Crosswords and Puzzles

[Outdated]

My father also often used the number 19 as a phrase that meant "nothing", or "you lost" because it's the one score you can't get in cribbage.

 

[Demon_Scientist_069420]

Solving a crosswords depends less on how smart you are and more on how much you can think like the guy who made it.

Wow, I never thought of it like that. Thanks for the new perspective on puzzles in general.

 

[Demon_Scientist_069420]

Schillings.

Probably a weird question, but may I ask where you originated?

 

[Outdated]

Probably a weird question, but may I ask where you originated?

I'm Australian. Up until 1966 our monetary system was almost identical to the UKs, the language and terms hung around for many years after we changed to decimal. My father told me about the betting when he taught me how to play the game in the early 70s.

For every point you scored during the game you had to put a penny in the pot, winner gets the pot. So losing by a mile didn't cost you as much as almost winning.

 

[VictorR]

@Outdated I think @Demon_Scientist_069420 is perplexed as the LSD unit for 12 pence is a "shilling" as opposed to a "schilling" which is an Austrian unit that was used up to the Euro changeover.

Edit: for additional clarity for those reading, pence is the plural form of penny when referring to penny as a monetary unit, whereas pennies is the plural form of penny when referring to a penny as a coin valued at a penny (1d).

 

[VictorR]

I love pattern recognition games myself. I remember the excitement when I recognized the 2-3-2 pattern in minesweeper.

I've also played and done well in a number of flash based games over the years, and it's too bad that those have been consigned to internet history.

 

[Outdated]

12 pence is a "shilling" as opposed to a "schilling" which is an Austrian unit that was used up to the Euro changeover.

I got spellings mixed up, I was still in nappies when we converted to digital.

12 pence to a Shilling, 20 Shillings to a Pound. So 240 Pence = 1 Pound.

The currency, same as England's, was originally based on the price of Nickel Silver, not pure silver. This alloy is also known as Sterling Silver, hence the name Pound Sterling.

Dad told me that just before conversion in 1966 he was earning 8/10/6 a week and he thought he was doing pretty well for himself. 8 Pounds 10 Shillings and Sixpence.

 

[Demon_Scientist_069420]

I'm Australian. Up until 1966 our monetary system was almost identical to the UKs, the language and terms hung around for many years after we changed to decimal. My father told me about the betting when he taught me how to play the game in the early 70s.

For every point you scored during the game you had to put a penny in the pot, winner gets the pot. So losing by a mile didn't cost you as much as almost winning.

Thank you for sharing

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

Update: My Nanna really enjoys this particular book, it's filled with unorthodox puzzles. I'm actually hoping to get something like this again, I feel like I could get used to this ^^

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

I love pattern recognition games myself. I remember the excitement when I recognized the 2-3-2 pattern in minesweeper.

I've also played and done well in a number of flash based games over the years, and it's too bad that those have been consigned to internet history.

Hmm. I do know about some flash games, especially recent ones. Why do you think they fell out so much?

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

Probably a weird question, but may I ask where you originated?

Lol I'm Aussie too ^^

 

[VictorR]

Hmm. I do know about some flash games, especially recent ones. Why do you think they fell out so much?

I think the main issue is the 2010s saw a major shift in casual gaming from desktop to phones.

When Flash Player got discontinued in 2020, some games put out HTML5 versions in anticipation, but that only worked if you only had one or a limited range of games. For websites that had a wide variety of games, they only got a small number of their most popular (or profitable) games moved into HTML5, but the reduced variety meant that more people were alienated or driven away, and so soon after, we saw even long time stalwarts like Miniclip and RoyalGames shut down their web/desktop based games in favour of focusing solely on phone/app games.

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

I think the main issue is the 2010s saw a major shift in casual gaming from desktop to phones.

When Flash Player got discontinued in 2020, some games put out HTML5 versions in anticipation, but that only worked if you only had one or a limited range of games. For websites that had a wide variety of games, they only got a small number of their most popular (or profitable) games moved into HTML5, but the reduced variety meant that more people were alienated or driven away, and so soon after, we saw even long time stalwarts like Miniclip and RoyalGames shut down their web/desktop based games in favour of focusing solely on phone/app games.

Agreed. I actually enjoy the idea of casual gaming on desktop more, I've had a lot of fun doing that on my own and with family, etc ^^ Plus home consoles like the Wii are really friggin cool!!

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

Many years ago I was going out with a Suisse sheila and my father asked her an interesting question about European crosswords. English is the most extensive language in the world, it often has many different words for the same thing, where as many European languages don’t have enough words and have to use the same word for several things.

In both French and Italian, Spanish too I suspect, they use the same word for both a river and a beach – Rivierra. In English it can be a River, Creek, Brook, Burn, Stream, Rill, and a few more.

She replied that European crosswords contain a lot of famous people and place names. She said that she grew up speaking English along with 3 other languages but she liked the challenge of English crosswords and they greatly improved her vocabulary.

I don’t know about Italian, but in French river = rivière and beach - plage.
In Spanish river = rio and beach = playa

In French, for river you have: rivière, fleuve, coulee, ruisseau, crique, courant, flot.

I paddle in Quebec. Maps and river names are all in French.

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

I don’t know about Italian, but in French river = rivière and beach - plage.
In Spanish river = rio and beach = playa

In French, for river you have: rivière, fleuve, coulee, ruisseau, crique, courant, flot.

I paddle in Quebec. Maps and river names are all in French.

Nice language lesson! I recently learned a bit of Italian and I'm interested in Spanish. I learned a lot of Japanese in school ^^