Tweets can be a dangerous thing, especially if you don't use the right word.
Case in point, when Miami Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen took to the Twitterverse last night, she almost created a firestorm that might have knocked Tiger Woods off the front page.
Ros-Lehtinen, who attended a White House function Monday, used the word catty in reference to First Lady Michelle Obama during a late-night tweet.
Now usually that word means that someone is about to open up a fresh can of derogatory statements on their intended target. And coming from a Republican directed toward a Democrat president's wife, the elements were there for a gargantuan media explosion.
We expected to see something like, "I hate to be catty but Michelle Obama looks God-awful in that dress" or "I hate to be catty but the First Lady needs a breath meant and a new hairdresser."
Instead, we got this.
"Hate to be catty but the First Lady looked stunning," Roh-Lehtinen wrote.
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Huh? Maybe in the Ros-Lehtinen version of the dictionary catty means "to be over complimentary or in awe." In the dictionary everyone else uses, catty means "subtly cruel or malicious; spiteful."
We expect more from Ros-Lehtinen, a former elementary school teacher and principal in Hialeah. She also holds a doctorate in higher education from the University of Miami.
Luckily, Ros-Lehtinen avoided a media feud of nuclear proportions, but let this be a lesson to all.
Before you use that word in a tweet, grab a dictionary and find out what it means.
