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.

Wishful thinking – April BIG contests

 If you are feeling ‘Nostalgic’ (Demon 3dn) you are feeling WISTFUL. Nostalgia comes from two Greek words meaning ‘returning home’ and ‘pain’ to signify the pain a person feels when he/she wishes they were home. WISHFUL is not quite the same; wistful is wishful plus yearning or longing.
Our Demon looks just a little stout [more…]

Life goes on

I’ve submitted my first DIY entry for a long time. Since Black Saturday I have been unable to send in my efforts as I found my clues were all dark, dreary and sad, and it was obvious that living so close to the devastating fires had negatively affected my thought process. So I am [more…]

Laurel’s favourite books

You ask in BIG Magazine what are my favourite books? I love anything by Jeffrey Archer and have just finished ‘Paths of Glory’, a fictional? biography of George Mallory based on letters written to his wife Ruth. After reading it the reader is left with the question, “Who was the  first man to conquer [more…]

CALkuro Video Tutorial

Video tutorial on how to solve a Lovatts Calkuro.

Finally ‘cracked it’

What a surprise! After many submissions I finally ‘cracked it’. First there was your cheque for $100 for my winning entry in the Demon then there was your prize for my winning entry in Ninesies. Thank you so much.

I intend to use the money towards subscriptions to some of your publications. The newsagents in [more…]

White Matter Keeps Brain Working: Expert

That daily crossword or Sudoku puzzle has just been elevated from fun time waster to vital task.

Australian researchers have found it’s not grey matter that disappears with age, but connecting white matter in the brain.

The research is rewriting the book on how the brain ages, and shows how important it is to undertake mentally [more…]

Where do I start?

Hi Christine

I have recently turned 77 years old and I receive The Works, Mega and Code Cracker magazine. One of your readers asked where people started each crossword and my response is that I start each crossword all over the place depending on my mood , eg. The Colossus is started in the centre [more…]

Earl Grey

We all know of the famous Earl Grey tea but how did the tea get its name? Well this is not a simple matter.

According to Twinings, Prime Minister Earl Grey was given a case of this black tea flavoured with bergamot oil by a Chinese Mandarin and loved it so much that he asked [more…]

A Total Family Affair

Thank you so much for all the books of crosswords and puzzles. When they arrive in the mail it is a dash to see who will start them first.

We photocopy the competitions and all the family work on them.  My son particularly likes the cryptic and my husband does the pop words.

I get to [more…]