19 September 2013

earworm

[eer-wurm]

Informal.

noun
1. a tune or part of a song that repeats in one’s mind.
verb (used with object)
2. to work (itself or its way) into a person’s mind: The Pepsi jingles have earwormed their way into my head.
Origin:
1980–85; loan translation of German Ohrwurm ‘catchy tune, earwig’

Today’s aphorism

If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed.

– Sylvia Plath

On this day

19 September – International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

19 September 1952 – Charlie Chaplin exiled from the United States because of his anti-war and humanitarian beliefs which conflicted with McCarthy’s ‘reds under the bed’ policy.

19 September 1959 – USSR President Nikita Khrushchev banned from visiting Disneyland … ironically 31 years after Mickey Mouse debuted on screen. The reason given was that the Los Angeles Police Chief couldn’t provide adequate security.

19 September 1982 – birth of the emoticon. At 11.44am on this day, a computer scientist by the name of Scott Fahlman suggested on a bulletin board forum that the now iconic 🙂 be used to indicate a post was ‘not serious’. It has now come to also mean happy, as well as not serious for when people post comments, emails etc … or when they think a smiley will help ease a flame …