doing (not-so) daily crosswords

just noticed that the firefox browser is integrating widgets into the new tab. out of all them, the (not-so)1 daily crossword might be my favorite. when i have no idea what the word is, even when i use up all the hints, i type randomly until i get the pop-up that lets me show the incorrect letters. is it cheaty? i don't care! the correct ones act as a clue. sometimes i feel silly when i discover the answer reveals itself, like i should have guessed it faster. oh well. it's very american (of course it is). i don't like knowing more about this context than i do about my native language. something needs to change. maybe i could start with reading local literature? there's something about that that's making it harder than it needs to be, though. something to dig deeper into. as a semi-related segue to crosswords, i have moments when i need to know if there's a specific (English) word to describe a specific thing. here's the list so far: exuviae - the exoskeletal remains of an insect after…