I think I’ve completed half or more of some of the Monday NYTimes crosswords without even looking at the clues, just by guessing the obvious “crosswordese” being sought.
I had some olio left over so I ate it, along with bread and oleo.
You should have added some aioli also, that would make it IOOO times better.
She’s not. That’s a different one. Oona O’Neill Chaplin was Chaplin’s last wife. She was quite famous. The younger Oona is far, far less well known.
(This post constitutes an ort.)
I’ve never seen a xeme either. (It’s a type of arctic tern.)
ai
Did you eat it out of an olla while brandishing your epee?
A few months ago, I ran across some rather strange words in a crossword puzzle.
Maybe it was in Adar or could have been as far back as Elul.
I saw some nenes on Maui . . . nowhere near a’a.
And then there’s Eero Saarinen.
Both of Ayn Rand’s names qualify. At least she didn’t have a relative named Oona.
What’s with the two-letter words? That’s Scrabble. American crossword convention is three-letter minimum words. I’m sure there’s non-conventional crosswords out there, but those are not common.
I have definitely seen "Chaplain’s granddaughter " as a clue
Brian
It’s not just rare nouns that we don’t use in conversation. There are also the crossword defintions which we read, but do not speak.
When I see a donkey, I do not point at it and say “look over there–it’s the law, to Dickens.”
Actually I say the ‘the law is a ass’ a lot. Plenty of opportunities for that one.
I like a nice smear of OLEO on my toast. Hopefully I don’t have to use my EPEE to apply it.
My parents had several nene.
Viscious little things- we wound up having to move them to another zoo in the end, after they took up residence in a kids’ play tunnel, and kept pecking anyone who tried to use it.
Why just the other day I was crossing the LEA on my way to the FEN with my EWER when I spotted an AERIE, or perhaps it was an EYRIE?
I saw a puzzle once that used both, and didn’t even bother to relate them. Like, 24 across was “____ Rand: Objectivist author”, and 53 down was “Fountainhead author Ayn”. They could have at least said “With 53 down, objectivist author” and “see 24 across”. Or maybe clued “rand” as “unpredictable computer function” or “South African currency”.
I’ve become an expert on Cato’s 1050 and other numbers, but I still suck at Jewish months.
Damn straight! Never can even guess them and refuse to look them up. Same with the alphabet: know the Greek; refuse to learn the Hebrew.