Weingarten Reels in 100 New Twitter Followers With P-Word

Vulgarity and profanity have a certain cache these days. Even President Obama found it useful to insert the phrase "whose ass to kick" in a recent TV interview. But who knew it could get Gene Weingarten some 100 new followers on Twitter? Yesterday he used the p-word (that would be p---y) three times - the sole purpose being to mimic the vulgarity of author Buzz Bissinger and engage Bissinger in Twitter warfare. (FYI: Buzz drops the f-bomb quite often in his tweets.) Weingarten said his original plan was to incite Bissinger into a direct message exchange. Weingarten started with this: "If @buzzbissinger were half a man, he would follow me so I could direct message him about what a flagrant p---y he is. Don't hold yr breath." Bissinger penned one nasty reply: "Weingarten should open comedy club -- just as long he never introduces acts. Sit in a corner -- laugh at his own jokes -- just like always. Weingarten great journalist. But the last time he was funny was the last time he was funny. Still in dead tree biz -- how smart can he be?" But Weingarten carried it on, baiting and baiting. But to no avail. Buzz didn't buzz back. Weingarten explained to FishbowlDC: "Someone had sent me a link to his piece in TNR about how despite the fact that he is a Pulitzer Prizewinner, he uses Twitter to rant and be vulgar, and how he likes this, and how it got him thousands of followers," Weingarten told me over e-mail. "So, as a Pulitzer Prizewinner myself, I thought I would engage him on this, in his style. Nothing more to it." Weingarten says he doesn't plan to continue foul-mouth rants and talk of toddlers being hotties. "No, I won't start being any more vulgar than I had been -- my actual hope was to bait him into a direct-message exchange of WILD vulgarity, just between us, just for fun," he said. "Sorry, the story would have been better if we hated each other. Or actually KNEW each other." (The above soap is for Weingarten to wash his mouth out should he so choose. For those who want to see what Weingarten's twitters are all about, his handle is: @geneweingarten.)

Fishbowl

Weingarten Reels in 100 New Twitter Followers With P-Word

Betsy Rothstein

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