We had quite a few enquiries about clue 135ac in The Demon of our February BIG Crossword. And we agree this was a devilish clue but we know you expect nothing less of us.
At 129dn Gold leaf needed to be GILT and not GILD and at 124dn Lingered (on) was DWELT, as in [more…]
My wife has a sore hip so she needs me to knead her,
I have a bad back so I need her to knead me,
So, it is needless to say that we both get relief from being needed (kneaded).
Ross La Spina
Bicton, WA
Have you ever wondered why it is thought that impatience leads to undressing?
This exclamation comes from a time before modern manufacturing technology allowed clothes to be mass produced.
A shirt was a much more expensive item than it is today and so if someone were to get into a fight, it made good economic sense [more…]
Could you please settle an argument for me? As I live by myself I always buy the monthly BIG magazine. I send in what I can do each month. My other favourite hobby is Bingo. Sometimes I take my book to Bingo and when we have a break I often ask the ladies some of [more…]
You can sound posh, look posh, come from a posh family, visit a posh restaurant or go to a posh school. We all know what it means but where does POSH originate from?
We usually associate POSH with the British upper-classes and it has gained the wider usage to describe, sometimes pejoratively, ‘smartly-dressed, well-groomed, looking [more…]
If a physician is described as a quack, he is to be avoided, but how did the term come about?
The word has nothing to do with ducks, but comes from the Dutch quacksalver, from quacken meaning prattle and salf meaning a healing ointment.
A quacksalver then was someone who prattled on about the efficacy of [more…]
You may be interested to know where the ‘&’ symbol on our keyboards came from and why it is called the ampersand.
Well, in medieval times the symbol & derived from the Latin et, meaning ‘and’.
The & appeared on every child’s hornbook as part of the alphabet; the 27th symbol after Z. It was [more…]
On February 10, 2013, Chinese New Year will be celebrated and it will become the Year of the Snake, according to the Chinese horoscope.
In the build up to New Year, houses are cleaned and newly painted and gifts, food and clothing are bought. Paper cut-outs of words such as happiness, wealth and longevity are used to decorate houses [more…]
