Frequency Hopping

Today's puzzler is rooted in some deep history.

Here we go. This one involves the name Hedwig.

During World War II, many of our stars in Hollywood contributed to the war effort. You know, Bob Hope traveled the world entertaining troops and brought along his entourage. Betty Grable, Jane Russell... Many others too. Everyone at that time did their part.

But one Hollywood star contributed in a different kind of way. Instead of going to the front lines and entertaining the troops, this star actually invented something that is still in use today. And what the star invented was a device that would not allow the enemy to jam our radio transmissions. It was a frequency hopping device.

So for instance, you could transmit on one frequency talking to one of your commanders, and then the frequency would hop to another, and then another on down the line, and the enemy couldn't jam the transmission because it was hopping like that. So you'd always be able to broadcast on some frequencies that were transmittable and receivable.

This person invented a device to do that. This person has a patent on it. And the question very simply is, 'Who is this person?'

And I'm going to give you this person's first name. The first name is Hedwig.

But what was this person known as in Hollywood?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Intersections

This puzzler today was my brother's puzzler. Here we go.

My brother was very into words. He was into the derivations of words. And he was a Latin scholar.

So, back in Roman times, you know they would say, 'All roads lead to Rome."

Well, there were many roads that did lead to Rome. And also, many of these roads that led to Rome would intersect.

And in some places, there were instances where two roads intersected, and sometimes there would be three roads that intersected.

So, because of these intersections of these three roads, it was a practice that people would stop and talk, they'd have a drink or a bite to eat. And sometimes they would leave messages for their friends in this place where the roads intersected. Back then, there were no phones or emails, so they would write messages and tack them up on a stone pillar or what have you. The styles of columns. And they would come by and tack up little notes and items of interest.

And the puzzler is this.

An interesting English word derives from this little story. Embedded in this little story I just told, there is an English word.

What is it and how come it derives from this little story?