Today's
Daily News crossword by Mike Buckley has no theme so there is not much to talk about.....except for one word. "Dried plums" was PRUNES. Dried grapes are called "raisins." Why is it that we have to call dried plums and dried grapes by any name other than "dried plums" and "dried grapes"? We don't rename any other dried fruit, do we? When an apple is dried up, it's just a dried apple. When a kumquat is dried up, it's just a dried kumquat. Perhaps some fruit growers long ago decided that the names "prunes" and "raisins" sound more appealing than "dried plums" and "dried grapes".....although the word "prune" doesn't sound all that appealing either.
Andy Kravis's
Los Angeles Times crossword included JURYVERDICT, JOINTVENTURE, JUGULARVEIN and JUSTVISITING ("Words on Monopoly's Jail square"). Those phrases correspond with the answer to "School's underclass team": JVSQUAD.
The 13x13 NEA crossword had no theme. It never does. Never. What it
does always have is a large number of over-used words. Today's included EIRE, ERR, ETE, EWE, INCA, MESA, OLE and SEA.
And now I'm going to go snack on some bledinias. They're actually dried blueberries but I decided to call them "bledinias" because that is a more appealing name.
