I was listening to A Way with Words podcast the other day, the discussion being about horses being named for their color – palomino, sorrel, bay, etc. I learned that the word palomino comes from the early 20th century Spanish palomino ‘young pigeon’, from Latin palumbinus ‘resembling a dove’. The name pigeon comes from late …
In 2016 there was a study in New Ideas in Psychology entitled On the Nature of Creepiness. An online survey of 1341 individuals asked what appearances and behaviors by others made them feel creepy. Perhaps not surprisingly, the top three occupations listed as creepy are clown, taxidermist, and sex shop owner. The least creepy was …
As I occasionally like to do, here’s a little natural history of an interesting bird group, this time the Lyrebird, either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds of the genus Menura and the family Menuridae. They are notable for their superb ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment, and the striking …
Ever hear the myth about not throwing rice at weddings because the birds that eat the grains will blow up when the rice expands? That would come as a real surprise to rice farmers who spend a lot of time and effort to keep birds from eating their crop. The other carbohydrate-related story is that …
