Baby shoes

Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work.

This, of course, got me thinking about twitter. Is it the art of telling short short stories (measured in characters, 140, still more than Hemingway got). Someone related to me called twitter dumb because it was akin to updating your Facebook status. Hmmmm.... it feels different somehow. Maybe it's because all you get are those short bursts of prose, maybe a link, and no accompanying photos, vids, stats, quizzes and all that other flotsam, jetsam, and bullshit that comes with FB. Just the words ma'am. I like that.

Now someone I am married to said that twitter was stupid - and didn't feel the need to compare it to anything. Just that it was stupid. Really stupid.

She might have a point.

Still, as you might have guessed by now, I do have a twitter account. Strangely enough, I run into people who read the damn thing. This culminated in one of my tweets being mentioned in the newsletter for the Winnipeg Folk Fest. They collected the best (or was it the only?) tweets regarding the Fest. Mine was amidst performers like Stephen Page and members of Hey Rosetta. I wrote, sorry, tweeted:

"First shift at Winnipeg Folk Fest - check. Two to go... then party on. But I do kind of like the volunteering."

Okay, so it doesn't compete with Hemingway. Or even come close to a great one from Margaret Atwood.

"Longed for him. Got him. Shit."

Wired magazine pubbed a bunch of these back in 2006.

Or if you want to read my masterpieces you can follow me on twitter.

cterlson