All roads lead to the January 7 crossword

[Thomps2525]

David Poole's December 18 crossword included BADSANTA ("Billy Bob Thornton title role"). Four answers contained different combinations of the letters in SANTA. His crossword today uses a similar theme. "Nutty ice cream parlor order" is ROCKYROAD and four answers contain different combinations of the letters in ROAD:

Not be serious: KIDAROUND
World's largest lizards: KOMODODRAGONS
"Answer with the first thing that comes to mind" exercise: WORDASSOCIATION
1970s Chilean President: SALVADORALLENDE

German immigrant William Dreyer opened an ice cream store in 1921 in Visalia, California. Joseph Edy opened a candy store in 1925 in Oakland, California. In 1928, they formed a partnership and launched Edy's Grand Ice Cream, so named because the store was located on Grand Avenue. Some of Edy's chocolate candy included walnuts and marshmallows so Dreyer decided to add walnuts and marshmallows to chocolate ice cream – and Rocky Road ice cream was born. The walnuts were eventually replaced with toasted almonds. Edy's Grand Ice Cream became Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream in 1953. Rocky Road ice cream can also be made with pecans or peanuts. Here is a recipe:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/22804/rocky-road-ice-cream/

Today's crossword  includes 12 of the usual, common, short words that puzzle makers just can't seem to avoid: ALE, ALI, ARC, DEN, EAT, EDEN, EERIE, INN, OLE, ONE, RTE and TEE. "Pres. or P.M." is LDR. I have never seen the abbreviation LDR anywhere except in crossword puzzles. "French monarch" is ROI, which is not used in English. "French 'to be'" is ETRE, which is not used in English.

"Be absorbed gradually" is OSMOSE. The word "osmosis" dates from 1867, derives from the Greek ōsmos ("push") and refers to "a process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one, thus equalizing the concentrations on each side of the membrane." Many dictionaries do not include "osmose." It is an example of verbing, also known as verbification or denominalization: using a noun as a verb. Other common examples: blog, chair, gift, ghost, taser, impact, dialogue, message, mastermind.

Now if you'll pardon me, I'm going to go rocky-road some ice cream.