Maureen Dowd (NYT) vs Biz Stone (Twitter)
Maureen Dowd:
Was there anything in your childhood that led you to want to destroy civilization as we know it?
Biz Stone:
You mean enhance civilization, make it even better?
MD:
What’s your favorite book?
BS:
I loved Sherlock Holmes when I was a kid.
MD:
But you’ve helped destroy mystery.
BS:
When you put more information out there, sometimes you can just put a little bit of it out, which just makes the mystery even broader.
MD:
When newsprint blows away, I want a second career as a Twitter ghostwriter. Which celebrity on Twitter most needs my help?
BS:
Definitely not Shaq. Britney, maybe.
MD:
Gavin Newsom announced his candidacy for governor today on Twitter and elsewhere. Does that make you the new Larry King?
BS:
Did he? I didn’t know.
MD:
Have you thought about using even fewer than 140 characters?
BS:
I’ve seen people twitter in haiku only. Twit-u. James Buck, the student who was thrown into an Egyptian prison, just wrote “Arrested.”
MD:
I would rather be tied up to stakes in the Kalahari Desert, have honey poured over me and red ants eat out my eyes than open a Twitter account. Is there anything you can say to change my mind?
BS:
Well, when you do find yourself in that position, you’re gonna want Twitter. You might want to type out the message “Help.”
