Dos Equis

[Niner]

In the US there is this beer commercial with a guy that is the "most exciting man in the world" who is a straight faced cross between Indiana Jones and Daddy Warbucks. Middle aged guy with young babes on either side of him most of the time. He says he doesn't drink beer often but when he does he drinks Dos Equis.

I had to try the beer out. And not bad. Has more of a malt flavor than other Mexican beers. It is made from a company in Monterrey Mexico. The company was founded in 1890 so it's not a new comer. From what I read it is a Vienna lager style beer.

Dos Equis means two crosses, by the way.

[Niner Delta]

It's fairly popular here in Arizona, I usually order it when we go out to a Mexican restaurant.
And it means 2 X's, not 2 crosses, one line of a cross is verticle, not tilted like both lines of an X.

Vern.

[Niner]

I thought it was x'es. Read the " cross" thing in a beer book....Beers of the World by David Kenning. It was published by Parragon Publishing, Queen Steet House, 4 Queen Street, Bath, UK. Maybe it's a language thing, depending on where you learned English and crosses and x'es are really the same thing for people in England. However, seems like the brewer could have thought up a better name to start with....but we are talking about Mexicans with fellow countrymen who want to move to the United States too.

[Niner]

Ok...looked it up online. Wikopedia knows everything doesn't it?

Dos Equis is a lager that was originally brewed by the German-born Mexican brewer Wilhelm Hasse in 1897. The brand was named "Siglo XX" ("20th century") to commemorate the arrival of the new century, and the bottles were marked with the Roman numerals "XX", or "Dos Equis" (two Xs).

[Niner Delta]

"Maybe it's a language thing, depending on where you learned English and crosses and x'es are really the same thing for people in England."

I didn't know that, but I read somewhere that what we call Tic-Tac-Toe, the Brits call Naughts and Crosses. Is that true??

Vern.

[Aughnanure]

Unsuccessful

[DuncaninFrance]

FROM THE CONCISE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Cross
n noun
1 a mark, object, or figure formed by two short intersecting lines or pieces (+ or ×).
2 an upright post with a transverse bar, as used in antiquity for crucifixion. (the Cross) the cross on which Christ was crucified.
3 a thing that is unavoidable and has to be endured: she's just a cross we have to bear.
4 a cross-shaped decoration awarded for personal valour or indicating rank in some orders of knighthood.
5 an animal or plant resulting from cross-breeding; a hybrid. (a cross between) a mixture or compromise of two things.
6 (in soccer) a pass of the ball across the field towards the centre close to one's opponents' goal.
7 (in boxing) a blow given with a crosswise movement of the fist.
n verb
1 go or extend across or to the other side of (a path, obstacle, or area). (cross over) (of an artist) begin to appeal to a wider audience.
2 pass in an opposite or different direction; intersect. place crosswise: Michele crossed her arms.
3 draw a line or lines across; mark with a cross. British mark or annotate (a cheque), typically with a pair of parallel lines, to indicate that it must be paid into a named bank account. (cross something off) delete an item on a list. (cross something out/through) delete a word or phrase by drawing a line through it.
4 (cross oneself) make the sign of the cross in front of one's chest as a sign of Christian reverence or to invoke divine protection.
5 Soccer pass (the ball) across the field towards the centre when attacking.
6 cause (an animal of one species, breed, or variety) to interbreed with one of another. cross-fertilize (a plant).
7 oppose or stand in the way of.
n adjective annoyed.

PHRASES
at cross purposes misunderstanding or having different aims from one another.
cross one's fingers put one finger across another as a sign of hoping for good luck.
cross the floor British join the opposing side in Parliament.
cross my heart (and hope to die) used to emphasize the truthfulness and sincerity of what one is saying.
cross someone's palm with silver often humorous pay someone for a favour or service, especially having one's fortune told.
cross swords have an argument or dispute.
crossed line a telephone connection that has been wrongly made with the result that another call can be heard.
get one's wires (or lines) crossed have a misunderstanding.

DERIVATIVES
crosser noun
crossly adverb
crossness noun

ORIGIN
Old English: from Old Norse kross, from Old Irish cros, from Latin crux.


Thought it was time I contributed....

[Niner]

Maybe the Roman numeral X is really an evolution of a tally mark that could be discribed as a cross.

Although the Roman numerals are now written with letters of the Roman alphabet, they were originally independent symbols. The Etruscans, for example, used I Λ X ⋔ 8 ⊕ for I V X L C M, of which only I and X happened to be letters in their alphabet. One folk etymology has it that the V represented a hand, and that the X was made by placing two Vs on top of each other, one inverted. However, the Etrusco-Roman numerals actually appear to derive from notches on tally sticks, which continued to be used by Italian and Dalmatian shepherds into the 19th century.[5]

Thus, 'I' descends not from the letter 'I' but from a notch scored across the stick. Every fifth notch was double cut (i.e. ⋀, ⋁, ⋋, ⋌, etc.), and every tenth was cross cut (X), IIIIΛIIIIXIIIIΛIIIIXII..., much like European tally marks today. This produced a positional system: Eight on a counting stick was eight tallies, IIIIΛIII, or the eighth of a longer series of tallies; either way, it could be abbreviated ΛIII (or VIII), as the existence of a Λ implies four prior notches. By extension, eighteen was the eighth tally after the first ten, which could be abbreviated X, and so was XΛIII. Likewise, number four on the stick was the I-notch that could be felt just before the cut of the Λ (V), so it could be written as either IIII or IΛ (IV). Thus the system was neither additive nor subtractive in its conception, but ordinal. When the tallies were transferred to writing, the marks were easily identified with the existing Roman letters I, V, X

[dhtaxi]

JEEEEEZ Just give us a beer