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I suppose I should open with this: ever since I joined Twitter, I have had a feed in the sidebar.  I got rid of it last week as I became frustrated with how often said feed went down, affecting the general performance of the site.  Maybe I'll add it back in the future, but it's gone and staying gone for now.  You can read the updates here, if you'd like.

But that's not what I want to write about it.  No, I want to write about Twitter more broadly.  Namely, how damn popular it is -- everyone seems to know about it, and talks about it, even if they hate it or barely understand what exactly it is.

I find it  interesting at times, dull at others, and generally worth the amount of time I put into it.  Naturally, I mean to say that I don't put all that much time into it.  But there are some interesting folks on there, and I wanted to point them out.  This isn't to slight my many friends who I follow.  I love you all, and read all of your "tweets," but consider this a post for the wide national audience that I don't actually have.

So, here are some interesting Twitter folks:

• Shaquille O'Neal has become a Twitter sensation.  Suppose I'll mention him now and get him out of the way.
• Speaking of athletes, Curt Schilling is on Twitter.  He's only interesting because his life seems entirely uninteresting.
• But back to interesting folks: Juno scribe Diablo Cody is on Twitter.  She doesn't use it often, but her messages flood onto your screen when she does have something to say.
• Here's a lesser known celebrity: Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson.
• But it's not all about celebrities. Check out Derek Punsalan, who designed this blog's theme
• But OK, it's about a lot of celebrities, like Jon Hodgman of The Daily Show and Mac/PC (he's PC!) commercial fame.
• Speaking of The Daily Show, here's Miles Kahn, one of the show's producers; provides some interesting behind-the-scenes preparation info.
• If you need more ways to crush on Rachel Maddow, she's also on Twitter.
• When you're not busy following celebrities or internet stalking your pals, you can actually discover very interesting people on Twitter, like Jay Rosen and Christopher Anderson.
• Is there anything more prevalent on Twitter than celebrities?  Yes.  Fake celebrities.  Personally, I prefer fake incarnations of fictional characters, like J. Jonah Jameson, fake editor-in-chief of the fake Daily Bugle.
• Too many web sites or organizations establish Twitter accounts and use them essentially as an RSS Feed.  This is boring, but occasionally useful -- for instance, I follow The New York Times for breaking news updates.
• Speaking of updates, here are some unofficial updates on the status of various SEPTA lines.
• CHUD's Devin Faraci is on Twitter.  He's in Sundance this week.  As are a bunch of people I follow, actually.  Yes, I'm jealous.
• 6ABC's Jim Gardner hasn't "tweeted" (I quote it because I hate it) since August, but his updates were hilarious in that "I don't know entirely what I'm doing with this" sort of way.  So, I hope he returns.
• The CEO of Zappos.com has a Twitter account.  It's not all boring corporate hype!  Amazing!  But mostly, I just like Zappos.
• I've never been a huge fan of Sasha Frere-Jones, but oddly, I dig his Twitter updates.
• Darren Wershler-Henry, whom I have blogged about previously, is on Twitter!
• Finally, here's Bryan Lee O'Malley, the artist and author of the excellent Scott Pilgrim graphic novels.  A new installment in the series comes out this February, and Bryan is currently updating from the set of the movie!  How cool.  The movie is directed by Edgar Wright, who is not linked because he doesn't use Twitter, as far as I know.

So, phew, there we go.  I hope to never type "Twitter" that much ever again.

Who do you follow?  Am I missing anyone?  Am I missing you?  Links in the comments, folks.