When it comes to writing crossword clues, we have to be very careful when describing a word, especially when there’s another word with a similar meaning. Fortunately the other word is usually of a different length and wouldn’t fit the clue space.
However, we try to be as accurate as possible, and there are some [more…]
We hear some amazing real-life stories from our readers.
Here’s the story of Lynette Anesbury, who used our crosswords to retrain her brain.
Lynette has been doing crosswords since she was ten. A family friend introduced her to crosswords in the paper. They started having races to see who could finish the newspaper crossword first. She [more…]
The word cutlery comes from the Old French word coutellerie (related to today’s French word couteau ‘knife’) yet the words knife, fork and spoon are all from Old English. The knife was by far the earliest of the cutlery items.
The word knife comes from the Old English cnif, and the first knives would have [more…]
One of the happiest occasions that happens in a family is a wedding, which incidentally comes from the old English weddian ‘to pledge to do something’.
My son Patrick’s recent wedding was no exception. On a sunny afternoon in our local church, 150 family and friends gathered to see Patrick and Sarah marry and [more…]
Toff – ‘a rich or upper class person’.
University dress includes an academic cap, or mortarboard, with a black tassel. At Oxford and Cambridge from around the 1600s the titled young undergraduates began to wear gold tassels, known as tufts, as a mark of their superior status.
As often happens with language, the word’s usage [more…]
Philip & Leoni Jenner purchased Port Mall Newsagency in Port Adelaide over 15 years ago. In that time they have transformed the business into a modern newsagency with a diverse product range. Their children, Simon, Kate, Ashley and Cindy,as well as daughter-in-law Lucy have all worked in the business around their school and university [more…]
Readers often tell me that when they can’t solve a crossword clue, they sleep on it and hey presto! In the morning the answer suddenly springs out at them.
Writer John Steinbeck discusses this phenomenon “It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of [more…]
This article appeared in Woman’s Day 14/3/2012:
Get the Kids Cross-Training
We’ve all heard doing the Woman’s Day crossword may help ward of dementia, but did you know the crusical age to engage your brain is between six and 40?
Researchers at the University of California surveyed 65 adults with an average age of 76 and found [more…]
Hula hoops, beehive hairdos, pet rocks, lava lamps and the Brady Bunch all had their day in the spotlight but were they all just passing fancies?
This relatively recent expression comes from American advertising posters of the 1930s. It became popular with ice cream companies who saw a flavour-of-the-month as a great marketing idea.
Often the [more…]
