I'm sorry I haven't posted anything for a bit, but I've been working away at a batch of projects and, God help me, I now have a Twitter account – @PaulRudnickNY. I'm pretty sure I'm the very last person on earth to begin tweeting. My observations:
– Rachel Griffiths, my glorious editor at Scholastic, encouraged me to join Twitter. By this I mean she came to my apartment and with the help of the brilliant and invaluable Jeffrey and Jeremy West, set up my account, showed me how to tweet and everyone barely suppressed their laughter at my incompetence. I am in their debt.
– Tweeting is fun and maddening. It's a social and mathematical challenge. It's like jumping up and down in a crowd of millions and trying to grab everyone's attention. Without owning a gun.
– Some people are brilliant and funny on Twitter and others are not. It's like a cocktail party where you learn who to avoid and who seems entertaining.
– I have a weakness for following celebrities who pay someone, or a team of someones, to tweet for them. You can feel the employees' anxiety and terror, as they attempt to make the celeb come across as friendly and down-to-earth, while promoting the celeb's latest projects and ignoring the celeb's latest arrest for manslaughter.
– Like so much of the internet, Twitter is a variation on passing notes in class. It doesn't accomplish all that much, but it sure beats Algebra.