Polandian finally succumbs to Twitter
For some time now Pawel and other young people have been telling us about this Twitter thing. Usually, before we could turn on our hearing aids and focus our eyes on said quick-moving youngsters they got bored and wandered off to sniff iPods or whatever it is youngsters do these days. Fortunately Scatts woke up in a cold sweat the other night and suddenly remembered we were supposed to do something about it. After several hours on the internet erroneously searching for ‘twits’ he finally figured it out and the Polandian twitter feed was born.
««« Look, it’s over there! Fajna, nie.
Why did we decide to do this? I wish I could remember. It was something about a spoon and a wise crowd and working with a net. It all sounded highly plausible at the time. Those of you who have been following so far will have noticed that it’s essentially inane chatter and bickering between us three. That already makes it three times more interesting than most other twitter feeds I’ve seen. Clicking on the red “Twits” title above the thing itself will presumably take you somewhere exciting and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you could see all of our twits and follow them from wherever that is. I heard there was free cake over there too.
In no time at all the Polandian twitter feed will almost certainly become the premier English-language twitter feed about Poland written by grumpy and ill-informed foreigners (also Pawel). No need to thank us.
Not “twits’, “tweets.”
Twit=stupid person.
(Not to be confused with “twat’.)
Yes yes, remind me to come back to the nonsense news item of the day – David Cameroon says “twat” on radio and then has to apologise for it. He actually said he didn’t twitter because “too many tweets might make a twat”.
I’m always intrigued by reactions to the word ‘twat’.
Oh yeah, the TWIT is not red — yet. ;)
PMK: Yes, I know. It was a vain attempt to be humorous.
Perhaps a minor humorous aside rather than a vain attempt, but why oh why are the press leaping on this? Aren’t parliamentarians allowed to use everday language? I know of at least one labour member whose language is agreat deal mpore colourful and you don’t read all this bullshit hype about it.
Island— I’m sorry. Sometimes I need things spelled out for me.
But you know what’s interesting? “Twat” has been around since the 13th Century (I do believe) and kept its original meaning. (I’ll preempt anyone with proof that it wasn’t: I read it in “The Mother Tongue.” Blame Bryson.)
The trouble with the word ‘twat’ is that half the people are horrified by it and see it as nothing more than another way of writing the C*** word while the other half don’t see it as much more offensive than twit.
I’m in the latter half, unfortunately, because the the former group are correct in terms of dictionary definitions. Twat is a vulgar word for vulva.
Still, those who misuse it are in good company:
The T-word occupies a special niche in literary history, however, thanks to a horrible mistake by Robert Browning, who included it in ‘Pippa Passes’ (1841) without knowing its true meaning. ‘The owls and bats,/Cowls and twats,/Monks and nuns,/In a cloister’s moods.’ Poor Robert! He had been misled into thinking the word meant ‘hat’ by its appearance in ‘Vanity of Vanities,’ a poem of 1660, containing the treacherous lines: ‘They’d talk’t of his having a Cardinalls Hat,/They’d send him as soon an Old Nuns Twat.’ (There is a lesson here about not using words unless one is very sure of their meaning.) [Hugh Rawson, "Wicked Words," 1989]
And yes, I am a hypocrite! I wrote over there http://scatts.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/social-networking-micro-blogging-lifestreaming/ some disparaging words about Twitter and other such things and here I am using it!
In my defence, m’lud, I would say that I still don’t have a personal Twitter and that I see this collective Twitter attached to a collective blog as something of an interesting experiment.
Also, I was right about it being a generational thing although wrong about the generation. I assumed the SMS frenzied youngsters would be the Tweeters but it seems they are not.
I rest my case! :)
Twit or twat or twits….. seeing you guys join the parade almost makes me try twitt but have promised myself I would not…for now.
Fyi how is the weather, I will be in Poland at the end of August for 2 weeks.
PMK: I heard that about scientists :)
Scatts: Guilty!
Lon: Lovely at the moment, probably be cats and dogs then. Hasn’t been the greatest summer this year.
Lon, Scatts does weather updates on twitter so stay tuned.:>
Do you suppose that ‘twat’ is the same as ‘kiep’? Kiep used to mean vulva, then a fool, and then went out of use altogether.
Ania,
isn’t kiep used to mean the end of a used cigarette?
PMK/ Island – Ooops – I see i got the wrong end of the stick. Obviously must avoid reading blog when not fully compos mentis. Twit seems to be most apt :)
Sunny. Mostly.
I though a dog-end was called a ‘pety’ po polsku? Or is that ‘Petty’, as in Tom & the Heartbreakers?
http://pl.wiktionary.org/wiki/kiep
it means ‘wstyd niewieści’
http://www.sjp.pl/co/kiep
it means: a fool and commonly a cigarette but
Loads of people commenting “hey, that’s a great idea. I’ll definitely be following” and none at all arguing about the Polish translation of ‘twat.’ That’s the alternative universe I’m living in.
Are we allowed to sing yet?
Well, shout it up, baby, now, (shout it up, baby)
Twit and shout. (twit and shout)
Cmon cmon, cmon, cmon, baby, now, (come on baby)
Come on and work it on out. (work it on out)
Oh, cool, boys! Lovely idea, you definitely rock!
Ania: In my universe we don’t have thinly disguised sarcasm so – Yay for us!
Scatts: No, we are not. Stop that at once.
Damn you, Island, just wanted to give you some appreciation on your own blog! You over-sensitive foreigner!