Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Tweet Mystery of Life

Ah, sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you.

— Young Frankenstein


Time wasters of the world, unite!

Inspired (or perhaps goaded) by Alltop: Economics, which has begun to run Twitter feeds of some of its most popular economic bloggers and mainstream media sites, I have decided to take the plunge and join the Twitter tsunami.

I fully expect this experiment to end badly.

I mean, after all, why does anyone who is not already on Twitter need twitter pointers to articles and blog posts (WSJ Econ, The Economist, Paul Krugman) which already show up in the RSS feeds of people who care and on multiple aggregator sites like Alltop anyway? And, frankly, I know Nouriel Roubini is an important and successful guy and all, but do we really need a blow-by-blow account of his blind taste test of Bolivian and Colombian cocaine this week? Sure, some people might be interested, but they can follow him on twitter.com or facebook directly. Spare me. Please.

Quibble though I may, however, I realize the train of cultural relevance is pulling out of the station. Now is no time to be an old fuddy duddy. I'm hip. I'm with it. I'm down with the 411.

So, as a special treat, for those of you who cannot bear to be without my searing wisdom and blistering insight into all things economic and cultural, I have set up my very own Twitter feed. It will be amusing to witness whether a medium which values concision, brevity, simultaneity, and wit will be one in which your Dedicated Bloviator can thrive. I have my doubts.

You should certainly expect far less insightful and thoughtful analysis and far more snarky, smartass comment-sniping than you normally receive in these pages. (No comments, please.) It is difficult to wrap current events and trends up neatly with a bow when you are limited to 140 characters. I realize we live in a soundbite era, but really.

In any event, given past experience, I would not expect frequent updates from me, if I were you.

Then again—shit—if John McCain can figure this out, so can I.

© 2009 The Epicurean Dealmaker. All rights reserved.