As I exited the subway at Columbus Circle into the absolutely blinding light, the AM New York man was proclaiming that, for today only, he was giving away free sun shields ("they only look like newspapers!").

I wonder if anyone else realizes this man is a genius.

I also wonder if the editorial staff of AM, whoever they are, would appreciate this treatment of their work. On one hand, the paper's getting given away regardless and there's no way of forcing anyone to read it. On the other hand, it was probably not their life's ambition to decorate a sun shield. Then again, it probably also wasn't their life's ambition write for AM New York...

So I joined Twitter this afternoon, after a truly enormous (but not unprecedented -- I probably advocated in favor of CDs and Internet Explorer too) amount of hemming and hawing. The breakdown is most likely precipitated by having to defend holding out an average of once a week, as often as not to the same handful of people, while simultaneously becoming aware that the explanations sounded flimsy even to my own ears.

But the truly disturbing thing was that, upon loading my gmail contacts, a bunch of people I know pretty well had quietly joined. Of course the people I knew who talked about Twitter and worked at Google had accounts, but it turns out lots of other people did too. Like my best friend's mom.

Not only was I dragging my heels and a luddite and totally passe. But I was the only one.

Of course, given this realization, I've chosen to blog about it. Instead of, you know, tweeting.

Walking through Williamsburg in the evening makes me feel old and poor and ugly and under accessorized and over employed. People laze about in McCarren park with their significant others as if their laundry does itself and their scalps leak hair gel so they never have to worry about a strong wind disrupting their flawless neo-fascist side part.

Ah, to be young and pale and tattoed and to have a job that has you picnicking before sunset. Objectively, I guess I'm not that far, but how do you stay so pale when you're lounging in the sun all the time?