Wierdness with a crossword puzzle...

[Heyo]

So I'm doing the Sun Sentinal's crossword puzzle the other day.. 2 days ago I think...

Trying to figure out the top left corner...
The down clue was "Speed of Sound Increment"

Which I figured was "mach"

The across word.. sharing the "M" was .."to work hard"

Sounds like it'd be "toil" to me and eventually it had to be, because the OIL all fit without question as I filled in more of the puzzle... the A, C and H in "mach" also fit without question..

So we're down to the first letter.. it's either "mach" and "moil"(?) or maybe it was "tach" and "toil".. but I know tach is a unit of revolution or rotation... I figured they might've made a mistake and meant for it to be 'tach'.. since I didn't find "moil" in our paperback dictionary my girl keeps around.....

So the next day in the answers... it's "moil"...Moil is not a word I have ever heard of....

So today I look it up on DIctionary.com.. and sure enough, "moil" is there.. meaning to work hard, toil, etc.. just like it's supposed to be...

And I guess there is (apparently) a "word of the day" each day... and it said "moil" was the word of the day on Sept. 11, 2001.

Just wierd.

But hey... it's a word.... man I hate having to moil from 9 to 5 every day...

Heyo

P.S. The DU spellchecker recognized "moil" as a word... I'm not as smart as I thought I guess.:9

[DAGDA56]

1. If I follow you right...I mean, after a nice Merlot...

...maybe it is TACH...as I recall, I've had cars with a speedometer and a tachometer...just wondering.

[Heyo]

2. Thats what I thought too....

But the answer key the following day confirmed it was "moil" and "mach"..

which makes sense because "tech" measures rate of rotation or revolution.. (how fast something is spinning.... in the case of your car, the engines rpm (revolutions per minute)..

But the clue was "speed of sound increment".. which has to be 'mach'...

Unless....hmmmm...

could it be?..

man if so.. I want the same kinda car you have!!!

Heyo

[DAGDA56]

3. Gotta go...

...I just punched the warp drive button-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n

[tg]

4. There are strange things done in the midnight sun,

By the men who moil for gold ...

- The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service.

This poem is probably the only reason the word has not been lost in time. I believe that a moil was a special type of pick-ax used by miners in the Yukon.