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Hats off 🎩
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If you've been watching hockey this season or you're gearing up for this year's World Cup, you're likely familiar with the term hat trick. And if you're not, here you go: It's when one player scores three goals in one game. It's commonly associated with hockey and soccer, but it can apply to other sports, as well as to a series of three victories. But there are no hats in soccer, and hockey players wear helmets. So why the "hat"? "Hat trick" made its sports debut in cricket. When a bowler would retire three batsmen with three consecutive balls, the bowler would get a hat from his club to celebrate the accomplishment. Then there's also the magic of it all. Around the same time people began using "hat trick" in cricket, magicians were also starting to pull objects out of hats. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, there was also a bar trick that might have influenced the term. The trick involved someone putting a hat over a glass of liquor and declaring they would drink it without touching the hat. They would then duck under the table and make slurping sounds before popping back up in the hopes an observer would pick up the hat to check. Then, the trickster could grab the liquor and drink it, all without touching the hat. So even if you can't score three goals in one game, you still might be able to pull off a hat trick 🤷♀️🎩 Any other sports-related terms you're curious about? Hit reply and let us know. ❤ Team Stylebot
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Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
Happy Friday! We’re changing it up a little bit this week. Instead of a writing tip, we have an announcement: Stylebot has been acquired by Indiegraf, the operating system for independent local media. This means that our style guide – the source of all the writing tips in this newsletter – will be available to more than 180 local newsrooms via Indie Editor, Indiegraf's built-in editing assistant. Learn more about Indie Editor here. We’ve so enjoyed bringing you writing tips every Friday, so...
Dear Stylebot subscribers, we have some important and exciting news: Indiegraf, the operating system for independent local media, has acquired Stylebot. That means Stylebot's technology is becoming Indiegraf's built-in editing assistant, Indie Editor. What that means for you: Stylebot’s products (our Slack, Teams, Chrome and Google Docs integrations) will remain operational until April 28. By the end of that day, all accounts will be closed and your access to these products will end. Refunds:...
Have you ever had to alter a draft of your writing because you confused two homophones? It's easy to do online, but harder if you're using expensive stationery. And what about those instances where you didn't even realize you were using the wrong homophone? Knowing you've been doing it wrong for years can feel like a hangar-size mistake. Any idea where we're going with this? 😉 You might have spotted three sneaky homophones in the sentences above: alter, stationery and hangar. Each has a...