09.28.22 Twitter is Having a Good Day

Hurricane bumps endless Trump drivel, and Lizzo played that historic crystal flute.

Twitter is my news curator. I’ve worked hard to follow folks who challenge my thinking, share new information, and represent points of view to which I might not otherwise be exposed. Different genres on Twitter have nicknames casually calling out different interest groups: writer Twitter, journo Twitter, cat Twitter — well, it’s all cat Twitter — but you get the idea. If you want to make Twitter work for you, the trick is to follow great folks and different genres.

Every day there are things that trend, and I do my best to keep up, but what interests me most is when I see the connections among things that get me fired up. When I see those things, I want to share, so I’ve decided I will. Here. Follow me if you dare.

Today’s mind-blowing moment — apart from a hurricane delivering on all the hype and simply drowning West Florida (we are praying for your folks), I want to give the day to Lizzo, the Library of Congress, black women, and activating history.

I remember seeing this tweet last week and thinking, wow, that’s super cool. I had no idea we had a flute collection. And who the heck is with-it enough to think of Lizzo and her concert coming to DC (someone who had tickets or maybe didn’t but wanted to go)? I love Lizzo like I love my Harry Styles, so this one piqued my interest. I was hooked.

Of course, the crystal flute was an attention grabber. As a former oboe player, the flutists were always my friends because I had to sit in their section (clarinets were a close second, and then the poor bassoon player was always behind us because that bassoon was huge). The next day, Lizzo expressed her delight; we all knew history would be awakened and made.

But here’s the thing: there’s a backstory that’s incredibly important here. It’s something that likely would never have happened if the stars hadn’t…