I find the BBC twitters very useful

try BBC education
http://twitter.com/bbceducation

The Revenant by Billy Collins

I am the dog you put to sleep,
as you like to call the needle of oblivion,
come back to tell you this simple thing:
I never liked you–not one bit.

When I licked your face,
I thought of biting off your nose.
When I watched you toweling yourself dry,
I wanted to leap and unman you with a snap.

I resented the way you moved,
your lack of animal grace,
the way you would sit in a chair and eat,
a napkin on your lap, knife in your hand.

I would have run away,
but I was too weak, a trick you taught me
while I was learning to sit and heel,
and–greatest of insults–shake hands without a hand.

I admit the sight of the leash
would excite me
but only because it meant I was about
to smell things you had never touched.

You do not want to believe this,
but I have no reason to lie.
I hated the car, the rubber toys,
disliked your friends and, worse, your relatives.

The jingling of my tags drove me mad.
You always scratched me in the wrong place.
All I ever wanted from you
was food and fresh water in my metal bowls.

While you slept, I watched you breathe
as the moon rose in the sky.
It took all my strength
not to raise my head and howl.

Now I am free of the collar,
the yellow raincoat, monogrammed sweater,
the absurdity of your lawn,
and that is all you need to know about this place

except what you already supposed
and are glad it did not happen sooner–
that everyone here can read and write,
the dogs in poetry, the cats and the others in prose.

Kind of like that one person at the party who HATES cats. Whose lap, then, becomes Fluffy’s irresistible target? Yeah, yeah, we’ve all seen it go down. I’m surprised no one has offered up the time-honored dog/cat analogy. To whit:

The cat-Twittterer: A noble, intelligent beast: aloof, independent, and capricious. Thinks big, super-serious, super-important thoughts. Refined taste in poetry—has a soft spot for the Romantics, but disdains Sandburg for getting that fog business all wrong. Meows in perfect iambic pentameter. Can be sweetly companionable and enjoys a nice belly-rub as much as anybody, but only if approached on own terms and if proper deference is shown (full prostration is recommended; respectful, eyes-averted bows are acceptable). May launch full-clawed sarcastic attack without warning. Follows no one and answers to no one but self.

The dog-Twitterer: Friendly and loyal. Pack-oriented. Likes a nice belly-rub as much as anybody. Light-hearted and frisky, with boundless energy. Pragmatic and practical; a no-nonsense survivor. Barks in prose. Enjoys long walks on the beach, fetching sticks, and Snausage dinners. Will follow you to the ends of the earth. Constantly has nose to the ground, alert to possibilities and found treasures.

May I suggest uploading the following phrase over at CafePress to an old-skool, long-sleeved baseball t-shirt or even a hoodie that we could all order on-line:

“@ddmeyer used to follow me…but he moved on.”

Might also make a great bumper sticker to afix to one’s Mac, too.

Ain’t that the truest thing ever written.

And FWIW to the thirty-some people who received notice I was following them: my bad. 100% ineptitude. Not worth getting into. If anyone followed me back out of some sense of reciprocity no hard feelings for un-following.

I think if you can find people to follow who consistently “tweet” about helpful resources, etc., then it might be worthwhile. I never really know what to tweet. Every now and then, a blog post or notes on a presentation. But isn’t that what RSS is for?

I’ll probably keep at it a bit longer, but the future is uncertain …