Did I Really Say This?

My big mouth often gets me in trouble. So do listeners who have good memories, and Google Calendars they use to track my blowhard predictions.

Czabe,

This Google Calendar reminder popped up for me yesterday reminding me that you proclaimed on your show a year ago that if Twitter was still popular in a year you would eat a live bird and it brought an interesting range of emotions. First it makes me angry that somehow Twitter has survived; second, it makes me really miss the First Team and how your show used to get me through the day; and finally it made me reflect on the past year and fully realize how it was the worst possible year for a DC/America sports fan ever.

Thanks for the Daily Czabecast and First Team Expresses and all, its definitely not the same as the show, but at least Galdi gets to chime in. So I guess since Twitter seems to still be going strong, sooner or later there needs to be the consumption of a live bird on an upcoming Czabecast. I'd go with a sparrow because they're small and it would work towards solving you sparrow problem.

Buon Appetito,
AJ

REACT: Well, thank you AJ. It is, bitter irony, that Twitter does continue to exist, and my radio show is slowly assuming room temperature some 6 months later.

That said, I am working on a return to the national radio stage, and while nothing is imminent, I will only say "don't bet against me."

I will most likely NOT eat a live bird, as having consulted the internet on this, there appears to be a myriad of health problems that could ensue from such an act.

But being such a good sport, I have found for you a little video rendition of what me eating a live bird might look like.



Now, as for Twitter, let me just say this. I STILL don't think it's a sustainable business. It's a fucking FAD, people! In fact, unless I am wrong, Twitter hasn't generated any real money for its founders yet. Could they SELL it for some insane amount of millions? Sure. But where is the business plan?

Twitter is a 1-900 number. It is MySpace. Or, Napster. Remember the ol' "score phone". Call it up, get scores. Oooh, yeah! Hot stuff! At some point, it will have its day of reckoning where everybody standing in the big Twitter room looks around at each other, and starts to leave en mass, realizing it is a huge waste of time.

Twitter is popular!

Yeah. So were Zubaz, once.

Here is the key test for Twitter. If traditional print media was somehow forbidden by law to quote Twitter, would it have any real resonance? The only time I really think about Twitter, is when mainstream media brings it up.

ESPN reports that Athlete X said on his Twitter account: "blah, blah, blah."

Now maybe that's not the point. Maybe Twitter knew all along they were going to just be a way for celebrities to issue micro-press releases at any time of the day or night. Maybe Twitter knew that the mainstream media would be too lazy to go collect an actual quote from an athlete anymore, and just reprint Twitter jibberish.

After Rafa Nadal won the French Open to avenge his only clay court loss from last year, the AP story quoted a tweet from Andy Roddick that said: "Nadal. Best clay court player ever!"

Well, thank you for that, Andy.

For mere mortals, everyday schmucks, who is using twitter as a necessary and effective everyday tool? And would anyone ever PAY for it?

Oh, sure. "Advertising" I hear you say.

Child, please.

Every web based venture thinks - THINKS - they can make a fortune by selling "advertising." Like it's that easy. Every web based venture looks at their user numbers and thinks: "Who wouldn't want to tap into that!?"

The problem is, everybody uses the "internet". All day, every day. So just saying you have a lot of people on your particular web site, doesn't mean squat. It would be like owning a 100 foot stretch of highway pavement, saying "don't you want to advertise by painting your logo on my stretch of highway? I get a million cars a day rolling over it!"

So Twitter isn't as dead as I thought (hoped) it would be by now. But give it time. Give it time.