Bark bow wows at "Pete's Tweets"
02/19/09 02:06 PM
By ED BARK
Perhaps the apocalypse is nigh -- or at least in the neighborhood -- when the reigning weather and sports anchors in the No. 5 market's most-watched 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts see fit to Twitter about the latter's surgical "procedure."
Dallas-based WFAA8's Pete Delkus and Dale Hansen also have chattered about it on the air. And for the record, said procedure is sports anchor Hansen's run-of-the-mill colonoscopy this week, which is keeping him off the air for a few days.
"Well, sounds like Dale isn't so full of it tonight! LOL," YellowRose43 twittered Wednesday to the "Pete's Tweets" section of wfaa.com.
"You got that right!" Pete tweeted back.
Tweeting via Twitter is one of the newer forms of social networking. Whatever you have to say has to be said in 140 characters or less, which means that this paragraph has just exceeded the limit.
Being actively involved with Twitter is supposed to build "relationships" and increase traffic to your station or Web site. In this particular pursuit, deep thoughts are both discouraged and, for the most part, impossible. As when Pete tweeted, "Now that's funny!! after "shpwrckd" said, "Sweet mother of God. if the 'procedure' is shown my eyes will run away."
This particular thread of conversation began with "KimArr asking Pete," So is Dale going to live-tweet his procedure? That's what all the cool kids do." To which Pete tweeted, "None of us want to see his 'procedure.' Nasty!!"
Hansen, much to Delkus' on-air and on-line merriment, chirped a tweet of his own the other day. Pete linked to it after tweeting, "Check this out . . . I can't believe the old man is going to tweet!!! Maybe hell is freezing over!!"
The Hansen tweet -- and we're reprinting his extra vowel movements -- went like this: "im off the rest of the week for a proooceeeduure . . . back sunday for an oscar shortened version of sports special."
Your friendly content provider is neither a tweeter nor a "live blogger," which perhaps makes unclebarky.com the Internet equivalent of a buckboard at NASCAR. But seriously, is this what it takes to make friends and influence people?
Meanwhile, I hope Hansen's colonoscopy goes well, even though it's lately become the butt of Pete's Tweets. As has the mere fact of Hansen tweeting. So much so that Pete tweeted Tuesday, "I'm going to read some of your tweets on the air at 10 p.m. tonight about Hansen tweeting. thanks for the ammo."
A little birdy tells me that grown men aren't supposed to act this way. Then again, this is coming from someone whose alter ego is Uncle Barky. FYI, this final rumination also has just violated its Twitter max. Bad boy.