xwordswithbabka

Hello from Providence! Today's puzzle is kind of strange. I wanted to make a crossword that was all about "crosswordese", which I understand as words that appear more in crosswords than they do in your daily life. For me, because I see them so often I tend to think of them as more important words, but I don't think that's actually true. For example, AIDA is a memorable Verdi opera, but is it his most memorable? (I really don't know; I'm not much of an opera person.) Or is it just that it has four letters and is mostly vowels, and it's more difficult to get LA TRAVIATA in a puzzle? That's a bad example, but I do wonder about all the repeated words! To that end there is this puzzle, which has five themers based on E crosswordese words. Since we see these words so often, I thought it would be a good idea to know something about them! So I hope you enjoy these interesting (to me) facts about some beloved crossword words. Thanks are due especially t...

Hello! Today's puzzle is a "semi-themeless", because there is sort of a theme and there sort of isn't, and anyway I couldn't think of a good title for it. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks so much to Norah for helping me figure out how to make it work, and to Frisco for the test solve. Please note: I really wanted you to be able to put symbols in the grid, but I couldn't figure out how to do that. So for the three rebus squares you are going to have to write out what the symbols would be. Sorry about that! [ .puz ] [ Direct Crosshare link ]