Although it might just as well be. This overused word could refer to a truck model, a Toronto basketball player, a video game, a space ship, a roller coaster or a (ho hum) flow chart program. We’ll stick with the classic raptor, however — a bird-like dinosaur (or, if you prefer a dinosaur-like bird), a (wherefore art thou) dromeosaur to be specific. 
The most famous of these would be the velociraptor, thanks to the movie Jurassic World. The newest kid on the block would be the Microraptor Gui who had its coming out party on January 22, 2003 when Chinese researchers announced its discovery.
Microraptor Gui is a cute little creature as dinosaurs go. A four-winged, flying feathered people eater, if you will. At a height of three feet, it looks vaguely like a baby dragon or a roadrunner. It probably couldn’t have eaten people, just nipped annoyingly at their heinies, although those who know such things would say there were no human heinies around to nip at. What this little fellow does is give us a chance to segue to the dinosaurs that are really interesting — the big ones, the ones who would swallow people whole.
Take brontosaurus . . . please. Seventy feet from nose to tail — that’s a lot to swallow. If you don’t believe that the world is getting hotter or that its round or that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, you’re gonna believe in this guy placidly chomping on tree tops rather than his fellow dinosaurs? Or tasty humans? We could show countless film clips showing humans and dinosaurs together but instead we’ll show a clip of two dinosaurs fighting. Over the last human, probably.
No, Your Other West
Back to flying creatures. (How’s that for a segue?) American aviator Douglas Corrigan was born on January 22, 1907. In 1938, he bought a fixer-upper airplane and rebuilt it himself. Then in July of that year he flew nonstop from California to New York. This wasn’t a first by any means; he only got national attention because no one thought his clunker would make it.
In New York, he filed flight plans for a transatlantic trip but was denied permission by aviation authorities. They did grudgingly give him permission for a return trip to California, and once again he took to the air. Twenty-eight hours later he touched down in Dublin, Ireland, expressing surprise that it didn’t look much like California. When advised of his actual location, he aw shucksed a story about getting confused in the clouds with a bum compass.
No one believed it, and he was grounded and shipped back to the states along with his plane. But “Wrong Way” Corrigan had become a national celebrity.
Your Feet’s Too Big
Sir Walter Raleigh, born on January 22, 1552, was what you might call an 
English dabbler. He colonized, soldiered, explored, spied, wrote poetry, played at politics, and pushed tobacco. He was a favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth I because, as legend has it, he spread his coat over a puddle so she wouldn’t get her feet wet. He was executed in 1618 by James I, who did get his feet wet.
Wretched Richard's Almanac 