flitillary n.— «The erratic, zigzagging flight of courting and songbird-evading fritillaries prompt some people to refer to them as “flitillaries.” Actually, the genus name probably derives from fritillus, a cylindrical cup used by the...
underperforming asphalt n.— «In auto-dependent suburbs that were built without a traditional center, shopping malls offer the chance to create downtowns without destroying existing infrastructure, by recycling what’s known as...
flipping n.— «Those wetlands that remained were often tracts of infertile, troublesome land such as the West Coast pakihi swamps. Yet today even these are under pressure. Mechanical diggers are now used to smash the buried, impervious...
The answer to the riddle “Nature requires five, custom gives seven, laziness takes nine, and wickedness eleven” is hours of sleep a night. It comes from a collection of riddles gathered from Black schoolchildren in New Orleans and printed in early...
snow-cone v.— «But how many close plays at first are there? How many near catches in the outfield that are called as a catch when they are “snow-coned?”» —“MLB: Rekindle the Instant Replay Controversy” by...
hung up adj.— «I couldn’t see the bird, but I knew he was “hung up” in turkey hunting vernacular, strutting his stuff with the logical expectation that the hen (me) would come to him. That’s how it usually works in nature, but...