I'm relatively new and playing around with various word lists (using Crossfire). What supplemental word list(s) do you find to have the liveliest, freshest words and realistic scoring (I find too many give 50+ to very obscure words)?  Which would you avoid at all costs due to lots of junk that is unusable? Thanks so much for the input.

Katie Hale is originally from Houston and now lives in London. Her crosswords have been appearing in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times since 2021. Her puzzle today includes five clues with foreign words which are to be taken literally. Hale wrote on Twitter that "this idea sat in my drafts folder for well over a year before I managed to find a way to make it work."

Bise, literally: FRENCHKISS
Cangkir, literally: CUPOFJAVA
Zevk, literally: TURKISHDELIGHT
Quando, literally: WHENINROME
La lluvia, literally: THERAININSPAIN

Bise is the French word for "kiss." Cangkir is the Javanese word for "cup." Zevk is the Turkish word for "pleasure" or "delight." Quando is the Italian word for "When." Lluvia is the Spanish word for "rain."

Dutch settlers planted coffee trees in Bali, Cebu, Sumatra, Java and other Southeast Asian islands in the 17th century. It is unclear why "java" has become a generic term for coffee. Java, by the way, has a population of 152,000,000 and is the world's most populous island.

Turkish delights are confections that originated in Turkey in the late 1800s. Known as lokum in Turkey, they typically are small cubes of flavored gel containing chopped dates, hazelnuts, walnuts or pistachios. Here is a recipe:

https://www.aspicyperspective.com/the-tastiest-turkish-delight-recipe-lokum/

The expression "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" means that if we are visiting a foreign country, we should follow the customs of the people who live there. Variations of the saying first appeared in the 16th century but the most common version appeared in 1777 in Interesting Letters of Pope Clement XIV, a book published three years after the Pope's death: “The siesta or afternoon’s nap of Italy, my most dear and reverend Father, would not have alarmed you so much if you had recollected that when were at Rome, we should do as the Romans do."

"The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain" is a line from George Bernard Shaw''s 1913 play Pygmailion. The 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady was adapted from the play. Julie Andrews starred in a movie version in 1964. Hoping to rid her of her thick Cockney accent, Professor Henry Higgins has Eliza Doolittle practice saying the "rain in spain" line. Here is Julie Andrews as Eliza. By Jove, I think she's got it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVmU3iANbgk papa's games

As for the meaning of "French kiss".....well.....I'd be too embarrassed to share it here. You can look it up.