@ScrewYouSXSW vents at absent husband

AUSTIN, Texas--What's the phrase? "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?" Well, now there's a Twitter feed for finding out just what that woman's thinking.

During the day Friday at the South by Southwest (SXSWi) festival here, the word started spreading across Twitter about @ScrewYouSXSW, a feed that purports to be written by a wife left alone on a particularly special weekend by a husband seemingly more interested in the goings-on at this geek-heavy confab.

Identifying herself as a Californian who is "One pissed-off wife," her bio says it all: "My husband f***ed off to Austin on our anniversary weekend for South by Southwest. A**hole. Follow me to see what happens in his absence."

Indeed. Of course, as is often the case with oddball Twitter feeds like this, there's no way to know if the person writing it is actually for real. It could be someone at SXSW who thought it would be funny to pretend to be the abandoned wife. But let's just say, for the sake of argument, that this is for real. It's hard, then, not to both feel sorry for our lonely lady and to laugh out loud at some of the things she's saying about her man.

For example, as you may have heard, a fire alarm went off at the Austin Convention Center a little after 5 p.m. CST (local) Friday, interrupting dozens of panels and talks and forcing everyone out of the building and onto the streets. On @ScrewYouSXSW, we have this ascerbic take: "New text from hubby: 'why aren't you answering my calls; alarm went off, we ditched for beers and dinner' Classy."

Or maybe this one: "New text from hubby: 'How much did the plumber cost? How much $?' Yeah, I'm doing great. Thanks for asking d-bag." And the gems continue, one after another: "Has anyone seen an uneasy looking 36 yr old male in the 'Is technology weakening interpersonal relationships' panel?" Or, "My 500th follower can kick my husband in the Hurt Locker with my permission."

By now, that 500th follower is well in the past. As of this writing, @ScrewYouSXSW has 899 followers, a number that's sure to be well over 900 by the time this story goes live. Not bad for an account that was started just yesterday.

Indeed, in its general tone and sense of unironic humor, it reminds me a lot of @s***tmydadsays, a Twitter feed that purports to be the oddball sayings of one gentleman's 74-year-old father and that currently has 1.22 million followers and development deal for a TV show.

And maybe that's just what the mind behind @ScrewYouSXSW is going for. A friend, upon reading the feed, told me he quickly became convinced it was a clever fake, in part because of a little too much specificity in relation to events at home like plumbing emergencies, text messages about friends, and the like.

Either way, it's funny stuff. I want to believe it's true because I like the fact that there's a guy dumb enough to fly off to Austin during his anniversary without his wife, and that he is getting properly and publicly excoriated for it.

Except, oh dear. I just remembered that in 2007, I hopped a 737 to Austin by myself to cover the behind-the-scenes goings-on at the first-ever Maker Faire here...on my five-year anniversary. Now I have to go and look back and see what was going on on Twitter that week.