October is National Bat Month

I hear Ozzy Osbourne celebrates National Bat Month with a cake in the shape of a bat. Can't say for sure if that's true, but hey, I wouldn't doubt it.

I looked for a nickname for sad sacks such as myself who spend too much time scrolling and whining here on Facebook. There is no nickname I could find. Damn, that's odd. I would think someone had come up with a derogatory name to use long ago.

Anyway, when I hauled Rock n Roll shows back in the mid 1970's, I drove for Black Sabbath on 2 tours. More than a few of the other bands I hauled hailed from across the Atlantic Ocean in England. They brought their own slang and idioms with them. Three of my favorites were:

• 
  Wanker - Some one who jacks off, masturbates, fiddles with their pud, or spanks their monkey. To be called a wanker though, can sometimes be a term of endearment.
• Ligger - A Ligger is a person who is always ready to go to a free party. Generally when backstage, one does not want to be called a Ligger. Groupies and over dressed star struck relatives of the promoter are Liggers. 
• Yank - The Brits called all Americans "Yank" which often pissed off  SHOWCO employees(the company I drove for). Many , if not most of the SHOWCO roadies, truck drivers and engineers were Texans. Calling someone from Texas a Yank can be taken as a serious, "them's fightin words" in the mind of an inebriated truck driver on the tour. I found it hilarious, but then I grew up being from nowhere in particular.

Because there is a lack of a decent nickname for Facebook time wasters, I will call them FLiggers since Facebook is a free party and so many of us just hang around on it, or wait for any notification with anxious enthusiasm.

Back to Bats and National Bat Month, which was my original reason for this post.

Like too many plants and animals out there, Bats are among the most endangered species on the planet. And like so many plants and animals on the rock here, they play an integral role in keeping our ecological machines functioning somewhat smoothly at least for the time being. 

There are over 1400 or 500  different kinds of bats. ( Take your pick. I saw both numbers as being fact ) Most bats are smaller than an orange and no bat is a real threat to humans. Yes, some have been known to carry rabies. But if you were bit by a rabid bat, you probably did something it decided was a threat. Bats, as a rule, do their best to avoid us. We're the assholes, not them.

It's too bad bats get lumped in with all the creatures that too many of us falsely consider nasty, evil, disease ridden vermin we would be better off without. In reality, Bats are better for the planet than humans are. Humans are the nasty, evil, disease ridden vermin, not the bats. 

Bats deserve the planet more than we do.

Keep it 'tween the ditches ...........................................

BTW - For some interesting facts (and cool pictures) about Bats, check out this site.

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The topic of bats made me think of Ozzy Osbourne. Thinking of Ozzy made me think of Black Sabbath. Thinking of Black Sabbath made me think of two things. 

First, I remembered buying their album, "Paranoid", my freshman year in college. I smoked a lot of pot and ate a lot of Acid listening to that album. 

But most of all, the song "Iron Man" from that album was their opening tune both tours I drove for them. I became so sick of "Iron Man", I am only including it in this post as a reminder that some songs do wear out their welcome. 

Anyway, please at least endure or even like "Iron Man" from Sabbath's 1970 album, "Paranoid". Playing this song at less than WOW would be sacrilegious.