These are fun! Also, notice that all of the doubled letters spell a vegetable (CO RN, CH IV ES, etc). You have to work around these spots at first, but once you figure out what's going on it's no harder than any other puzzle.
It's pretty common for crosswords to have themes like this. Probably the only hint was the title "Cropped" you see there, but in the clues there will be some indication of which answers have funny rules. Usually longer ones, though on this instance the longer clues are cropped, and the double letters spell out crops. It's more of a pun than an arbitrary departure from the rules, but sometimes these themes can be maddening until you figure it out! For example, if the clue to "cosm[ok][ra]mer" was "Jerry Seinfeld's kooky neighbor", I would be so befuddled as to why it didn't fit, until I saw 'okra' in his name.
zwich on July 4th, 2017 at 13:26 UTC »
These idiots make you write real small
7068696c on July 4th, 2017 at 13:32 UTC »
These are fun! Also, notice that all of the doubled letters spell a vegetable (CO RN, CH IV ES, etc). You have to work around these spots at first, but once you figure out what's going on it's no harder than any other puzzle.
(inb4 "a tomato isn't a vegetable")
itsatumbleweed on July 4th, 2017 at 14:02 UTC »
It's pretty common for crosswords to have themes like this. Probably the only hint was the title "Cropped" you see there, but in the clues there will be some indication of which answers have funny rules. Usually longer ones, though on this instance the longer clues are cropped, and the double letters spell out crops. It's more of a pun than an arbitrary departure from the rules, but sometimes these themes can be maddening until you figure it out! For example, if the clue to "cosm[ok][ra]mer" was "Jerry Seinfeld's kooky neighbor", I would be so befuddled as to why it didn't fit, until I saw 'okra' in his name.