10:04 AM: I go to the bathroom and realize there is no toilet paper 10:08 AM: I steal toilet paper from Starbuck’s (shhh, don’t tell). 10:12 AM: I am back in bathroom and … do you really want to know what I do? Did you know that Steve Rubel went to bed at 10:02 PM Sunday night? Do you know that a guy in Italy, right now, is jabbing a pen in his ear and picking his nose?

Twitter, in case you are blessed by not having any maniacal Twits around you, is this ultra annoying little widget that informs you of every inane move and miniscule thought of other Twits around the globe. “A list” blogger, shiny head Yoda and incorrigible link whore Steve Rubel (right) is head Twit. He promised days ago on his blog never to mention the “T” word again but that has not stopped him from obsessively twitting.

Somebody stop Rubel before he twits again.

In a recent Advertising Age article Rubel gushed that Twitter “rocked the web” with an “avalanche of buzz” because blogging lumerati Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanis were now Twitting (“I am in a cab on my way to the airport” “I am buying a latte” “I just burped”). Rubel is agog that this “global phenomenon” can be viewed real-time through Twittervision.com and promises more great applications to come. Does Rubel have a stake in the company? Has he gone too far up the river … have his methods become unsound? Are there people at Edelman who actually have to sit through meetings with Rubel while he gushes Twitter twaddle?

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Loose Twitter twaddle may have gotten ”A list” PR blogger Steve Rubel in hot water but he vows to remain at Edelman. 

Rubel had to publicly apologize yesterday to Jim Louderback, Editor in chief of PC magazine, for twitting that he threw PC magazine in the trash. Louderback wondered aloud in a guest column on Strumpette that perhaps his 11 million readers were not important to Edelman clients and maybe PC magazine should boycott all Edelman pitches.

Agghhh. That’s media death to a PR firm that pitches PC magazine for a variety of consumer tech clients. The shiny head Yoda had to Google “Apology 101″ and approximate contrition on his blog, but that does not begin to address the issue here.

Rubel’s posts have recently grown more cautious and dour as the Blog Bubble Bursts and clients are reluctant to throw good money into the PR 2.0 blackhole. Value is now trumping experimentation as the economy constricts and that old monster, fear, shrinks budgets.  

So what is Rubel’s value? He recently posted that he was deleting pitches on his computer and that made him feel like a journalist.  On a recent Twitter he dissed CNet. Media relations is obviously not his strong suit, and he is unaware of how many Edelman clients depend on PC magazine and CNet to reach their audience.

Asked by PRBlogNews if there is any truth to the reports that he is leaving Edelman, Rubel replied: “Zero. What reports? Strumpette? Please.”

The real question: If Rubel has no direct billable accountability, as a tarnished brand, has he become expendable to Edelman?

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British billionaire adventurer Richard Branson hopes that Google Earth can help find his friend and fellow adventurer Steve Fossett who disappeared four days ago when he went out for a short recreational flight in a single engine plane. See Reuters story.

Feb. 5, 2007, we wrote about the massive web search for missing scientist Jim Gray. The search for Gray, on the ground and through technology, did not yield results. It is mystifying and humbling that with all our technology and resources well-known and well-loved people, equipped with fierce intelligence and instincts for survival, can simply disappear. Will Fossett be found today?

I am pleased to be doing the “Week In Review” column on Strumpette, starting today, with analysis of two of our favorite subjects, Edelman and Wal-Mart. Check it out.

We have our own magazine: Go to Blogger & Podcaster now to get your free inaugural, online edition. You can read the magazine in a cool reader online format that makes it fun and replicates the print copy. Robert Scoble, ubiquitous uber blogger, is on the cover, there are “how to” features, reviews on new technology, event previews, and ads that talk to you. Of course there are several podcasts to support the print and online copy. Congratulations to publisher Larry Genkin for jumping out there with a much needed new mag.

Rubel gets serious. A chastened Steve Rubel took a few days off fom his blog last week to do some sans-blog soul searching after a dustup with PC Mag editor Jim Louderback.  A 4/23 post on the The Participation Ladder sparks discssion of how many people in the blogosphere are inactive and spectators, as opposed to joiners and creators.  In response to Rubel’s twitter about office dress etiquette: wear your shirt out on dress-down Friday, Steve. Be a wild man.

Yankee go home. Where are the Yankees going in two years? See New Yankee Stadium Construction for progress on the new Yankee Stadium on the site across the street from the old stadium.  I hope we don’t have to wait two years for the Yankees to show some new life and start winning ball games. 

Podcast expo set. The Podcast & New Media Expo is set for September 28-30 in Ontario, California, for a very reasonable $249 for full access to the entire event.

crayon does Coke. crayon has launched its “Virtual Thirst” competition for Coca-Cola and in the process sparked robust discussion on its social media press release (SMR). More on this later in the week.

OK, I admit to pangs of competitive jealousy to join the “B” list, but what’s wrong with hanging with the riff-raff on the “C” list? PRBlogNews is in the “middle authority” group, according to Technorati, with 10-99 blogs linking in the last six months, placing us on the cusp of the second quartile of the C list. See news on this from Kineda - a decidedly “A” list blogebrity.

To put this in perspective, Steve Rubel  (top “A” list PR/marketing blogger) probably has more links in to his blog in an hour than I do in a month. I have many rationalizations (excuses) for this, of course. Although PRBlogNews has existed in one form or another for a couple of years (the average blog has been in existence for 228 days), I revamped this blog six weeks ago and began blogging in earnest then. Consistency and longevity are key components to a popular blog. 

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