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December 31, 2005

CROSSED WORDS

"Do you want to help me finish the crossword?" Debs asked as we were lying on the sofa together. I gave my approval with an enthusiastic grunt and we tackled the Daily Mail's taxing clues with determined aplomb. Normally The Daily Mail is not a newspaper that I approve of because it has deteriorated into tabloid trash over the past ten years, but to its credit it does have an achievable, and sometimes challenging, crossword. Debs had bought the paper to pass time on her train journey to work that day and had put some answers to a few clues in the appropriate boxes, but there were several blanks left and the gauntlet had been laid down.

"7 Across" Debs said, "Stand Firm, six letters".

"Have we got any letters already?" I asked, to which the response was "yes, the third from the end is G"

"G?" I queried, puzzled at the odd positionin of the letter 'G' in this mysterious word. "Not sure, let's have a look" and I took the newspaper from Debs and studied the word. The 'G' was indeed in a strange place. I was convinced the answer to the clue was 'insist' but that meant that the 'G' was wrong and it should be an 'I', so I went back to the clue with the 'G' in it and read the clue.

"3 Down ... 'Snow Runner', three letters". I mused for a second before coming to the conclusion that the answer to this clue was 'ski', which would mean there was an 'I' in the right place for 'insist' to go in. But where had the misplaced 'G' come from? Well, it had come from the bizarre brain logic of Debs. When contemplating the correct answer to the 'Snow Runner' clue, Debs had not reached the 'ski' conclusion that had popped into my mind. Oh no. The answer that Debs had come up with that she thought was the correct response was .... DOG.

Further interrogation deducted that Debs had thought 'snow runner' had meant the husky dogs that pulled sledges in the North Pole, because they run in the snow. Bless her.

Posted by jonola14 at December 31, 2005 10:19 AM