Christine Lovatt's Desk

Welcome to Christine's Desk

Here you'll find a variety of puzzle themed items and pieces of information to hold your interest. Learn about some of the wonderful words and phrases in our everyday language, find out about the health benefits of crosswords and puzzles, be entertained by Christine's Hello column… and there's much more on offer. The latest submissions appear below. Thanks for dropping by and we hope you enjoy your visit.

Hello – BIG April 2013

When we hear something we don’t understand, we say “It’s all Greek to me”. This might be closer to the truth than we realise, because about a quarter of the words we use originally came from ancient Greek, either directly or through Latin and French.

‘Brotherly love’ in Greek is philia, [more…]

My Cup Of Tea

This means something one finds pleasing though it’s more often heard in the negative – but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Tea is, or most certainly was, the national beverage of Britain and it gave rise to lots of idiomatic phrases such as ‘storm in a teacup’ and ‘not for all the tea in [more…]

The Lion’s Share

To take the lion’s share is to take the larger part or even the majority of what is to be apportioned out.

There are many tales from ancient times that tell of a group of animals going hunting and the lion using his strength and position as king to claim all the spoils.

The story is [more…]

Crocodile Tears

Crocodile tears are insincere displays of emotion such as feigning sympathy at your opponents’ team losing a match.

In ancient times it was reported and believed that crocodiles put on sad looks and sighed sorrowfully to lure their prey. Moments later they would devour the naïve innocent party and weep (with delight?) while munching on [more…]

Hello – BIG March 2013

The word Saracen comes from the Arab word sharq ‘east, sunrise'. It originally referred to desert people who were not Arabs, but by the time of the Crusades, which ran from 1096 until 1272, it had come to mean Muslim Arabs – in other words, the enemy. A Saracen was a Muslim soldier who defended his territories from the Crusaders...

Hello – BIG February 2013

I read recently that the most common word in the English-speaking world is no, with okay as a runner-up.

But what about the most commonly used word in the world – English-speaking or not?

Words such as radio, bank, café, chocolate and beer are understood in many countries even though they may have their own [more…]

Puzzling Poet

I do love Lovatts puzzles,
They keep me on my toes,
Word puzzles, number puzzles,
Anything that goes.

When first I started puzzling
It was to have some fun,
My only real ambition
To solve each and every one.

I started entering contests
And to my great surprise
I found upon my doorstep
A little booklight prize.

Then followed in succession
A voucher and a cheque,
A dictionary/thesaurus
And [more…]

Hello – BIG January 2013

A mocha coffee, for instance, is named after the seaport of Mocha in Yemen where the arabica coffee was shipped from.

The word bungalow, meaning a single-storey house, comes from India, from the Hindi word for a low thatched house, bangla meaning literally ‘Bengalese house’.

A sturdy fabric called serge, made in the French town [more…]

Hello BIG December 2012

As I sit down to write about Christmas, as I do at this time every year, it occurs to me that my Christmas as a celebration is gradually changing.

As a child, it was about the Nativity scene, about singing carols, the delicious aromas in the kitchen where Mum was cooking turkey and mince pies. [more…]