Demon from the Dungeon
BIG was a special treat with the Demon from the Dungeon. I hope this will be a regular from now on? May we all have many more years of puzzling ahead.
Linda Watson
Warnbro, WA
Soggy Puzzles
Just a suggestion! What about a simple plastic covering for subscribers books?
Because of bad weather my last two issues of BIG arrived in a soggy condition taking a fair amount of time to dry out the pages, and leaving the paper somewhat crumpled and in some cases difficult to write on.
Otherwise, no complaints. I [more…]
Lovely Suprise!
I received a lovely surprise in the mail today, one address book and keyring, a prize for being successful in Jan BIG Wordygig. These are fun doing, not always easy to find the outcome! Just before Christmas I won a soft neck pillow so am feeling all the hours spent, head down, and on [more…]
From the USA
I have been subscribing to many of your wonderful puzzle books for some time now and the pleasure they give me is just fabulous. I can hardly wait for them to arrive in my mailbox.
I am an Aussie, born in Warrnambool, Victoria and also lived in Melbourne, and now Im living in the U.S, [more…]
Kowtow
Another word for grovel or ‘bow and scrape’ is kowtow.
Chinese ke tou is the act of deep respect shown by bowing so low as to touch your head to the ground.
Ke means ‘bump’ and tou means ‘head’. A subject would kowtow to the Emperor or other superior.
Kowtow came into English in the early [more…]
Ode to the Lovatts Stinker
Read this poem in tribute to the Lovatts Stinker which appears in Lovatts Colossus MagazineMoney
In Ancient Rome an apt nickname used for the goddess Juno was Moneta which may have been derived from the Latin verb monere meaning ‘advise, warn’.
The name Moneta was also applied to her temple in Rome, which contained a mint. In due course, moneta came to mean mint, then ‘stamp for coining’ and finally [more…]
Mind your P’s and Q’s
In polite company you have to watch what you say, be careful to use the right tone and turn of phrase and not to offend.
‘Mind your Ps and Qs’, your mum would say!
As with many phrases of our oral tradition the exact origin is not clear but there are some very believable theories, one [more…]
Atishoo
The sound of a sneeze has the onomatopoeic atishoo to describe it. This works well, and is further authenticated by the word’s similarity to ‘tissue’, a must-have for sneezers.
One theory links the origins of ‘atishoo’ to the Black Death.
The nursery rhyme, Ring a Ring o’Roses, is thought, by some, to have developed as a [more…]
