Thursday, August 6, 2009

hebetude \HEB-uh-tood-; -tyood\, noun:

• Mental dullness or sluggishness.

Hebetude derives ultimately from Latin hebes, "blunt, dull, mentally dull, sluggish, stupid." The adjective form is hebetudinous.

Ghost Tweeter

1. The act of helping a friend fine tune their twitter updates. Either to make them funnier or more concise.
2. Knowingly coming up with tweets for a friend or colleague.
3. Tweeting for a company or entity under the guise of being them.
4. Tweeting as a celebrity without their knowledge.

"Wow, Jane's last tweet was hilarious. she must have a funny ghost tweeter."
or
"That's not really Ashton Kutcher on twitter. That is a ghost tweeter."
Trivia
Gin is colorless—but what about sloe gin?

• It’s purplish red. The sloe plum used in its manufacture gives the gin-based liqueur both its name and its color.

Today in History:

• Holy Roman Empire: came to an end with the abdication of Francis II (1806)
• Bolivia: declared independence from Spain (1825)
• electric chair: was first used as method of execution, on murderer William Kemmler at New York's Auburn Prison (1890)
• Enola Gay: US bomber dropped an atomic weapon on Hiroshima, killing over 60,000 instantly; it was the first-ever use of nuclear warfare (1945)
• Voting Rights Act: was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson; it prohibited states from imposing racial discrimination at the polls based on literacy or financial ability (1965)

Today's Birthdays:

• Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955): bacteriologist who discovered penicillin
• Richard Hofstadter (1916-1970): Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
• Andy Warhol (1928-1987): pop artist who had his "fifteen minutes of fame"
• Jeremy Ratchford (44): actor, Cold Case; also, actors Lucille Ball (1911-1989), Robert Mitchum (1917-1997), Peter Bonerz (71), Dorian Harewood (59), Catherine Hicks (58), Michelle Yeoh (47), Merrin Dungey (38), David Campbell (36), Ever Carradine (35) and Soleil Moon Frye (33)
  M. Night Shyamalan (39): writer/director, The Sixth Sense
• Geri Halliwell (37): the former Ginger Spice; musicians Charlie Haden (72), Pat MacDonald (57) and Patsy and Peggy Lynn (both 45) were also born on this date
• Stepfanie Kramer (53) is an American actress, writer, and singer/songwriter. She is probably best known for her role as the tough-minded detective, "Sgt. Dee Dee McCall," on the 80s NBC TV series Hunter.