Sonnet Dare: In Which I Summarize Some Follow Fridays

Cruel Nikki dares me rattle off by name
Those Twitter folk I've called as stalkable.
Al Bruno, Oliveri, Cullen - blame
Her that you're abused here. The lovable
Dear BardoRobot, BlazingBetta and
Ms. Jennybeans and Melzer, Ron McD
And Christian Wiehs, Stephan Spiegel, oh man!
O Jason Copland, Tee Monster... let's see...
My Bonfire rescued me from a migraine
(Or at least staved it off). My Lisbeth West
And Oliver T. Earle both make it plain
This world's a wonder. I can't choose the best,
From 'mongst my Twitter friends, mostly eschew
This Follow Friday thing. How about you?

In Which Humans Are Sometimes Cool: Together We Are Mighty!

There's limits to how cynical I'll be

(Remem'bring, too, its roots, that word's, in stuff

Dog-like and pure and poor and largely free

Of selfishness). Sure, there's reason enough

To think the worst of projects folks put forth,

But then sometimes such thoughts turn inside-out.

Ms. Ballantine reached out in all her warmth,

A chorus rose, first murmurs, now a shout:

"Together we are mighty!" Sonic Boom

And Tee need love, but tangible support

Will help more than your words as vast costs loom,

And they two face a future one Mom short.

Six thousand bucks and change already fills

That coffer, and I trade my sneers for chills.

In Which I Try, Just Try, To Make It Easier, But Probably Don't

A life can change so quickly, in one's sleep.

Someone we've always counted on can go

Away without a warning, leaving deep

And lasting wounds that may not always show

Once they're not fresh. As my dear Donna told

Us all today, take time to hug someone

You love or at least tell them. New or old,

A friend, a spouse, a lover, or a fun

Playfellow can be taken. Oh, dear Tee,

And Sonic Boom, sweet, too, you're in my thoughts,

As little as that really proves to be.

All I can do is send my love -- and lots.

And hope that you and yours find strength and wish

That we all could do more than simply this.

In Which I Consider The Twilight Of The Tweets, But Not With Great Seriousness

It's no surprise that I'm an opera fan,
Not since Tee Morris flushed me out last week,
And we all know I Tweet all that I can,
But even so, this news fair made me freak!
A Twitter opera, its pun-ful name
Of Twitterdammerung, seemed like a joke --
But that is not the punchline. Oh, for shame!
A friend's rhetoric excess made me choke
With laughter and I shared it with my tweeps:
That Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber had a plan
To make a Twitter musical. This keeps
On circulating now as news. Oh man!
My real regret is that 'twas not my fate,
Though, to compare crowd-source with Nahum Tate!

Gutenberg Did Not Invent Printing, Either

Today we woke somewhat surprised to find
That Little, Brown invented a new style
Of publishing: the podcast novel. Mind,
We all had thought this happened quite a while
Ago. But Sarah Shrubb insisted they were first,
Which makes us ponder what it is that we
Were hearing at Podiobooks. The worst,
Of half-assed Google searches, sure, would be
Enough to prove this wrong. I'll bet Bi Sheng
Would be just as surprised to learn that Herr
Johannes Gutenberg had baldly wrung
A claim to type invention; ah, but there
I stray into rank silliness. We know
'Twas Morris, Sigler, Jeffrey made it go.