You don't need a pen and something to sign. But there's just as much hoping and waiting involved.

Getting an athlete to reply or retweet your request on Twitter is becoming the 21st century version of snagging an autograph.

It's easy to do. Find your favorite celebrity on Twitter, then send that person a tweet. Something like "OMG! It's my birthday, can I get a retweet?" should suffice. Then hang out for a while and hope the target of your retweeting desires responds with something like "Happy birthday RT @(your handle) ..."

If you're successful, it's pretty cool that a celebrity took a moment of his or her time to communicate directly with you. For a few minutes, anyway. Still, it's your moment.

Retweeting has one advantage over autographs: You know it's authentic. That is, unless the celebrity's account was hacked. But that only happens to Congressmen.

- Howard Primer