but rather days. When weighed against the three-year life of this contract (or possibly twenty-year life, if DVDs are any indication) 72 hours seems a very reasonable request.

WGA presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship have stated that no action will be taken until some consensus emerges among the membership. We have faith that they will do that. When they say they will let the membership decide, we take them at their word.

Should it become clear on Saturday night that the memberships in New York and LA need a day or two to digest the deal points, we think they will respect that. Likewise, if it's clear that the majority of members strongly supports the contract, we could be back at work on Monday.

Do with this information what you will: the optimistic might want to hit Party Plus to stock up on plastic champagne flutes for their late Saturday night Let's Get Back To Work! bacchanals, while the more resolutely suspicious could head to CostCo to hoard the canned peaches, enormous bottles of Ketel One and pallets of Ramen noodles that will get them through the six strike-ravaged months that follow the discovery of a secret "the studios reserve the right to demand a full refund of all internet-derived payments should the next The Office webisode fail to draw 500 million hits" clause the studios have quietly inserted into the contract. Should you opt for the party route, please make sure Mr. Eisner receives an invitation; it's the least you can do to repay him for finally bringing this thing to an end.

• Getting Ready for Saturday Night [United Hollywood]

And for those who've held out hope that the Guild might be more amenable to helping out the Academy by allowing scribes to supply their banter-fabricating services to Hollywood's Biggest Night, further disappointment awaits: a rejection for a similar writing waiver is expected, and the WGA has already turned down a clearance request for clips from films and past Oscar shows, a decision that potentially cripples producer Gil Cates' unparalleled ability to bore hundreds of millions of worldwide TV viewers with seemingly endless montages of Golden Moments from show business's less strike-plagued past.

• WGA writes off waivers for Oscars, Golden Globes [THR]
• Writers Guild Decides on Golden Globes and Academy Awards Show Waivers [WGA.org]

During the Satyagraha in South Africa I had altered my style of dress so as to make it more in keeping with that of the indentured labourers....I regarded the scarf and the cloak as too much of an incumbrance, so I shed them and invested in an eight-to-ten-annas Kashmiri cap. One dressed in that fashion was sure to pass muster as a poor man.

She writes in New York magazine:

I glumly resign myself to wearing a Burberry trench and nasty J.Crew Wellingtons with dogs printed on them. I'm about to leave when Delia Ephron, Nora's sister and a fellow writer, calls to wish me luck on the picket line. "I made six new friends," she yelps. "It's the best party in New York right now!" Newly insecure, I immediately change into a brand-new gray merino-wool Martin Margiela turtleneck sweater and chunky high leather boots from Veronique Branquinho. Some warmth is provided by my sharply tailored Alexander McQueen fur-lined suede jacket with enormous hoops of fox fur at each cuff. The look is fashion girl meets snowbunny.

My spirit is undaunted, for a while. Then my soggy sign falls off its pole, and my mood falls, too. My toes are frozen. The fur on my cuffs is starting to stick together, like little points on a meringue pie. Defeated, I take a raincoat when it's offered again. But then a strange thing happens. After wearing the raincoat for just a few minutes, I start to feel cozy and protected. Indeed, I like the mac—and what it represents—so much, I wear it to a late lunch at DB Bistro Moderne. Sure, the coat-check boy looks at me as if I'm a street person. But when I tell him I've come from the picket line, I am offered friendly smiles, hot tea, and an immediate seat.

As the Writers Guild of America strike continues to eke its way toward a very unhappy holidays, Variety has put together a little list of things striking writers can do in their spare time.... no they didn't include playing through BioShock. They did include writing video games though.

While the WGA has made no secret that it would like to eventually cover vidgame writing, it hasn't pushed the issue yet and is allowing members to work on games during the strike.

"It has been an interesting shift," says one tenpercenter who focuses on vidgames. "The literary agents are now saying, 'Why don't we get our clients over there during the strike?' even though in the past they thought the money wasn't good enough or the work is too demanding."

While the article says that the pay isn't that good comparatively, they list the typical fee as $50,000. Man, maybe I should change jobs. The article has a lot of other interesting insights into the process of writing the story for a video game, like how long it takes and how disjointed it can be.

This pen's for hire [Variety]

In any event, McMillan can't be a worse hire than WGA mole George "Scab Writer" Ellis, whom the Guild hopes will be snapped up during a studio's MySpace hunt for cheap, strike-insurance labor, and whose shoddy, non-union workmanship will doom any stockpiled project to instant failure. His video resume follows:

• David McMillan's TV Staffing Video [YouTube]
• Hollywood job wanted; an ad, the YouTube way [LAT]
• Scab Writer [MySpace]