okay, for posterity: delete from statuses where account_id = <id> and <condition>;
@noiob transactions and "select count(*) where" is your friend, but it never really stops being nervewracking
@noiob gosh yeah. even with backups!
i always hesitate before doing it, even if that was preceded by all the select
s i needed to be totally sure that i'm doing the right thing
also wow it's scary to do surgery on the live database