Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Good afternoon, Rusty!
Still a mite chilly here! Not even the lovely sunshine is raising the temperature very much.
I am glad your dental trip was successful, and that you are exercising caution (for a while) with your eating!
We had a good lunch - I had Sicilian crepes with a salad (very healthy!)
The "chat" was good , too!
Re the clues you and Malone were discussing.........
I could do "Birdcage" Walk; it goes from Buckingham Palace and flanks St. James ' Park (where, if you remember, there was a cycling race last year)
However, I got stuck on the other clue.......
Londoner's wife - my old dutch?
But couldn't do the remainder of the clue?
And how did "dutch" have a Scottish connection?
Btw, I did notice your apt use of "outwith" earlier - I just forgot to comment on it!

Hello, Elle!
Sicilian crepes?
Glad you enjoyed lunch!
I had heard of Birdcage Walk but still feel I should not be expected to know the names of London street. Amen!
The Scots connection to Londoners "dutch", is, according to Chambers, perhaps from "Duchess of Fife".
What do you reckon?
I liked one of Anne Bradfords synonyms for wife.
"Kickie-wickie" or "kicksy-wicksy".
Apparently it comes from a Shakespeare play what he wrote.

Hi, Rusty!
A Sicilian crepe is one that is made from three different cheeses - or so it said on my menu!
Um...well, I cannot see how "dutch" is related to Duchess of Fife? Stretching it a bit, I could accept the "duchess" part - but no grounds as far as I can see for association with "Fife"?
Or do you know different?
As for "kickie-wickie/ kicksy -wicksy".........NOW ,this could definitely be considered insulting by us wives!
According to Chambers..... a "kickie-wickie" meaning "a wife" is perhaps connected with "kickshaws".
"The definition of "kickshaw" is then given as "a trinket, a cheap worthless article"!!!!!!
However, there IS a saving grace....an alternative meaning is "a delicacy"!
(I'm sure we must be considered the latter?)
I don't know about the Shakespearean reference?

Elle, I think the 'Fife' association is just the usual rhyming slang stuff. Duchess of Fife = Wife in the same way that Apples and Pears = Stairs. The 'Duchess' must have been shortened to Duch/Dutch at some point. I've seen similar shortenings, but have never been interested enough to let them lodge in my brain!

Ah, Malone! I should have seen that !
How stupid of me! Thank you.

Hello, Elle!
Address your complaint to Willie Shakespeare!
His word, not mine!
It appeared in All's Well, act 3.
A perversion of "kickshaw" (a fancy dish in cookery).
Malone has explained the Duchess of Fife very well.
I never knew Fife had a duchess!
I thought "trouble and strife" was slang for "wife"?

Hi, Rusty!
Oh dear, the comparison of a wife goes from bad to worse.... I had not considered a "delicacy" to be a cookery dish!
("All's Well That Ends Well" is not one of the Shakespeare plays that I have read).
However, it is the "cheap, worthless article" definition in Chambers to which I really take exception!
Yes, "trouble and strife" is the more usual accepted Cockney term for "wife".
I had never heard of "Duchess of Fife" meaning the same thing, hence my initial puzzlement!
"Wives " are not considered in flattering terms anywhere , are they?!
(I must look up "husbands".......)
Only just had chance to do today's crossword - I am behind times!

Hello, Elle!
Remember, Chambers said "perhaps" when citing Duchess of Fife.
Did you know that "cattle" includes horses, according to Chambers?
I think it fair to say, Elle, that we DO learn something new most days, if not every day.
Look up Anne Bradford's "husbands".
Some crackers there!

Hi, Rusty!
Um...... did you know that a "gander- mooner" is a husband whose wife is in childbirth?
And a "hoddy -doddy" is a 'duped' husband?
"Squirrel " isn't given in Chambers as meaning "husband"!
Language is very interesting, isn't it?
Crosswords all completed ...... finished reading book ..........
No sign as yet of the two books from "World of Books", despite telling me that they have been dispatched ........only coming from the UK, too.
Have you received the one you ordered?

Good morning, Elle!
Fine day again!
Yes, I read those "husband" synonyms.
I agree. Language is fascinating.
A husband can be a woman, too, I believe.
And Chambers assures us that ships can have a husband when in port! A "ship's husband".
A sailor can have a girl in every port, but a ship makes do with a husband!
Amazon assures me my books are on the way.
About to head out to get my paper.