And other crossword puzzle mysteries in this life…
Just how many of those convenient words that fit I crossword grids are common to you in that environment but unknown to you elsewhere? There must be hundreds to thousands of “filler words” that are so common you could almost write a story using nothing but.
What are some others that make you grind your teeth?
I had one when I was a heroin addict.
I also like to go out on the water in my aviso.
What all was in it?
My needles, obviously.
I am a home sewer, crocheter, and embroiderer, but, alas no etui.
But I think about it whenever I do the crossword, just like you.
( Also, why does my iPad mini think it’s not a word? Huh? )
There’s the Hawaiian goose (the nene) which I was disappointed not to see in Hawaii. And one rarely has a need to speak of Chaplin’s wife Oona in ordinary conversation.
Just don’t use your iPad to get a crossword answer…
Gesundheit.
That’s odd, I can’t get through a conversation without someone mentioning Ulee, and he’s just a fictional character.
BTW: That aviso cost me a lot of ecus.
Another weird thing to do with Crosswords these days is to Google (I use Yahoo! Search – same thing) the clue in question and find the first hit (or several) to be, “Crossword Clue…” Hardly ever fails. One gets the feeling that there’s a bot out there going through each day’s puzzles for weird words and being there when you need them.
Baffling…
I have seen a Nene, an Ani, and an Emu, but sadly I have never seen an Erne.
Nenes aren’t fond of aa though.
Oona is Chaplain’s granddaughter, and she is/was/will be in Game of Thrones (trying not to spoil)
As far as I know no interviewer has asked her “How does it feel to be a Crossword answer?”
Brian
When I got my wife hooked on crossword puzzles I told her that the first rule is, when in doubt use the word that has the most vowels. And to get used to learning many obscure words that you will keep running into over and over again while solving them.
And now, for those of you who haven’t read it yet, I offer “My Crossword Life” by Melissa Balmain.
Read it or just print it and solve most puzzles. It’s a beauty.
For years ARTE Johnson was only remembered by people filling in crossword puzzles. Now, I assume, nobody remembers him.
TERI Garr’s fame helped finish a lot of grids, too.
I actually wanted to name our dog ASTA, both because I love the Thin Man movies, and because I think there’s a rule that he has to be in at least 50% of crossword puzzles.
I have never read OMOO, but I eventually did get around to reading Typee.
A long time ago I feel like STEN was a constant bit of crosswordese, but it seems to have disappeared.
It’s always TSAR and never CZAR; it’s always ARES and never MARS.
We’ve got an etui. Really.
If it weren’t for crossword puzzles, though I’d never have heard of an erne (already mentioned above), nor known it was a Sea Eagle.
And, of course, I already knew that an ent was a Tolkien character.
Sela Ward used to come up a lot.
Does this post count as an ENOTE?
I never ate an OREO in OSLO.