Caught in the Act! My Trip to Twitter Jail

I’ve had a Twitter account a very long time.  I don’t sign out and can’t even remember my password.  It’s among my least used social media platforms.  I rarely send out stand-alone thoughts.  Mostly, I post links to stories I find interesting if not outright compelling. 

Over the years, I’ve likely said some caustic things on Twitter.  Some sophomoric.  Some mean-spirited and some quite controversial (I’m paid to voice strong opinions).  Over the last dozen years I’ve never been in Facebook jail.  I’m not working overtime to get there but considering my career choice, you would think it would’ve happened years ago.  Twitter was just a secondary platform and perhaps what I used after Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

A couple of days ago I saw a tweet posted by management of the CN Tower in Toronto.  It was colored red, white and blue in honor of the Montreal Canadians.  The only hockey club from north of the border still in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Montreal is next going up against Las Vegas.

The Canadians got here by first upsetting the heavily favored Toronto Maple Leafs.  Needless to say, Toronto fans weren’t happy when they saw the tower.  Still sore after losing a big lead in the series, they were fuming their team choked.  In Toronto, fans cheer, “Go, Leafs, go!”

Having some fun, I posted a reply to the original tweet.  I wrote, “Choke, Leafs, choke!”  Within seconds I was informed my account was locked.  I appealed.  You get very few words and I guess I couldn’t fully explain the meaning of choke in sports.  My appeal was rejected.  Given the choice to delete the reply, I finally caved.  I got a notification an old coworker now writing a syndicated column had a new tweet.  I read it after raising the white flag.