Idioms

In 2001, Dwayne from Beige Records asked a woman in a Chicago Transit Authotity booth for a hint on what train to take to get home. The lady did not know anything and gave completely wrong directions. Later Dwayne said “That lady was bitmapped”, a nice way of vilifying her intellectual capabilities.

Bitmaps are computer graphics that are composed from two colors. Every pixel’s color is determined by just one bit. For example, if the bit is zero the pixel is white, if it is one the pixel is black. Computer images of today use at least 24 bits for every pixel and are referred to as “true color”. This was already the case in 2001, therefore calling somebody bitmapped could be considered a proper insult even back then. The picture of a brain as a bitmap serves well to express simple-mindedness.

Now follows an image of one of the most well known bitmapped ladies ever:

This bitmap was made in 1983 by Susan Kare who is not bitmapped at all.

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