Tweaking out

[Landau, James]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003618824_harding15m.ht
ml
<quote>
Clark County sheriff's deputies responded to two calls early Sunday
involving infamous figure skater Tonya Harding, who was described in
police reports as "very agitated" and "tweaking out."
<snip>
Later the same morning, about 9 a.m., police received another call
regarding Harding, this time from a friend who told authorities the
skater was "tweaking out, seeing animals." The caller said Harding was
staying with her and was not violent. She said she worried about her own
children's welfare.
</quote>
Google has 24,600 hits for "tweaking out" and 1.35 million for "freaking
out", which may be the original phrase.  Of the 24,600, some refer to
electronic phenemona.
Considering that the unnamed 9 a.m. caller had legitimate reason to fear
for the safety of her children if not herself, we have something that I
do not recall seeing before in ADS-L:  a stress malaprop.
UrbanDictionary.com at
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tweaking+out gives the
definition as "Suddenly getting really kick-ass and unbeatable in Smash
Bros. due to some unknown source of adrenaline or many hours of
practice."  Duh?
      - Jim Landau 

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