The Secret Lives of Words: Belfry bats, Bela, and Batman
When our beloved Apalachicola Times editor David Adlerstein confessed recently that he had bats in his belfry (the phrase dates to the late 19th century.), I was afraid his ultra-long workweeks had finally driven him batty. Then I realized he meant literally, not metaphorically. A “colony” of the flying mammals (sometimes also called a “camp,”…