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| LIFE IN SOLERA | FEBRUARY 2025 | 23 Thi & Tha By the Solera Ghostwriter Since bats are nocturnal animals and must sleep during the daytime, it was natural for them to take up residence in dark recesses such as caves. And since they could not sleep on the floors of the caves without being attacked by predators, it was also natural that they find a way to sleep on or near the ceilings. Now if caves had been equipped with lots of shelf-like platforms, it is likely that the bats would have learned to sleep upright on these in the same way birds sleep on limbs. But in the absence of such structures, nature had to adapt bats to sleep the only way they could under these conditions – hanging upside down from the ceiling. Why 13 makes a bakers dozen why a horse gallop is called a canter red eyes in a flash photograph in cahoots why bats sleep upside down At one time the problem of bakers' short weighting their customers became so serious that laws were enacted imposing severe penalties for any baker caught doing this. This meant that bakers had to be very careful about the weight of the bread they sold. But in those days, it was difficult to make bread loaves of uniform weight. So, to make absolutely sure that a dozen loaves sold to a shopkeeper didn't contain less than the required weight, the bakers often threw in a thirteenth loaf. These 13 loaves became known as a baker's dozen. Later the term came to describe 13 of anything. When pilgrims used to make their periodic treks on horseback to the shrine of Thomas A Becket at Canterbury, England, they typically rode along the old Kent Road at a slow gait somewhere between a trot and a gallop. This gait, which was a bit peculiar to watch, became known as the Canterbury gallop. The term stuck and, overtime, was gradually shortened until today that peculiar gait is called just a canter. This occurs when a flash is so aimed that its light reflects off the back of the eye and into the camera lens. The red is caused by the blood vessels in the retinal tissue on the back of the eye. In parts of medieval Europe, at a time when there was little police protection, many bandits, robbers, and highway-men ran rampant. Gangs of these criminals often stayed in makeshift cabins called "cahutes," and anyone thought to be in partnership with one of the gangs was described as being "in cahoots" (i.e., in cahutes) with them. At one time the problem of bakers' short weighting their customers became so serious that laws were enacted imposing severe penalties for any baker caught doing this. This meant that bakers had to be very careful about the weight of the bread they sold. But in those days, it was difficult to make bread loaves of uniform weight. So, to make absolutely sure that a dozen loaves sold to a shopkeeper didn't contain less than the required weight, the bakers often threw in a thirteenth loaf. These 13 loaves became known as a baker's dozen. Later the term came to describe 13 of anything.

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