That’s because the phrase is “batshit crazy,” which apparently first appeared in Hunter Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72.”
I’m pretty sure “batshit” meant crazy before '72. Remember Keenan Wynn’s character in Dr. Strangelove? Col. “Bat” Guano was obviously a play on “batshit” crazy.
All that’s needed is for traditional Asian medicine to regard an animal as a source of virility potion.
The one pre-20th century cite in Google Books is a joke about chickens. Browsing through other cites it seemed that the older ones were references to bats, not pigeons.
It’s a feature in Google Books, which means (a) you’re not going to see newspaper and TV usages and (b) recent books aren’t in the database unless the copyright holder gives permission.
Reviving the thread after a few weeks’ hiatus in honor of Lehrer’s 85th (!!) birthday.
Looking up the phrase “rats with wings” or “rat with wings” on Newspaper Archive does give results before 1965–but none for pigeons. One case–Frederick, MD, 1964–was starlings. The other refs, from 1917 on up, are all bats.
So another datapoint in favor of Colin Jerolmack and Biffy the Elephant Shrew (aak! rats with teeth, rats with trunks!).
Try “batshit crazy” sans quotes.
Spring is here.
MAD Magazine’s Don Martin also addressed the topic.
At the bottom of the screen is “Search in Google Books” under which are a number of links.
Usually the links chop the dates into sensible pieces, but not this time. Far better to just go into Google Books and set a custom range period.
I checked from 1900 - 1966 and only got hits for “rats with wings” in reference to bats. So a 1966 coinage is quite possible.
Batshit crazy doesn’t show up until 1985.
I hope Siam Sam won’t ever see your post.
Life is skittles…
Well, we got rid of passenger pigeons, which were so numerous (billions, compared to only tens of millions of feral pigeons, 400 million worldwide, around 1 million in NYC) I’m sure nobody ever thought they’d be wiped out (and how to wipe them out? Eat them).
Too late. 