Sat., 4/4 John Lieb

[magus]

THEME:   none, but only 27 blocks and a cross in the middle
   
GOOD ONES:     
Lamb treats   ESSAYS [Charles, that is]   
High winds   FIFES   
   
BTW:   
Sei is a nice Italian word, but it's simply not used our language.   
   
Seattle Mariner's cap used to have an em, now it's an ess; and though I'm a baseball fan, I never noticed. I looketh but I do not see(ess). 
   
   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

Spelled-out letters, such as EMS, ESS, ELL, CEE, DEE and VEE, are appearing more frequently in crosswords. Why do such spellings even exist? Why isn't the letter S simply spelled as "S"? Why can't D be spelled as "D"? Turning individual letters into three-letter words is ESS-TEE-U-PEE-I-DEE!

SEI, NEIN, MEA, TERRE, TETE, TRES, CASA, ANNO, BIEN, MER, ELLA, ESOS, SRA, ENERO and other foreign words should not be used in American crosswords. The English language has more than enough words to fill a puzzle grid. Crossword creators have more than 1,025,000 words to choose from:  http://www.languagemonitor.com/number-of-words/number-of-words-in-the-english-language-1008879/

I liked the clever clue for PASTTENSE: "Acceptable form of back talk?"