My colleague Elizabeth Jensen told me of this item in the New York Post today: That the romance between "Dancing with the Stars” pro Derek Hough and last season’s contestant Shannon Elizabeth (“American Pie”) is over.

And how does the world know this? Because the couple announced their break-up over the weekend in tandem Twitter posts.

Of course they did.

Listen, I don’t think I’m a Luddite or even a new media fuddy-duddy.

OK, maybe a little.

But paaaleeese, doesn’t it bother you just a bit that seemingly any input of importance or interest that we’re getting these days is via Twitter?

Consider this: What if writers in days of yore were limited to 140 characters? Every poem, every speech, every line of dialogue…

An example from Shakespeare:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer

Or this speech by Abraham Lincoln:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposi

Or this classic routine from “Seinfeld”:

George: The sea was angry that day, my friends – like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli. I got about fifty feet out and suddenly the gre

Jerry: Mammal.

George: Whatever.

Kramer: Well, what did you do next?

George: Well then, from out of nowhere, a huge tidal wave lifted me, tossed me like a cork, and I found myself right on top of him – face to face wi

[George reveals the obstruction to be a golf ball]

Kramer: What is that, a Titleist?

[George nods]

Kramer: Hole in one, huh?#

UPDATE: 8:54 AM…Oh boy…My boss was a little upset with me when he saw this. He wanted me to mention that if you need to reach me faster than just leaving a comment on this story that you can reach me at my twitter account, where I’m known as chuckmedia….