Good news this month for anyone whose birthday falls on 29th February – this is a leap year so you can celebrate your birthday on the correct day instead of 28th February or 1st March. Or maybe you don’t mind not having a birthday, because you claim to be only a quarter of your [more…]
Sibyl’s prophecy for a Stinker
A simple spelling mistake caught out some Stinker-lovers at 1dn. ‘Prophetess’ needed SIBYL not SYBIL. Sibyl’s were depicted as old women who lived in caves making prophecies. The most famous was the one who assisted Aeneas in his journey to the underworld.
Another often misspelt name caught out others of you [more…]
Magnificent Monster
The Double Monster is one of your favourite contests, combining the fun of cracking the code in the Monster Starhunt, with the challenge of unravelling the clues in the Monster Colossus.
With so many clues to solve it is no surprise when a few errors appear.
At 33dn the clue ‘False doctrines’ needed HERESIES and [more…]
Keeping the judges honest
Judging the competition entries always results in much discussion around words and meanings. Sometimes things get a little heated, but we always come to a decision and are as kind as we can be, while still being fair to all entrants. This month’s entries provided much brain-stretching for our team.
At 1dn [more…]
Teeing up the clues
In the Cashwords, for ‘Arranged, … up’ at 170dn, we accepted both TEED and TIED. Tee comes from the sporting world. A tee is a stand for a ball, perhaps the best known being the golfer’s tee. A golfer tees up and tees off.
Arranged can also be to tie up, [more…]
Akimbo is a stance with hands on hips and elbows turned out, usually showing impatience or defiance.
Akimbo is an old word that is only heard in this phrase, or very occasionally and more recently, as ‘legs akimbo’. Another such example is ‘aback’, which only occurs in ‘taken aback’.
In Middle English akimbo appeared as kenebowe [more…]
Argy-bargy is British slang with the meaning ‘noisy quarrelling’.
The word appears to come from an earlier form, ‘argle-bargle’, which originated in Scotland. The first part of the doublet is a modification of the word ‘argue’ and the second part is nonsense rhyming. Oxford lists the plural as argy-bargies.
This type of playful language is known [more…]
Fishing is one of the oldest occupations in the world, dating back at least as far as the Paleolithic era when catching fish was necessary for survival. Today, people fish for many reasons such as relaxation, the sport of it, or simply for the fish story – that colourful boastful tale about the size [more…]
As we start counting down the days to Christmas, here at home, it’s a good time to look at what the rest of the world does at this time.
Nearly all countries that celebrate Christmas have Christmas trees, although not necessarily fir trees. Sometimes fig trees or palm trees are decorated and lit. Most countries [more…]
