This edited article about crosswords originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 703 published on 5 July 1975.

D-Day landings

There he was minding his own business, thinking up the Daily Telegraph crossword every day with his friend, Melville Jones, when suddenly counter-intelligence in the shape of two gentlemen from M.I.5 moved in on him. Leonard Sidney Dawe was more than somewhat startled, for he was not exactly famous, even though his anonymously-invented crosswords were. He was a physics teacher who happened to be good at concocting puzzles. Now it appeared that either the Tower of London or a firing squad loomed.

Not that you could really blame the anti-espionage section. The date was June 4, 1944, two days before the Allied invasion of France, the immortal D-Day that was to carry the war back into occupied Europe. Somehow, quiet Mr. Dawe had managed to work more key codewords into his recent puzzles than anyone thought possible; anyone in the secret that is, for the fewer people that knew about D-Day, the better the chances of success. And here was Mr. Dawe apparently spilling the beans. Some mean-minded souls were suggesting that he must be a German agent.

It was sheer coincidence, of course, but amazing all the same. On May 2, the answer to a clue was Utah, one of the projected Allied landing beaches, on the 22nd, Omaha, another of them, on the 27th, the answer was Overlord, the very name of the entire operation, and on the 30th, Mulberry, the name of the two artificial floating harbours that were to be taken to Normandy. To top it all, the answer on June 1 was Neptune, the code-word for the naval part of the invasion.

The two men looked hard at Mr. Dawe and believed his story, then left for London. On June 6th, the Allies successfully landed, taking the enemy by surprise.

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This edited article about Dr Johnson originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 669 published on 9 November 1974.

Dr Samuel Johnson

He was a lumbering bear of a man. His face was scarred by a disease called scrofula, which he had caught in his youth, and his body used to jerk and sway backwards and forwards.

He would make faces, talk or mutter prayers to himself to such an extent that strangers sometimes thought him mad. He had “no passion for clean linen,” meaning that, like many people in the 18th century, he was not over-bothered with personal hygiene. He could be very rude, partly because his wit was so sharp and his tongue so deadly, but he never meant to be unkind and his friends adored him. He loved animals and children, and continually gave to the poor, even slipping pennies into the hands of the all-too-many young outcasts sleeping “rough” in the streets of London. The “bear” was really all heart.

Such was Doctor Samuel Johnson, the greatest literary figure of his age and the most remarkable talker. Fortunately for us, he had a young Scottish friend, James Boswell, whose ambition was to become a famous writer and who wanted to meet eminent men and women.

Boswell, born in 1740, first met Johnson in 1763 and the great man at once took a liking to him. The result was the finest biography in the language, Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson. Boswell had a marvellous memory, but, more importantly, was an avid taker of notes, and the result is the most quotation-packed book in English.

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This edited article about George V originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 663 published on 28 September 1974.

George V in procession with Queen Mary during the 1911 Durbar by Fortunino Matania

It is not surprising that Queen Victoria was often called “The Grandmother of Europe.” Britain’s longest reigning monarch had married a German prince, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840, and given birth to nine children. Many of these had married into the Royal Houses of Europe so that the British Royal Family became linked by ties of blood and marriage to the German Kaiser, the Tsar of Russia, the Kings of Greece, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and to many other dukes, princes and noblemen of Europe. At the beginning of the twentieth century, therefore, almost every crown of Europe was worn by members of the same, huge family.

It was Prince Albert who had given to the British royal family its German name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and this it would have probably remained if the British Empire had not gone to war with Imperial Germany in 1914.

During the First World War anti-German feeling in Britain was rife. Shops with German names were looted and burned. Dachshunds were spat upon in the street, and anything which smacked of Germany caused hysterical outbursts from the British public. It was most embarrassing, then, that this indignant nation had a monarch with a German name. So in 1917 the royal family decided to change its name. They decided to call themselves Windsor.

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This edited article about place names originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 899 published on 14 April 1979.

The North Transept of Hereford Cathedral by Wiliam Wilkins Collins

Do you live at Hereford?

Hereford’s name means “the army ford”, the place where troops could cross a river – in this case, the River Wye.

In the county of which Hereford is the chief town, such a crossing would be of great tactical importance. For this is border country, a hotly-disputed area which has been fought over for hundreds of years. Even today, the most extreme among the Welsh Nationalists would still like to push the border with England back to the River Severn.

Throughout the Middle Ages, Welsh kings rebelled against the Normans and frequently led raids across the border.

During the reign of Edward III, matters got to such a head that this powerful king ordered a series of massive castles to be built along the border.

Hereford’s castle has long since been in ruins, but the town’s magnificent cathedral is still standing. This was built in the 11th century and contains a library of 16th century books chained to the wall.

Hereford is the centre of a thinly-populated agricultural county. Its primary exports are cider and its world-famous red and white Hereford cattle.

This edited article about words originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 899 published on 14 April 1979.

Napoleon Bonaparte by Angus McBride

Are you a male chauvinist pig? One hears this phrase used all the time nowadays, usually incorrectly.

When a woman calls a man a “chauvinist”, she means that he is the type that believes in the natural superiority of men, and that a woman’s place is in the home doing the cooking and cleaning.

However, the real meaning of chauvinism is extreme patriotism, a blind belief that one’s own country is best.

The man from whose name this word was derived was a French soldier who served in the Napoleonic armies. His name was Nicholas Chauvin, and he was a fanatical supporter of Napoleon and the French Empire.

He became well known, and he was introduced into several plays as a character reflecting his narrow-minded and extremist belief that France was the best country in the world. This sort of unreasonable attitude quickly came to be labelled “chauvinist”. Another word with a similar meaning is “jingoistic”.

This edited article about plants originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 899 published on 14 April 1979.

Psyche in the Temple of Love by Sir E J Poynter

How did the honeysuckle get its name?

People used to think that it was from this plant that bees obtained their honey. But although the flowers are famous for their sweet, heady scent, they do not keep honey at the bottom of their long, narrow flower tubes – they keep nectar there, and it is too far down for the bees to reach it. The plant is a favourite of Humming Birds in the tropics.

This edited article about cloth originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 898 published on 7 April 1979.

A Cowboy wearing blue jeans

Nowadays, nearly everybody has got at least one pair of jeans. Hardwearing and comfortable, these leisure trousers are hardly ever out of fashion – and you can wear them virtually anywhere.

Some people prefer cords – others prefer denim. But have you ever thought where the words “denim” and “corduroy” might come from?

Denim got its name from a particularly hard-wearing cloth that was originally manufactured at Nimes in Southern France. There, it was called serge de Nimes. It was mainly used for sailors’ clothes, but during the 19th century it began to be exported to the United States where denim became very popular among the cowboys.

Corduroy, on the other hand, has far more distinguished origins. This velvety, but strong fabric is supposed to derive its name from the French corde du roi, “the king’s cord”. But there is no evidence that the Kings of France ever wore corduroys.

This edited article about words originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 897 published on 31 March 1979.

Manual labourers on the railroad by Angus McBride

To do something manually is to do it by hand, since in Latin, manus is the word for hand.

Manually operated equipment is machinery which is operated by a man or woman pulling levers and not by automatic control. Manual dexterity means actual skill with the hands, of which a conjuror represents one example. Manual labour, however, has acquired a somewhat wider meaning, and refers to any heavy, active work in contrast to office work or other sedentary “sitting down” occupations.

A manual is a little book of concise information, suitable for holding in the hand for easy reference. People who are deaf and dumb can converse by means of a manual alphabet. Signs representing words are “printed out” by the fingers of one person on the fingers of another.

This edited article about language originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 896 published on 24 March 1979.

An articled clerk and apprentice-boy in a typical Victorian office by Peter Jackson

In Latin, an articulus was a joint which connected limbs to each other or to the body. But then the meaning changed and came to refer to the separate parts being connected – particularly in written documents.

So for us an article has come to mean a separate, distinct point in an agreement, an accusation or a will. We use the plural for an agreement made up of various clauses, such as articles of apprenticeship, which are the terms of employment agreed between an apprentice and his employer. Similar conditions apply to an articled clerk in a solicitor’s office.

Continuing with the idea of something written, an article can also mean a literary essay or composition which forms part of a newspaper or magazine. More generally, it is any separate item, such as an article of clothing or furniture.

If you articulate your words, or if you are articulate, you can be easily understood, since you pronounce each word distinctly.

This edited article about words originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 895 published on 17 March 1979.

The Edinburgh Tattoo

The tattoo, which is a splendid military pageant performed by night, had rather humble beginnings. Originally the word meant the beat of a drum, a bugle call, or other signal summoning soldiers back to quarters at nightfall. It came from the Dutch taptoe; tap corresponded to our own word tap or tap-room, and toe was translated as to in the sense of shut. Thus the whole word meant “The tap-room is closed,” that is, no more drinks would be served, and so it was time for the soldiers to return to barracks.

But in more every-day experience, to beat a tattoo (or the devil’s tattoo) is to drum with one’s fingers on the table.

The tattoo which is a design marked on a person’s skin by pricking in coloured pigment has no connection with the military kind. It comes from a Tahitian word tatou.

Apparently it was on the Pacific Island of Tahiti that this process originated.