Sat., 8/8 Alan Olschwang

[magus]

THEME:   none, but four triples
   
GOOD ONES:    
Chiseler, at times   CARPENTER [yet I thought cheater, etc.]   
Top sellers   TOY STORES   
Stands where we lie  BED TABLES [aren't they "night tables"]   
   
BTW:   
Alan must've been in France recently:   
Vous ETES ici    
ALPES-Maritimes   
RENTE   
SOU   
   
"Some Like It Hot Hard": I'm one   
   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[rbe]

Traversée RENTE et ETES est pas bon.

[magus]

Well, you do write complete sentences after all!  (Sadly it's French, my most hated subject in H.S.)  But if we must, C'est vrai, mon ami. 

[Thomps2525]

When a crossword includes ESA or CASA or some other Spanish word, Mister magus usually notes that the word is "not used in English." I wasted two months...err, I mean I spent two months keeping track of all the words which appeared in puzzles. The lists of the most over-used words are at 

http://www.cruciverb.com/index.php?topic=106228.0

http://www.cruciverb.com/index.php?topic=105973.0

and, surprisingly, only two Spanish words were among the most common: OLE and ORO. There were six French words that made the list: ECRU, EPEE, ETE, MER, NEE and TETE. Yes, I know three of those have become part of the English language but all six are French in origin and each of the six includes from one to three E's. E is the most common letter in the English language and it follows that E would be the most common letter in crosswords, but can't puzzle creators find English words with several E's? Do they have to use French and Spanish words?

Scott Bryce has a page of tips for cryptogram solvers. It includes a ranking of the most common letters along with lists of the most common digraphs, trigraphs, double letters, two-letter words, et cetera.

http://scottbryce.com/cryptograms/stats.htm

[magus]

Mr. T ---

For the record, and I know you are a man most concerned with precision, I am not opposed to all foreign words, just those not used in our language.  The exception are foreign words used in places, on menus, etc.  CASA is a foreign word which is used in our language: in this case in restaurant names, among others while ESA never is.

[Thomps2525]

Oh, I get it now. You just don't like seeing words which are too esa-teric.