Four-letter words with five letters

In my adult life, I’ve mostly followed, without examination, the rule that four-letter words were the “bad” ones and should be eschewed. But I’ve begun to realize that five-letter words, at least when you’re making mini crosswords, can be villains too. 

A year or so ago, I started constructing 5X5 crosswords for a friend who was recovering from heart surgery and, I presumed, needed entertainment as she convalesced. I solved the Wordle and used that word as the anchor each day. I have a couple of cruciverbalist apps that suggest five-letter candidates to fill gaps. 

But lately I’ve found myself wallowing in unacceptable suggestions, ones that would fail the so-called breakfast test of crossword construction, words or names people can’t face before their first cup of coffee. For example: Adolf, bimbo, boner, bowel, dildo, enema, farts, feces, gonad, G-spot, hymen, kegel, labia, mucus, Nazis, ozena (disease of the nose in which the bony ridges and mucous membranes waste away), penis, pubes, pubis, pukes, pussy, Putin, retch, semen, shtup, sluts, sperm, titty, Trump, turds, urine, vomit, vulva.

In any case, after more than a year of mini construction, I’ve run out of fresh wholesome vocabulary and have decided to retire my daily postings (https://crosshare.org/Crosswordle). 

It’s part of my New Year’s resolution to break all habits—good ones and bad—and start anew. Maybe midis?


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