What famous U.S. poet has a bat named in her honor? Hint: it’s Micronycteris giovanniae. This leaf-nosed bat was named by Texas Tech biologist Rober Baker, who happens to be a big fan of the work of Nikki Giovanni. The renowned poet has said...
Sandy from Richmond, Virginia, says her mother would fondly recall the bacon bats she participated in while a student at Smith College. A bacon bat was a festive outdoor picnic that featured bacon and other savory treats cooked over an open fire...
Jenny from Portland, Oregon, is fascinated by the language of falconers. In falconry, the word bate means “to flap the wings impatiently.” A similarly spelled verb, which has nothing to do with falconry, figures in the expression to wait...
In the 17th century, the verb to bate and the likely related verb, to bat, were used in falconry to mean “to flap wildly.” By the 19th century, to bat was also part of the phrase to bat one’s eyelashes. This is part of a complete...
There comes a time in life where waving hello means showing off some flabby underarm, but we have some slang to make “flabby underarm” sound a little less icky. A hi Betty takes its name from the idea of someone waving hi to a friend...
If something is in your wheelhouse, it’s well within your area of expertise. According to the Dickson Baseball Dictionary, the term wheelhouse refers to swinging a bat when the ball is right in your crush zone. This is part of a complete...