What's Twitter Giving Up For Lent In Houston?

Photo by hydroxi

This is a Lent Lilly. It is pretty.

If you were awake this morning, you saw the Houston Press ask its Twitter followers what they're giving up for Lent.

What, you're not following us on Twitter? Too bad, you could have wound up in this article, although knowing you, you just would have said "religion" or "Lent" as so many others were so very fond of doing.

Right out of the gate, Jim Thompson let us know: "I gave up religion for Lent 25 years ago, and haven't had to give up anything since ;-)"

Well said, and pretty much the only tweet about giving up religion or Lent worth publishing (no offense to the rest of you; thanks for replying at all). Here's some other more original / honest replies, Houston Press comments in parentheses:

tpgraham: "Beer." (When we replied with our good luck wishes, tp said back "Thanks, I need it with all my friends inviting me to the Spring Bock Pub Crawl.")

marzjennings: "Giving up any confidence in my 401k." (Aren't we all, sir.)


maveriick: "I'm giving up drinking! Hopefully I last through the 40 days and especially nights." (Yes, optimally the nights would be more difficult. If night and day are equally hard, it may be time to break out the ol' checklist.)

kbranch: "I'm giving up chain coffee houses for Lent. Support local grinders!" (Hell yes.)

robbwalsh: "Ask Joel Osteen." (We'd rather not, we've found his supporters can be on the touchy side .)

raemillican: "Beer, shots, cookies, cake, and candy bars! You?" (Us? Talking shit about the Chronicle. We kid, of course!)

garnergal: "I'm giving up self-hatred." (Well don't go back to hating yourself in April, for Pete's sake.)

Oonabot: "Interesting. Maybe I'll give up being an agnostic and try becoming Catholic for Lent." (Get ready for a bunch of memorization.)

loseaneye: "I'm giving up listening to Joel O$teen. I think the Lord will be most pleased." (We agree, and we also think the O$-Teenz would be a nifty Christian boy band.)

JavaPeg: "Buying wine (but not drinking my own stash)." (Sure, let's not get drastic here.)

femmeurbane: "I'm giving up soda and cursing." (But how will you deal with Houston traffic without caffeine and c-bombs?)

mattbramanti: "Aw, someone already said "religion?" Damn, I wanted to be countercultural and edgy. I'm giving up cokes." (For those reading from north of the Mason-Dixon line, he means soda in general.)

VivaVictoria: "Giving up booze and potato chips." (Hard to have just one of either, isn't it?)

Out of all the things on this list, Hair Balls thinks cursing and cookies would be the hardest for us. We do love the shit out of some snickerdoodles.