As you're probably well aware, K&K likes to stay on the cutting edge of technology. Ingenious and potentially dangerous new ways of drinking booze, Internet videos of cute cats and cutting edge technology. We championed the ShamWow years before it became a late-night infomercial sensation and its pitchman Vince Shlomi was thrown in the slammer for allegedly punching a prostitute who tried to bite out his tongue. (If only we were joking.) In the 1980s, we were one of the first to tout Velcro as a shoelace alternative. And we're still standing by our claim that the trend of buttless jeans, as seen in the 1981 Ryan O'Neal movie So Fine, will make a triumphant comeback. We're talking to you, Main Street hipsters.

But there's one technology K&K is having a problem getting behind. And that is Twitter. Don't get us wrong. We don't want to be yet another bunch of fuddy duddies decrying the annoyances of the popular social-networking site, where users post "tweets" of 140 characters or less, updating followers of their status, the episode of The Office they're looking forward 2 watching 2nite, or the gr8 lamb vindaloo they had for dinner. Twitter is as worthwhile a diversion from actual human contact as the next thing. What we have a problem with is the increasing validity twitterers have been given as credible media sources. Take for instance the recent Britney Spears concert in Vancouver--a debacle if there ever was one. The pop princess and her dance crew left the stage for half an hour complaining of too much smoking going on in the audience only to return and deliver a lacklustre, mostly lip-synced show, which left fans disappointed. Local papers reported on the fan backlash and interviewed a few disgruntled concertgoers, but they also felt the need to quote Twitter users. "Meanwhile, Britney's behaviour during the show made her the brunt of jokes on Twitter," wrote the Province newspaper, which then went on to quote "@buzzbishop" tweeting: "So when britney restarted, did they just press play on the iPod and pick up in mid-song?" Oh snap.

The Globe and Mail did something similar this weekend, although we can't recall the exact story, probably due to the pencils we jammed in our ears out of frustration.

Quoting Twitter users and their grammar-challenged tweets and treating them as sources in a story is akin to quoting a drunk dude at the Roxy doing body shots off his girlfriend's pierced bellybutton on how he feels about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or a news crew asking people on the street if there should be more sunshine in Vancouver. It just doesn't matter. A random sampling of someone's spontaneous reaction is hardly a credible source. We trust and take into consideration a Twitterer's 140-character-or-less opinion/observation/comment about as much as a clerk at H&M giving us investment advice during our 20-second interaction. Sure, it's very "now" and on the cutting edge of technology, but it strikes us as another one of the media's sad and flailing attempts to reach "the kids," i.e. those who largely ignore newspapers and conventional media. They'd have better luck with giving away a free ShamWow or pair of buttless jeans with every subscription. Now there's an idea...

HAIKU NIGHT IN CANADA

Vancouver is stricken with hockey playoff fever. To coincide with this and the arrival of spring, the poets at K&K have composed a Basho-inspired haiku in honour of the season. Here goes:

Wearing my foam hand

Will Roberto's groin stay loose?

Blossoms on my face.