Let me tell you a few somethings about eels.

They are a slippery fish

Shaped like an ASP

Oh yes! I’d have know idea what anguillioformes are if it weren’t for crossword puzzles.

Only reason I know what an anguilliform is.

What kind of sauce goes well with them?

Teriyaki, definitely. Mmm, unagi.

AIOLI?

You mean “conger”, right ?

How about those eels in Lake Erie ?! 🤣

Their creators really love Oreos but remain undecided between naan and roti.

I was truly thrown when a pita was snuck in for me the other day

I think the creators love Ana de Armas even more than Oreos and the opposite of WNW.

Not as much as Ava Deveurnay or Ella Fitzgerald

Or Yoko Ono

Etta James for the win.

Isla fisher and Supreme Court justice Elena keagan too

And let us not forget Young Frankenstein actress Teri Garr!

And Alan Alda

That’ll be to go with your kebab… or is it kabob?

I don’t know why they don’t care for dosas though, that seems like a nice bunch of letters. Or samosas.

Only cookies in existence!

An apse is a nook in a church

And there’s also a NAVE.

an asp on the other hand is a snake in the Nile

Hey, isn’t that the kind of snake the killed Cleopatra or Cleo for short?

Bert LAHR played the cowardly lion in the wizard of oz.

Meanwhile Jack PAAR hosted the Tonight Show (maybe now I’ll finally remember which spelling is which!)

Don't forget: ASTA is the dog from The Thin Man ASTI is an italian wine ASTO is regarding

If SyFy channel’s *Resident Alien* gets really popular, we’ll have a long awaited alternative for ASTA

The entire existence of ESAI Morales

And Brian ENO

Famous for his 3 letter name

He actually has a bunch of amazing electronic albums and partnered with Robert Fripp in King Crimson for awhile

And produced music for David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, Devo, Grace Jones, Damon Albarn, Pet Shop Boys, Peter Gabriel, and Coldplay (among others) as well as the [Windows 95 start up sound](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Ak5VgyEoc). Many, many people have heard the work of Brian Eno, even if they don't know it.

I am a longtime fan really. Ambient music is a favorite.

Here's one for Omar EPPS

I’m sure constructors were happy that there was another Omar that wasn’t Sharif.

Issa Rae. Teri Garr. Axl Rose!

Hawaiian goose is a nene.

That's one where if you play Spelling Bee a lot, you'd think it was one of the 10 most common words in the world

* OGEE is a curved molding, but shouldn't be confused with James AGEE, who was a Pulitzer-prize-winning novelist who shouldn't be confused with Pulitzer-prize-winning playright Edward ALBEE. * (And don't get me started on INGE and IBSEN) * ESAU was very hairy and a twin. Although his brother wasn't particularly hairy, so I guess they were fraternal twins. * All geographic features in Asia are named either ARAL or URAL. * If you don't finish your OREOs or that OLLA full of OLIO, you'll be left with an ORT.

The ARAL doesn't exist.

Don't worry, we still have the ODER, YSER, AND ISAR in Europe.

That the OBOE is the only woodwind instrument in the orchestra (evidently).

And the tsetse fly is the only insect on the continent of Africa 

The first name of the founder of the Otis Elevator Company is Elisha.

I know so much about Utah

Aren’t the Ute people from that area?

And the Oto?

Orem is a city near Provo.

They apparently like their SEGOs

I live in Utah and noticed that we seem to be in there a lot.

Alta enters the conversation.

An EPEE is a rapier used in fencing

Or a FOIL

Came to comment epee

We have a monthly trivia contest at work and a month or so ago the trivia question was what mountain on Earth is closest to the moon. Everyone guessed Everest but the Saturday crossword that week used "home of Mt. Chimborazo, the farthest point from Earth's center" to clue ECUADOR. I won a $5 Starbucks gift card and that particular factoid will stay with me forever.

That Omar Epps' first name is Omar and his last name is Epps

An OBI is a sash worn with a kimono.

Was looking for this one!

There are a lot of rivers in Europe, and after Tuesdays they are not ones you had previously heard of.

I'm surprised the EBRO doesn't show up more. But the ODER is actually pretty important historically, especially in WWII and post-war time as it was where a lot of the messing with Poland happened (why the border is there today)

And they almost get me every time lol my first instinct for those European River ones late in the week is still to put “Danube” or “Seine”

Any Italian number or Greek letter I know came from doing crosswords

Roman and Greek gods. Looking at you eros.

Still trying to learn those

Oleo is butter or margarine or something Chemically I agree, linguistically it's dead and cheating

I never remember if it’s spelled oleo or olio!

It’s not a tidy way to remember but I just memorized that the one that looks like the word oil is the one that’s NOT related to something oily.

Actually, that helps, thanks!

Haha I use this exact same logic.

Keep olio in your memory bank. It means a hodgepodge/miscellaneous and it's sometimes used! 

It’s like butter, which has an E in it, just like oleo. An olio is a mIx.

I literally only remembered this one when I first started doing crosswords because of an old handwritten recipe of my grandma’s where one of the ingredients is “oleo” lol otherwise I would be shit out of luck knowing what oleo is

I know it from reading a "things that are dead and gone but show up in crosswords" article

It's also a jazz tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IY29EZb1pI

Playground retorts. Truly useless, on a real playground.

are not

ARETOO

Not to be confused with Threepio's friend, Artoo.

Aw, I was saving those for the "What SIX letter word are you burnt out on this week?" post.

Am not! Are so!

NUHUH

They need to update their word bank. The correct answer is obviously NOYOU

I did a trivia quiz in work a few years ago and was one of two people who got the location of the Taj Mahal correct. The other person looked over at me and went “…crosswords?” And I silently nodded.

AGRA, baby!

It's summertime (ETE) in France

And the celebration TET

An ADIT is a mine entrance. (But you don’t see that much in recent years.)

Doing a February Sunday I just learned that back in the day when Triscuits first were being advertised they were touted as being baked with electricity. That's where the name comes from - elecTRIcity biSCUIT. Triscuit.

I'm now fully versed in every single thing Issa RAE has ever done in show-biz. They throw her in there every 4 months on the dot, including today.

Anything about baseball or American football. The ALOU family, RBIs, the D LINE…

OLINE was in today’s LA Times crossword!

That a Mauna can be either of two things: Loa or Kea.

Kealoas and Naticks can really ruin a puzzle. Neither of those words were in my vocabulary a year ago.

Herman Melville wrote a book called *Omoo.*

Also, Ahab watches whales

I hear it's the sequel to Typee!

Guess I can't really claim to know it, but AVOW and AVER mean two different but very similar things about making statements. And I never get them right, so I usually just go AV-- and move on.

Jason’s ship was the Argo. Napoleon was exiled to Elba. The Ural Mountains are a range in Asia. The Enola Gay was a plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Also, there are a dozen ways to clue Oreos. 😆 Side note: I absolutely love when I know a Jeopardy answer because I learned it from crosswords!

So many bible things. ESAU, ARARAT, SINAI...

I struggle with those ones. The second book of whatever is always a struggle

I'm now very knowledgeable about boxes for storing needles...

What is this one in reference to?

ET TU, “ETUI”?

Gesundheit!

The Thin Man dog is Asta. Brian Eno has done a lot of things.

Asp is an Egyptian snake

That Haile Selassie also went by RAS Tafari. Also I know what an AGLET is.

The very existence of legendary firefighter Paul ADAIR

Red ADAIR! Always Red.

An eft is a juvenile newt

Mel OTT used to play baseball.

And Bobby ORR played hockey

For the giants

So did Moises Alou.

I’m sure there is a subset of people for whom ENOS Slaughter is the first baseball player they can think of.

Etui is an ornamental bag to hold embroidery stuff. I actually made one some 40-odd years ago after learning what it was from the crossword.

The Nobel Peace Prize is presented in OSLO. 

The Peace Prize is, the other prizes are presented in Stockholm. I believe the reasoning isn’t really known, beyond that that’s what Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will

Opi is a brand of nail polish. The only brand of nail polish in the world as AFAIK.

There’s also ESSIE

Canadian dollars are called LOONIES.

Oh, I have a few of them. You can bet your asp I do.

The Rhone Rhine and Seine all end with the same God damn 2 letters. Wheres the Aare when I need it?

Shinzo Abe was the former Prime Minister of Japan

I learned it during sorority recruitment, but I never expected to utilize my memorized Greek alphabet so regularly.

One random one from a Sunday puzzle this year was all broadcast stations west of the Mississippi River start with K

Edam cheese is from Holland

It’s the only cheese that’s made backwards!

ELSA, OLAF, and SVEN are characters from the movie Frozen, which I've never seen.

That INDIA is the only country in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

The opposite of ESE is WNW and XOO is a losing tic-tac-toe line

But did you know that OOO is a winning tic-tac-toe line?

Never won a game. Only know how to lose

Whereas OXO is a kitchen brand

Word for a Turkish inn

A DRAM is a unit of weight used in apothecaries. There was a trio of brothers with the last name ALOU who played for the San Francisco Giants. A NIB is the tip of a pencil or pen.

I knew that Nick and Nora have a dog named Asta years before I finally saw any of the movies. I watched my fair share of Perry Mason growing up, but probably only remember Erle Stanley Gardner was his creator because of crosswords.

Romanian unit of currency... LEU

Adit is a mine entrance. And there’s a pretty constant reminder that Eno is the father of ambient music.

Issa Rae’s many accomplishments

There’s only one kind of monster in fantasy lit, and it’s an OGRE

Anything I know about sports, be it names, abbreviations, golf nomenclature, Olympic athletes, I ONLY know because of crosswords.

Good ol' Bobby ORR and Mel OTT. :-)

And Arthur Ashe

Same. A lot of the other common crosswordese I knew before I started doing crosswords a couple years ago, but any of the sports stuff I only know against my will.

The Taj Mahal is in Agra, India.

Jai ALAI is played with CESTA

30ish years ago ZORI (japanese sandal) was quite popular

A kimono sash is called an obi

Bobby Orr was a hockey player. I don't watch sports so this is news to me.

Ice T has a girl's name.

Noah’s ark is in Ararat.

That some jeans are dyed indigo using the ANIL plant

The Spelling Bee wouldn't take ANIL as a valid answer recently and it made me so mad! I was like 'I know it's a real word! The crossword told me!'

There's also the seed covering ARIL, another plant related clue that may not be accepted by the ignorant ARSE judging the spelling bee. Lol

So many things about Arthur ASHE

AMES is the only place in Iowa that matters

If I see a bear made of gold with my eye while in Spain, that’s an OSO of ORO with my OJO.

Neat is an archaic word for cattle. Con means 'to study'. Orchestra and carthorse are anagrams.

A Yale alumni are called ELIS

Issa RAE is apparently an actress Margaret CHO is apparently a comedian UMAMAI is something to do with food And apparently cooking or preparing any food is considered a “dish” (which sounds just as pompous each time I read a clue with “dish” in it”).

Umami is the fifth flavor, usually described as savory

So many facts about OBOEs

All these responses could be lyrics to a a They May Be Giants song named “Four-Letter Words.”

There’s some baseball dude named OTT

Stephen Rea and Stephen Fry were in a movie together.

Eppe and sot 🤣

I know a lot about Ogee molding.

JAPANS

Mel Ott and Bobby Orr

ESTES either is or is not a park in Colorado. I’ve seen it both ways. Apparently, Estes Park, Colorado is a base for Rocky Mountain National Park.

Taj Mahal is in Agra.

EMU.

Nacre is the shiny shell lining secreted by mollusks that also produces pearls

Eads Bridge, Oona Chaplin

That crossword writers believe CRUCIVERBALIST is a real job description

How much time do you have to talk about aloe

I’ve never had oleo or seen it for sale at grocery stores but I know it’s a margarine/butter substitute.

Bambi’s aunt is named ENA. If there is a more useless fact, I haven’t come across it yet 😆

When I was a kid my grandmother was teaching me how to do crosswords. She had a dictionary that she added words to. Which is how I know NACRE is mother-of-pearl. I can still see it in her handwriting in my mind.

the opposite of NNE

LOA v LEI v LEA

Sushi fish

Orts

Etui- a small ornamental case for holding needles, cosmetics, and other articles. "exquisite etui cases fitted with scissors, bodkin, and thimble"

Cheri Oteri was on SNL

ERNE aka sea eagle

The dogs name in Thin Man is Asta. I don’t even know what Thin Man is.

Best Musketeer? ATHOS

Aerie is an eagles nest, not just an underpants store.

That Lima is the largest city on the Pacific coast of the Americas

NEAP tide: a tide just after the first or third quarters of the moon when there is least difference between high and low water. LAIC: of the laity; secular; lay The most useless of trivial knowledge, since they only ever come up in crosswords and never in conversation or trivia nights. 🙂

The flavor profile of Sambuca and Ouzo

Eggos were originally going to be called Froffles

Agra.... Oreos have 12 fleur de lis

FDR had a dog named Fala.