Crossed Wires
Take a lighter look at language. Appears monthly in Christine's BIG Crossword magazine – [GeoTargeted to=”AU,NZ”]click here for more information[/GeoTargeted][GeoTargeted out=”AU,NZ”]click here for more information[/GeoTargeted]
Crossed Wires April 2011
Wills and Kate
“When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen..” as the song goes. Titles of kings and queens sometimes crop up as crossword clues, so here’s some royal trivia.William and Kate will be tying the knot this month and her surname will officially be Windsor. Kate will be known as [more…]
Crossed Wires March 2011
A Penny For Your Thoughts
Which of the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Serbia or Tunisia has the dinar as its currency?
The answer is all of them.
The dinar sometimes crops up in our crosswords, and may be clued as Middle East currency. It comes from the Roman coin denarius which means 10 [more…]
Creature Feature – 192
Extract from Crossed Wires BIG 192
Crocodile tears refers to an insincere display of emotion. This ancient expression, which was used in ancient Rome, comes from an ancient anecdote that crocodiles weep in order to lure their prey, or that they cry for the victims they are eating. It may come from the fact that [more…]
Bee’s Knees – 191
Extract from Crossed Wires BIG 191
A reader recently wrote to tell us she thought our puzzle magazines were the bee’s knees, which was nice to hear. ‘The bee’s knees’ is a phrase used to describe an excellent or ideally suitable person or thing.The exact origin of this phrase is uncertain. One story is that [more…]
Give Us A Clue – 191
Extract from BIG Crossword Magazine No.191
Thanks for all your clues for bedrock and motive. More than one of you clued bedrock as home of the Flintstones, fundamentals, basics, hard mattress and solid foundation.
For motive, many of you offered reason, cause, incitement and purpose. I liked Psychology which arouses an organism to action toward a [more…]
Christmas Traditions – 190
Extract from Crossed Wires BIG 190
Here are some interesting facts about the traditions of Christmas:
The Christmas cracker is 161 years old this year. It was invented by English baker Tom Smith, who first sold wrapped sweets and added mottoes into the wrappers. When he heard the crackle of a log in the fire, he [more…]
Saint Andrew – 189
Extract from Crossed Wires BIG 189
The last day of November is the feast day of St Andrew, a Jewish fisherman from Bethsaida and younger brother of St Peter. Obviously popular internationally, he’s the patron saint of Scotland, Russia, Romania, Greece, Amalfi, and Luqa in Malta. The Scottish flag features St Andrew’s X-shaped cross.
The name [more…]
Hiss And Pant?
Extract from Crossed Wires BIG 188
With all the coughing and sneezing going on in the office, I looked into the origins of these words, and found that cough comes from German keuchen ‘to pant’ and wheeze from Old Norse hvaesa ‘to hiss’.
Hiccup, once called hicket or hyckock, is named after the sound of the [more…]