Years ago I bought and browsed a thin paperback titled "The Compleat Cruciverbalist." I've forgotten the author's name. Since then it's become one of my favorite words, even though I had assumed the authors had fabricated it. Never occurred to me it might be in a dictionary, but I'm glad to discover it's there.
http://www.geocities.com/elbillaf/cross1.html
k
Dear Fiend: My ten buck CD dictionary does not have "cruciverbalist". But I immediately found twenty sites on Internet that used it. Fifty years ago the puzzles involved obscure words. Now they have so much trivia, entertainers, etc. that I can't compete because I don't go to movies or watch TV because of deafness. I miss the old time puzzles.
Obviously, cruciverbalist was "made up" by someone who wanted something a little more pompous than crossword designer. But made up or not, if it become common currency, it gets into the dictionary.
Witness "Delia" spit, cough, splutter, glare, hoick and .... Which just goes to show that someone, somewhere should set standards for words which are to be allowed into the dictionary!
Anyway, fallible or not, welcome fiend. We'll be looking forward to some devilishly clever posts in the future.
Dear CK: I think you are 'cruciverbalizing" on the diagonal. I searched diligently for "Delia" and found many sites about her cooking, but nothing about expectoration.
http://www.answerbank.co.uk/Article.go?id=2397&category_id=nullWho is Delia, that no swains defend her?
You would need to look at the latest English edition of Collins, Bill. That's where she be. And she's famous for colesterol-increasing and incipient-heart-attack-promoting cooking ...
It got a LOT of airtime on the radio here ... mostly complaints from famous DJs who haven't got their names as a word in Collins.
Dear CK: That URL I gave is to the latest Collins. But your whited out remarks sounded as though Delia was something like far advanced pulmonary tuberculosis. " My bonnie has tuberculosis, My bonnie has only one lung, She hocks up such beautiful oysters, And rolls them around on her tongue."
P.S.
Dear CK: is it possible that you were hoping nobody could figure out what you were talking about? That would be genuinely naughty.
Dear CK: is it possible that you were hoping nobody could figure out what you were talking about? That would be genuinely naughty.No, not at all, Bill. Everyone in the civilised world will have heard about Delia's canonisation to lexicographical sainthood by now. Therefore, I don't think it will come as a surprise in, oh, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India, Sri Lanka, parts of Africa, a couple of small places in South and Central America, Scott Base, South Georgia ...
Dear CK: You apparently are under the delusion that the sun does not set on UK culture.
So why all the mewling and puking?
Xfmdpnf, TheFallibleFiend! Hmbe up ibwf zpv bCpbse.
Everyone in the civilised world will have heard about Delia's canonisation A-hem...that's canoni
zation, sir. [What IS it about these Kiwis e]
You apparently are under the delusion that the sun does not set on UK culture.
Did I use the term "UK culture"? Or is calling your attention to a minor matter of fact more "mewling and puking"?
[What IS it about these Kiwis e]
Well, for starters, m'dear, they can spell ....
they can spell
Hah! It's just pronunciation they have problems with.
Glad to be aboard.
thanks,
k
Being largely ignorant of popular culture, I don't do well on crosswords either. I don't know or want to know about actors, talk shows, sports, and lot of other things that some people find fascinating. But I still like doing them on occasion. I also like playing trivia games, even though I always lose, and am happy to free my neurons of unwelcome factoids as quickly as I acquire them.
k
Being largely ignorant of popular culture, I don't do well on crosswords either.
Y'all're doing the wrong crossword puzzles.
Glad to be aboard.Hah--I knew you wouldn't have any trouble with that! [delighted emoticon]
I don't know or want to know about actors, talk shows, sports, and lot of other things that some people find fascinating. But I still like doing them on occasion. I also like playing trivia games, even though I always lose, and am happy to free my neurons of unwelcome factoids as quickly as I acquire them.We are cut from the same cloth, I see.
Whenever my brother plays trivia games and doesn't know the answer, he always answers "Brooke Shields". Pick your answer and stick to it.
Can Shields Brooke Britney's Speare?
Whenever my brother plays trivia games and doesn't know the answer, he always answers "Brooke Shields". Pick your answer and stick to it.Yes. There was an elderly geezer (must have been 60) on The Weakest Link late last year who obviously hadn't seen a film in years. The poor devil kept getting questions relating to films, and more specifically to actresses. His response to the first actress/film question was "Kylie Minogue". Wrong.
Next round, he's not voted off and as luck would have it his first question of the round was another actress-in-the-film type question. The first one was about some obscure 1920s movie and who the actress was. I can't remember the correct answer, but this poor chappie dutifully trots out "Kylie Minogue!" again. Acid Annie's mouth twitched.
As luck would have it - and I think everyone was holding their breath by this time - this poor sod got
yet another actress-in-the-film type question. I remembered this one: "Who was the lead actress in 'Basic Instinct'?"
"Sharon Stone, Sharon Stone, go on, tell her, come on, you can do it!" I, and probably most of that part of Britain who were tuned in to the program
prayed on hs behalf. His responses up until now had been pretty quick; he knew he didn't know, and Kylie had obviously made a deep impression on him at some time (figuratively speaking, anyway).
But this time he hesitated. Not for long, but there was definitely a pause. Britain sat on the edge of its collective chair with bated breath (no cheese here, Monsignor Faldage).
Finally, in a small voice, "Uh, Kylie Minogue?"
Acerbic Annie lost the plot and burst out laughing. She was so tickled by him that she even forgot to be nasty as he left at the end of the round ...
I notice you're from Louisville, KY.
I'm currently in VA, but I was born in Louisville, and later attended Fort Knox HS, and graduated from U of L (Speed School).
k
Kylie Minogue
I have some friends who like to play Trivial PursuitŪ. They once roped me into a game and I won so handily that they made a special rule requiring me to go around three times to claim victory. The next game I came in first, second and missed third by one move. They then discovered that I had slept through the '80s and required me to answer only questions from the '80s pack. My answers from then on were limited to "Ronald Reagan" and "Michael Jackson" from which font I chose according to the nature of the question.
Whenever my brother plays trivia games and doesn't know the answer, he always answers "Brooke Shields".
Pick your answer and stick to it.
During the '70s the popular inter-varsity quiz show University Challenge featured a college from Oxford or Cambridge (can't remember which but it's immaterial). As a form of protest the team answered all their questions with the one word - 'Trotsky'.
Years ago I bought and browsed a thin paperback titled "The Compleat Cruciverbalist." I've forgotten the author's name.
Here's the book and it's details, TFF. Interestingly (for me, at least) it was listed just after 'The Compleat Cricketer' on my database.
AUTHOR :Kurzban, Stanley A. Rosen, Mel
TITLE :The compleat cruciverbalist : how to solve, compose and sell crossword puzzles / Stan Kurzban and Mel Rosen
IMPRINT :New York ; London : Barnes & Noble, c1981
COLLATION :(xvi,167p) : ill ; 21cm corrected : pbk)
NOTES :Originally published: New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980
ISBN :0064635449
SUBJECT :Crossword puzzles
listed just after 'The Compleat Cricketer'
What! No Compleat Crossdresser?
What! No Compleat Crossdresser?That would come under
crucivestalism!!!!
crucivestalism
OK, how bout cruciarcoist?
Dear Faldage: Isn't a "cruciarcoist" a soldier with a crossbow?
a soldier with a crossbow
Bingo, Dr. Bill.
In back alley parlance, what is a cruciossetrix? (warning vile ignorant canard. Answer by PM on request.)
In back alley parlance, what is a cruciossetrix? (warning vile ignorant canard. Answer by PM on request.)
Dr Bill, far be it from me. But good to see you in your usual good form... hehehe
Dear ASp: Since I am very confident you never visited any such vile alley to hear the ignorant argot, I think it quite possible that you are pretending comprehension, which Faldage also has lived too properly to have encountered. A psychiatrist has to know all the dirty words, to know what patients are talking about.
Whilst in the US a few years ago i played trivial pursuit with some friends ( US version ) when any US sport question came up i just said "BABE RUTH" every time, i seem to remember being correct at least once!
the Duncster
"BABE RUTH"
So if I'm in an English speaking country and I'm playing Trivial Pursuit I should answer every sports question, "The Don"?
every sports question, "The Don"?Works for me
as well as any other strategy in that mindless game of shite
friend of mine has "Robert Zimmerman" as his generic answer, after it won him a round once.So tell us, Max...what's Bob Dylan's real name?
If you stick with this in the music questions, I guess you're bound to get
one right!
kinda like Hogwash®, eh, Max?
I was born in Louisville,Your parents had good taste.
and later attended Fort Knox HS, Had you lost your mind?
and graduated from U of L (Speed School). Regained your senses, I see!
If anything happens in the US, it happens in Colorado.
Verdi and Mozart wrote all the operas.
Verdi and Mozart wrote all the operas.
...but I thought it was either Puccini, or else Carmen...
For the record, my standard answers are "Cambodia" and "Frank Sinatra" or "From Here to Eternity" (depending). There now exists a Canadian version but I've never played it. The US college football questions (among other things) on the original are totally brutal for anyone not from the US.
[edit] I just thought of a word-related thing. The original version of Trivial Pursuit was called the "Genus" edition. EVERYONE I KNEW thought it said "Genius" because if you win, you're a genius. MAKES MY TEETH ITCH!!!!!!
Oh! Oh! I am hopeless at word games but have this quirk that lets me remember the
oddest facts!
Which is why I take this opportunity to brag about the time I won a game for my team by accurately remembering the opening words of the Declaration of Independence. (I had to just blurt it out as all other team members thought I was crazy!) The reason I remembered is that the Declaration was posted on the wall next to my desk in grammar school and being the compulsive reader I am .... In case you want to take a guess I put in this link to the Great Document.
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/declaration/declaration.html
as you might guess, i can be good at trival pursuit.. since i am filled with trivial bits of knowledge.
the first time i played.. zip, zip, zip.. i knew all the answers to everyone quetions.. and then came my turn, and i kept it up... but.. one of the catagories is sports.. and everyone i was playing with knew-- eventually, i would have to answer a sports question. and that would be the end of me..
the little wheel filled with color wedges.. and finally the time came. i would have to answer a sports question. the others i was playing with began to grin.. they knew when it comes to sports.. i know almost nothing..
The question came:
On which golf course do you have to cross a 13 century bridge to get to the XX hole?
well, none of the sport buffs i was playing with knew the answer.. so they were sure.. no way would i know..
I thought for a moment.. and answer came tripping off my lips.. St Andrews, of course. the 13 century bridge is a giveaway..
that was it. we never played trivial pursuit again. (well not that group!) and when ever the topic of sports trivia comes up.. I always have the same answers--it work well for me once..