Crib notes - Telegraph Mary Beard, the Cambridge University classics professor and TV presenter, has a bee in her bonnet about Christmas carols and their meaning. What, she asks, does "no crib for a bed" mean in Away in a Manger? Surely a crib is the same as a manger, she observes, even if it means a cot in America. It is tempting to reply: does it matter? After all, the lyrics of many carols might be considered, if not "weird," as Prof Beard put it, then tortuously contrived. Think of "Frankincense to offer have I / Incense owns a Deity nigh / Prayer and praising, all men raising..." from We Three Kings. In any case, children have always enjoyed changing the words of carols. One shudders to think what Prof Beard would make of "While shepherds washed their socks by night / All seated round the tub" or "Most highly flavoured gravy, Gloria..."