Christmas Day

What? You again? We're closed! It's Christmas Day!!

Well, OK. Seeing as you're here, here's something. If you like word games, I found this magic word square on a website, looking for something else. It's kinda crude, but it works, and the sort of thing you might get out of a superior Christmas cracker:

B O N K
O N A N
N A N O
K N O B

Those things are harder to construct than you might think... See how it reads in every direction?

It's even harder to make one with an element of, um, meaning. This next one is a special one, that has turned up as Roman grafitti in a few places (e.g. Pompeii and a Roman villa in Cirencester), and is usually thought to have been a cryptic indication of Christian beliefs, as it appears to be based on "pater noster" (Our Father) plus "alpha" and "omega" (well, sort of...):

S A T O R
A R E P O
T E N E T
O P E R A
R O T A S

It also reads in every direction, and doesn't really mean much in Latin, but can be made into something like "The sower Arepo holds the wheels with effort" or, given that Arepo is not a known name and if you read the lines in alternate directions, "The sower holds in his hand all works; all works the sower holds in his hand." Note the central "tenet" cross, too. It clearly meant something to someone, but ... what?



Now, I'm afraid we really are shut for the day, and I'm off to eat, drink, and wear an idiotic hat!