Twat's happening

I am a convert. After much scorning I have embraced Twitter. And I'll tell you why.

1. Nobody on Twitter has even mentioned Farmville, let alone bugged me about helping them with a sack of seed.
2. Ditto, Mafia Wars—whatever the hell that is. Don't know, don't care. Stop it already.

3. I don't have to claim Rachel Maddow or Jon Stewart and I are friends. I just click "follow" and I get previews of their shows, insights into their thinking about public affairs.
4. I can actually position myself to hear what Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Al Frankin, Tom Udall, Sarah Silverman and Bill James have to say. And I can get previews on what Gail Collins, Paul Krugman and Joan Walsh will have in print tomorrow.
5. Nobody on Twitter tells me Happy Birthday; nobody expects me to remember theirs.
6. I can follow somebody without having pictures of their adorable children, grandchildren or the offspring of someone else's friend just randomly showing up on my little piece of internet real estate.
7. On those rare occasions when I actually have something to say—and this, to be honest, is precisely the reason I was most scornful of Twitter — I find that hammering my thoughts down to 140 words or less is a constructive exercise demanding brevity and clarity over eloquence. For me, this is a useful and instructive constraint.