Hi everyone and welcome to episode 109 of the Holding Court podcast.

Today we mourn the loss of our Twitter checkmarks and I'll share my experience from my very first Boston Marathon. And you'll hear if Justin made it to the finish line in time. All coming up right now on Holding Court. Boom, bum, bum bum bum bum. Pallelaw,

pal-lal-la-la-la-la-pap-par-da-paw. bum bum bum bum bum bum we knew the day was coming

but it still came as quite a shock to go to my Twitter profile

and not see that beautiful baby blue checkmark just like a badge of honor.

Yeah, it's, it's weird. I don't know, I don't know how to feel about it. Like, I don't know

whether to pay the, what is it, is it $8? Yeah, or you could do an annual fee. Or an annual,

you just pay or $112 or something. Yeah, or you could do an annual fee. Or an annual, you just pay or...

$112 or something.

Yeah, I mean, because...

People are getting made fun of if they pay.

So if you have been away from the social media world,

when Elon Musk took over at Twitter, purchased Twitter,

one of the things he kept saying he was going to do is get rid of checkmarks and you

can subscribe to something I think called Twitter Blue.

So you don't have to be anyone of note, not that I am, but I am very, very proud of my

checkmark.

But you can just pay and you verify your phone number and your identity.

But it was kind of lingering for a long time.

There were threats that it was going to happen for months and months and months.

And then they finally set a date.

And then you just woke up and you were a nobody.

...