Good Mornng, Crucuverbalists! Malodorous Manatee here with a recap of a puzzle by Josh Horowitz. Josh is a fellow Los Angeleno. Here is a link to the "About Me" section of his web site where I learned that bit of information: Josh Horowitz "About Me" You can peruse the rest of his site by clicking on the headings at the top of that web page.
Per Josh, "(This is) my first published crossword to date. I got interested in crosswords during the Pandemic era lockdowns and came up with the idea to make one myself during the heat of that summer of 2020."
Let's jump right in and take a look at this inaugural effort in which Josh has added the letters A and C to the start of three everyday two-word descriptions in order to morph those into the answers to their respective clues. The reveal comes at:
61 Across: Summertime chore, or an apt title for this puzzle: AC INSTALLATION. Install the Air Conditioner.
We are asked to "install" AC in the following places:
16 Across: What poker chips might do?: ACCOMPANY CARDS. As this was the first "themer" to fall, for a while this solver thought that the "gimmick" might involve A, C and D. I was thinking of COMPANY CARS. As it turned out, however, this one was based on COMPANY CARDS (as in business cards) with the D already in place. Armed with this knowledge the others fell fairly easily.
29 Across: What people waiting in a long line might do?: ACCOST CUTTERS. From COST CUTTERS but here folks might be confronting those who are trying to cut the line.
46 Across: What people who eschew online banking might do?: ACCLAIM CHECKS. From CLAIM CHECK. Handwritten checks long preceded Veno, Zelle, Google Wallet and Apple Pay. In Santa Barbara in the mid 1970's, a poster in the form of a scenic a check showing the Isla Vista branch of Bank of Americawas widely acclaimed.
Here are the other clues and answers:
Across:
1. Map out: PLAN.
5. With 5-Down, summer shirt: TANK. The T does double duty here.
9. Keeping folks waiting: LATE.
13. Brontė heroine: EYRE. A frequent visitor.
14. Woodwind played by Andy Mackay of Roxy Music: OBOE. He also plays the saxophone.
15. Ireland, poetically: ERIN.
19. Stretch, as one's neck: CRANE.
20. __ and aahs: OOHS.
21. Business letters?: INC. Not as in correspondence. LLC would have fit the space.
23. Starpilot and smuggler Solo: HAN. A Star Wars reference. In real life not such a star pilot.
24. No. cruncher: CPA. A frequent consultant in our puzzles.
27. Rival: FOE. We all know who is the arch FOE of capitalism. The lower cases.
28. Scottish no: NAE. In this case, aye.
33. Synthesizer brand: CASIO. Also a maker of watches and and calculators.
34. By land __: OR SEA.
35. Folder's loss: ANTE. A poker (as in card game) reference. "I fold" means "I quit. Keep the chips I have bet so far".
38. Cabs: TAXIS. Not a wine reference, this time.
41. Spy-fi side: USSR.
42. Knobs: DIALS. I got offered an amazing deal today. Someone offered to sell me a stereo with a broken volume knob. I couldn’t turn it down!
44. Words of clarification: I MEAN.
50. Sat: MET. As in convened.
51. Brandy bottle letters: VSO. I am aware of VSOP (very special old pale) , VS (very special) and XO (extra old) on brandy bottles but had not previously seen VSO as a designation.
52. Corvallis sch.: OSU.
53. "Never hurts to __": ASK.
56. Fed. stipend: SSI.
57. Like good angel food cake: AIRY.
59. Rolls partner: ROYCE. Neither a food nor a music nor a dice game nor an orientation reference . One of those clues playing on the leading cap convention.
65. Immense: VAST. Is less immense half-vast?
66. Woeful sigh: ALAS. In a recent Newsday Saturday Stumper puzzle, ALAS was clued as "word from the Latin for weary".
67. In a thumb-twiddling way: IDLY. We often encounter variations of IDLE in our puzzles (IDLE, IDLY, IDLED).
68. Shady trees: ELMS. We frequently avail ourselves of their shade when solving our puzzles.
69. Comedian Foxx: REDD. Perhaps best known for the TV show Sanford & Son. Redd often worked blue.
70. Egg cream component: SODA. Neither egg nor cream are included in the recipe.
Down:
1. Cobbler fruit: PEACH. Does include PEACH in the recipe.
2. Sports bra fabric: LYCRA.
3. Obscure stuff: ARCANA. Not to be confused with Texarkana.
4. Like Crayola's Unmellow Yellow and Atomic Tangerine: NEON. The referenced colors were unknown but the clue clearly hinted at NEON.
5. See 5-Across: TOP.
6. Law school accrediting org.: ABA.
7. Double negative?: NO NO.
8. Early topic in music theory: KEY OF C. No sharps. No flats.
9. Allow use of for a fee: LEASE TO.
10. Pt. of ETA: ARR. Estimated Time of ARRival.
11. Neat quality: TIDINESS.
12. Captures: ENSNARES.
17. Holy city of Islam: MECCA.
18. Singer Jay known as the "King of Mandopop": CHOU. Unknown to this solver. He has sold over 30,000,000 record albums. Thanks, perps.
22. Civil rights activist Chavez: CESAR. Front and center during many of our formative years.
25. Fruity Pebbles maker: POST. A cereal reference. Kellogg's was too long.
26. Ulaanbaatar's locale: ASIA. So many ASIAn locations from which to choose for the clue.
30. Common flashlight battery: C CELL. Mine always had either D cells or triple A's. Now it has a USB port for charging.
31. __ waste: TOXIC. Sometimes, in old insulation there can be toxic chemicals. You should avoid them asbestos you can.
32. Footlocker: TRUNK.
35. "Vice" Oscar nominee Amy: ADAMS.
36. "Wow, you almost dropped that!": NICE SAVE. The old saying: If you want to make the highlight reel misjudge the fly ball.
37. Strategic: TACTICAL. Actually, not exactly.
39. Intro to a texter's two cents: IMHO. In My Humble Opinion
40. Catches on: SEES. Also, a purveyor of chocolate candy.
43. Learned experts: SAVANTS.
45. Luxury Honda brand: ACURA.
47. Goddess often depicted holding an ankh: ISIS. A frequent visitor,
48. Masonry mixture: MORTAR.
49. Marry: SAY I DO.
54. Tell off: SCOLD. I stubbed my toe and got SCOLDed by my parents for yelling “What the duck”. They were angry that I used fowl language.
55. Home country of marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum: KENYA. Home of many long distance running champions.
58. Handsome Dan's school: YALE. The mascot of YALE University is a bulldog named Handsome Dan.
I call foul at acCOMPANY CARDS; the other two themers were cute. EIRE, NAY, and AMER caused a Wite-Out workout in the NE. Whew. Nice debut, Josh. Enjoyed your punny expo, Mal-Man. (I chuckled at "half-vast" and "asbestos you can.")
CASIO: This old fogey still wears a wristwatch -- a CASIO "atomic" clock that synchronizes with WWVA every night.
ACCLAIM CHECKS -- Our MUD (municipal utility district) accepts payment via check only -- no cash, no credit/debit cards, no on-line payment methods. Annoying. Same with the property tax folk. When the Navy transferred me to Guam, I took along a BofA cashier's check to establish a bank account. BofA Guam put a 10-day hold on my funds to make certain the check would clear. I couldn't believe it.
Mandopop, "Vice", Handsome Dan- no idea about those but CHOU, ADAMS, and YALE were easy fills. KEY OF C----MAJOR- no black notes on the piano. No sharps or flats,. C-MINOR does C-CELL- most regular flashlights use D. The smaller ones use AA. I've never had one that used a C.
AC- a sore and expensive subject for me. The entire area had a power failure Friday and Monday. When power was restored Monday, it was out for about two hours but our generator kept us in power. When the electricity came back on, our AC was not blowing cold air. Then it would come on for a minute and quit. Again and again. They thermostat had "system malfunction" on the screen. Before we went to sleep it stopped. Woke up and the thermostat screen was not working. The AC techs worked on it Wed & Thur but have yet to solve the problem. They found a burned transformer in the main unit and a blown 3amp fuse in the blower unit. I'm sure it was caused by that snake that crawled into the main fuse-electric box that comes from the electric company.
Country Music's Dierks Bentley had a big hit with What Was I Thinkin'
Oh, I knew there'd be hell to pay But that crossed my mind a little too late 'Cause I was thinkin' 'bout a little white TANK TOP Sittin' right there in the middle by me I was thinkin' 'bout a long kiss Man, just gotta get goin' where the night might lead I know what I was feelin' But what was I thinkin'?
I tried to stretch Moog to 5 letters to fill the synthesizer.
Maybe Splynter went to school at Organ State?
Does C-Eh! put her boots in her TRUNK? Brits have been known to put TRUNKs in their boots. I was gonna jump all over the strategic=TACTICAL error, but our MalMan beat me to it. Dwight D. Eisenhower said “No battle was ever won according to plan, but no battle was ever won without one.. Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
MM ~ thanks for introducing us to Josh, he already had an impressive resume, now adding CW constructor to it. I’m sure he’ll appreciate your outstanding review of his debut puzzle. My thought at the first themer was also COMPANY CAR, not seeing how the D fit in till filling the rest of them. DNK CHOU or ADAMS but perps fixed that. Paused at VSO, have only seen before as VSOP. We have lots of ARCANA tossed at us in CWs, but it greatly varies among solvers, what is obscure for some may be well known to others, observed daily here in the comments. I liked the clue for ROYCE. FIR in 14:23. My dad had some recordings of REDD Foxx from probably the 50’s, pretty tame now but very risqué then.
Big Easy ~ I can relate to your AC concerns, arrived here in SW Florida on Saturday, the AC worked fine that night after being in “vacation mode” for 5 months. Next morning a power surge affected the unit and it was blowing warm air. A tech came over and inspected the system, said everything appeared OK, but that a power surge can somehow reverse the process and cause the unit to overheat, said to shut down the system for 3 hours to recover. I was skeptical but sure enough, turned it back on and it’s been working fine since.
I am unfamiliar with whatever company cards are, VSO, Isis (the intersection of VSO & Isis was a lucky guess), and this Jay singer (as well as his genre). But, I knew today's actress (Adams).
Looks like we are back to the Friday add a couple letters routine.
Auto-posting comment? Still learning this new lapTOP. Thanks to our MalMan for another punny review.
FLN - Darren, you are still young, so there's hope for you. (ICYMI, Darren noted that he and I have similar senses of humor.) BTW, when my elderly sister went to a Dodgers spring training game in Vero Beach, she caught a foul ball and got a lot of the team to autograph it. I can't remember all of the names, but Peewee Reese, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snyder and Tommy Lasorda (as a fledgling pitcher) were among them.
Also, when my DW's father died Lasorda (by then the team's manager in Los Angeles) hand-wrote a condolences letter to her mother on Dodger stationary. Tommy knew them from their work at the Little League headquarters in Williamsport.
Other than the unknown Chou and Otis, this was a pretty easy and smooth solve, especially for a Friday. Of course, this type of add/subtract a letter theme tends to make the solve easier, once you get the drift of the gimmick. Just another reminder of how much the Friday stumpers of the past are missed. I, too, am only familiar with VSOP. As always, Nae brings thoughts of dear Wilbur.
Thanks, Josh and congrats on your debut and thanks, MalMan, for the fun and facts in your detailed review. You outdid yourself in the pun department this morning!
DO @ 5:56 ~ This old fogey-ess wears a wrist watch, too, although it’s not Atomic!
FLN
Parsan, belated congratulations on your 65th wedding anniversary. This has been quite a milestone year for you!
UncleFred, I hope your new doctor has some positive remedies for your eye problems. Best of luck.
FIR. For a Friday this was a relatively easy puzzle for me. The theme became evident to me from the reveal, and that helped a lot with the solve. I got hung up for a while with "accosted cutters" only because key of C and Chou were mostly a mystery to me. But overall I found this to be an enjoyable puzzle.
KEYOFC CCELL OSU VSO SSI and the partial ORSEA in a grid with just 4 themers? A bit much, IMO. Doesn't help that 14-13-13-14 is a pretty hard layout of theme answers to work with.
Even without the relatively clear themed answers where the first letters AC became quickly obvious (Each clue answer had “AC installed in it”) and thus automatically filled in, Helped correct ARCANe to ARCANA This was one of the easiest end-of-the-week challenges in a month of Fridays.. The answers have two meanings as in accompany cards and company cars (without the D). The other answers don’t follow this pattern of eliminating an end letter: e. g. accost cutters and cost cutters unless I’m missing something which wouldn’t surprise me. But still kwite klever klue-ing 😊
“Folder” not neither a notebook nor not a laundry worker.
Inkovers: plot/PLAN, idle/IDLY
A female comedian said of Marie Kondo’s book on TIDINESS “It encourages eliminating stuff you don’t love, so….I threw the book away”
“What people in a long line might do” work on a crossword puzzle wouldn’t fit
“Kelvin Kiptum! Who? “Mandopop” what? (Hip hop in Mandarin Chinese?)
Turret… TANK TOP Where an eagle might eat a piece of stolen angel food cake….AIRY Sauvetage….NICE SAVE
MM: Loved the “broken stereo volume knob” couldn’t turn it down and….. toxins: avoid them “asbestos” you can😊
But aren’t Tactics those little mints that come in a plastic container 🤔
Don't remind me, AC wouldn't start, called guy, he showed me picture of lizard that fried himself with 600 volts trying to walk across my start capacitor. New cap reveals fan motor fried also. Repair $800- but because it's over ten years old and might have a freon leak, they recommend replacing the whole unit $8000-
Thank you, Josh, and congratulations on your debut! Thank you, Malodorous Manatee
Hand up for first questioning COMPANY CARDS. The full answer with the added AC fit the clue, but I am not as familiar with the term company cards as I am with business cards. It was my last theme answer to complete. I started in the middle of the puzzle, so I knew what the game was by then. The C that intersected CHOU was also my last fill FTW. I'd never heard of singer Jay, so hand up with MM on that one too.
I'd also never heard of the UCSB riots or the burning of the BofA, but I spent about 45 minutes reading various articles after seeing MM's poster image. I would have been too young to have been aware of it.
I learned about the bulldog Handsome Dan as the YALE mascot in this very venue. Sometime in the last 10-12 years.
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Josh (congrats on your debut) and MalMan (great puns). I FIRed in good time and saw the AC INSTALLATION theme. As well as AC at the beginning of the themers, we had A and C as the first letters of both words in the themers. (I did see Company Cars at first and thought we might be losing letters at both ends of the themers.)
Two inkblots to change Huge to VAST, and Arcane to ARCANA (hi Ray-o). I waited for perps to decide if those shade trees were Oaks or ELMS, and “it never hurts to Try or ASK”. A four letter woodwind = OBOE. EKTORP! Hand up for trying to stretch Moog, when CASIO was needed.
Unknown or unremembered names like CESAR, CHOU, ADAMS, or Americanisms like OSU, SSI perped. I guessed KENYA, knowing they have so many marathon winners - probably due to training at high altitude in the Rift Valley area. Kiptum was favoured to win the marathon in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but was tragically killed (along with his coach) in a car crash in February.
unclefred FLN- Hoping your eye problem can be resolved.
I considered the D in “company cards” an out-and-out flaw in the theme the moment I filled it in. I suspect young Mr. Horowitz has never heard of company cars. Surely Patti has, though.
I liked the theme concept well enough, but didn’t find it or the puzzle to be quite Friday-worthy—if there is such a thing anymore.
DISLIKES: The obscure Mandopop entry, the “folder” pun that didn’t quite parse, and the flashlight battery.
LIKES: The marathoner had to be from Kenya. I was intrigued by the music theory entry, even though the answer was a letdown. Corvallis High School was a hated but admired rival of my high school. I’m glad to see any attention given to the university, one of the two left behind in the dismantling of the Pacific 12 Conference. But I wish they’d stop calling themselves the “Beavs,” a fairly recent phenomenon. I giggled when I remembered Handsome Dan must be a bulldog.
As with several others my first thought was ACD, but, as others said, D not included in the PLAN. Lots of names, 16, but knew all but 5. Perps to the rescue with those. MalMan 'spained how SAT = MET. I didn't get it until then. Thanx and congrats on your debut, JH, a fun CW creation. As already mentioned TACTICAL and STRATEGIC are different. Terrific write-up, MalMan, you gave me several smiles with your wit, thanx. Thanx too to IM for her comment about my eye problems. Yet another retinal separation, laser "dam" trying to contain it. Oy.
I don't consider installing an AC as a chore, rather something that needs to be done once a summer. A chore, to me, is something that needs to be done over and over, like daily or weekly. However I did enjoy the puzzle. My favorite was "Folders loss". Good one.
Pretty easy FIR for a Friday, not too much ARCANA, and the perps were helpful. Letting tactics drive strategy is a recipe for failure. Hand (wrist?) up for a wristwatch. I'd be lost without one!
ADAMS | MET hung me up at the M. Two ABC runs and I still wasn't sure on the M... L was a contender.
Congrats on the LAT debut, Josh! (wait, you're that Josh Horowitz?) That you've only been into xwords for only ~4 years, I'm impressed with the smooth grid.
MManatee - what can I say, you punny-man. Great chuckle-worthy expo. Thanks.
WOs: rIch -> AIRY & I put ROLLS in at ROYCE's fill #FacePalm ESPs: [see: above], CHOU Fav: I'll go with REDD Foxx. Dude was funny //links = NSFW, IMHO.
I did like seeing Humble in IMHO for a change. That's the way we used it on IRC [Internet Relay Chat] b/f the txt generation got hold of it and became more boisterous.
Hand-up: I thought D was an addition to the AC at COMPANY CARDS. COMPANY CARD - I used to have one. An AMEX. Apparently, folks took too much advantage of 'em and they were nix'd. MOOG came to mind but I got Eldest a CASIO to practice on.
Ray-O: people look at me funny when I'm standing inline filling a crossword. It's better than looking at an iThing, IMHO.
CED - find a new AC guy. 10 years is not old for an AC. //and with your skills, you can replace the capacitor. 8K is BS.
Acesaroundagain - Anything you "gotta do" is a chore. Pop [thanks for the SO yesterday, waseeley], who'll be 74yro tomorrow, still does his chore of brining in the cactus every winter.
C, Eh! - I was thinking Ohio or Oklahoma at OSU. Oregon didn't register. It's not just a Canadian disadvantage :-)
No wristwatch for me. I have an iThing that's always hip-ready for the time & temp.
Musings -The gimmick was clever and helpful -Since my lovely bride still ACCLAIM CHECKS, she only had contact one company where she has automatic withdrawal after we were hacked. -ACCOST CUTTERS was my never-ending job as a middle school lunch supervisor -OBOE: How shall I clue thee? Let me count the ways. -DIALS: The absence of them makes it interesting to turn off today’s TV’s -ROLLS ROYCE’s Merlin engines were an important component of some WWII aircraft like the Spitfire -I am subbing for a man today who is about 9/10 on a TIDENESS scale!! -What did you say? Oh, what I MEANT to day was… NICE SAVE! -SAVANT – Rainman -Here comes a gaggle of 8th graders!
What a pleasant Friday puzzle, many thanks, Josh, and we'll look forward to seeing more of them. And thanks too for your always helpful commentary, MalMan--I appreciated that too.
Wouldn't it be great to be a SAVANT, maybe with a degree from YALE, to enjoy and solve puzzles like this, not IDLY but with a fair amount of TIDINESS and TACTICAL skill? Afterwards you could take a TAXI and head down to the beach OR the SEA, while enjoying the VAST scenery with all those ELM trees on the way, and get a lunch and some SODA when you arrive. I MEAN, that would be an AIRY way to spend a day, wouldn't it?
Thanks to Josh and Joseph for the juxtaposition and jocularity
Took me just 3-1/2 minutes longer to solve than it took anonymous (@8:05). I count that as a HUGE accomplishment! ;^)
I, too disliked the ACCOMPANY CARDS entry the most, but as a fellow newbie constructor I always appreciate it when the editor gives some puzzle leeway
Today marks the 5th anniversary of Margaret and me as an "in a relationship" couple. You all are lucky that you only have to put up with me every other Friday ... :^)
Yeah, the Merlin engine changed the P51 Mustang from an OK fighter to an outstanding one. Old P51s are still used in air races. Going to the one in Reno is on my bucket list.
Thanks everyone for your kind words! And kudos to MalMan - what a fun writeup!
I'm glad you liked my inaugural entry to the crossword world. A good number of the clues were edited by Patti Varol at the LAT, but to peek under the hood, my original clues for the themes were:
- What poker chips might do? [ACCOMPANYCARDS] - Confront line jumpers? [ACCOSTCUTTERS] - Praise for paper payments? [ACCLAIMCHECKS] - A cool home addition, and a hint to this puzzle's theme [ACINSTALLATION]
This puzzle got an "almost" from the NYT and went through a number of revisions over time... ACCOMPANYCARDS was previously ACCOMPANYLOGOS (What (R) and tm might do?). And the original clue for ISM was (Follower of Mao or Marx?).
I've got some more grids planned for the future - hope to see you all again soon.
Okay, I'll pile on and SCOLD the editor for cluing TACTICAL as Strategic, which, as has already been pointed out, are not at all, not even a little bit, the same. And if Chairman Moe has not previously seen VSO as a designation, then VSO is also factually wrong. Although, since it was clued as "Brandy bottle letters" maybe VSO is acceptable, since those 3 letters do appear in VSOP. (Grumble grumble).
As for the theme, I was seeing ACC, not just AC, so it took me a bit longer to sort it out.
EIRE --> ERIN. TRY --> ASK. HUGE --> VAST. (Any men here ever had a huge-ectomy?)
My admiration and thanks to all you bloggers who put in so much time and effort.
Jayce @ 4:33 => as you said, VSO is not a brandy designation that this erstwhile sommelier has seen. But as I mentioned, having a bit of editor leeway - especially if the perps are solid - is sometimes OK if it is the only option. I would have to revisit the grid to see if there might have been another option for Joel. And to Joel, thanks for stopping by and explaining your submission process. That is always welcome here at The Corner!
Very doable Friday puzzle. I liked the themer: AC company cards. The picture of the poker chips and playing cards was perfect. They accompany each other. LIU. VSO brandy very superior old brandy is sold around here. I liked the clue, folders lose their ante. The Senate sat twenty days this month. The Senate met for twenty days.....
Greetings! Early start, late finish and lots of chores and errands in between. Trial and error time for me. I think I set a personal record for the most WOs in a puzzle because my first impression didn’t fit with the perps, but eventually I finished. Congratulations on your debut, Josh. Perps for CHOU. Lots of somebodies know him, but not in my universe. I did see the theme at my final perusal. Well done! Oh, MalMan, thanks for the p(h)unny recap! LOL!
Thanks for stopping by and revealing your original clue ideas. I understand the need for editing to correct errors but not why perfectly good clues need to be changed.
“Mr. Melville we published your wonderful novel but one small chance it’s no longer a great white whale but a giant pink seahorse. See you at the book signing”
Here’s what Wikipedia says about the grades of brandy:
Labelling of grades Brandy has a traditional age grading system, although its use is unregulated outside of Cognac and Armagnac.[45] These indicators can usually be found on the label near the brand name:
V.S. ("very special") or ✯✯✯ (three stars) designates a blend in which the youngest brandy has been stored for at least two years in a cask.[46] V.S.O.P. ("very superior old pale"), Reserve or ✯✯✯✯✯ (five stars) designates a blend in which the youngest brandy is stored for at least four years in a cask.[46] XO ("extra old") or Napoléon designates a blend in which the youngest brandy is stored for at least six years.[46] Hors d'âge ('beyond age') is a designation formally equal to XO for Cognac, but for Armagnac it designates brandy that is at least ten years old. In practice, the term is used by producers to market a high-quality product beyond the official age scale.
This was a walk in the park today! I thought Josh’s AC theme was verrry cool (ARR arr arr!). As for company cards, I’ve had ‘em in past gigs to pay for expenses, so that was a gimme on my end, and pretty well set the stage for grokking the theme.
Seriously, this was a nice casual workout; about the only buggah in the construction was MET for “sat”; that clue was “meh”. In my book. I thought Josh’s original was much better — and timely, what with the ball game today. I guess it’s one of those cases where editors lose sight of the tree in the woods…
Also gotta agree on the strategic vs TACTICAL angle as noted by our esteemed MalMan (as well as others above); close, but no cee-gar. But it was asbestos I could figure… MM > 😎👍🏽
C cells, dang… I haven’t seen any device that uses that size in about 35 years; I think the last machine I had that used ‘em was an old Brother label-maker.
Fun stuff from Josh (nice job, kid!) along with The Manatee. Thanks to both of ya homeboyz!
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39 comments:
With the first themed answer, the gimmick became obvious, and that helped me solve the rest of this (somewhat) challenging puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
I call foul at acCOMPANY CARDS; the other two themers were cute. EIRE, NAY, and AMER caused a Wite-Out workout in the NE. Whew. Nice debut, Josh. Enjoyed your punny expo, Mal-Man. (I chuckled at "half-vast" and "asbestos you can.")
CASIO: This old fogey still wears a wristwatch -- a CASIO "atomic" clock that synchronizes with WWVA every night.
ACCLAIM CHECKS -- Our MUD (municipal utility district) accepts payment via check only -- no cash, no credit/debit cards, no on-line payment methods. Annoying. Same with the property tax folk. When the Navy transferred me to Guam, I took along a BofA cashier's check to establish a bank account. BofA Guam put a 10-day hold on my funds to make certain the check would clear. I couldn't believe it.
Mandopop, "Vice", Handsome Dan- no idea about those but CHOU, ADAMS, and YALE were easy fills.
KEY OF C----MAJOR- no black notes on the piano. No sharps or flats,.
C-MINOR does
C-CELL- most regular flashlights use D. The smaller ones use AA. I've never had one that used a C.
AC- a sore and expensive subject for me. The entire area had a power failure Friday and Monday. When power was restored Monday, it was out for about two hours but our generator kept us in power. When the electricity came back on, our AC was not blowing cold air. Then it would come on for a minute and quit. Again and again. They thermostat had "system malfunction" on the screen. Before we went to sleep it stopped. Woke up and the thermostat screen was not working. The AC techs worked on it Wed & Thur but have yet to solve the problem. They found a burned transformer in the main unit and a blown 3amp fuse in the blower unit. I'm sure it was caused by that snake that crawled into the main fuse-electric box that comes from the electric company.
FIR, but eire->ERIN, rich->AIRY, arcane->ARCANA.
Country Music's Dierks Bentley had a big hit with What Was I Thinkin'
Oh, I knew there'd be hell to pay
But that crossed my mind a little too late
'Cause I was thinkin' 'bout a little white TANK TOP
Sittin' right there in the middle by me
I was thinkin' 'bout a long kiss
Man, just gotta get goin' where the night might lead
I know what I was feelin'
But what was I thinkin'?
I tried to stretch Moog to 5 letters to fill the synthesizer.
Maybe Splynter went to school at Organ State?
Does C-Eh! put her boots in her TRUNK? Brits have been known to put TRUNKs in their boots.
I was gonna jump all over the strategic=TACTICAL error, but our MalMan beat me to it. Dwight D. Eisenhower said “No battle was ever won according to plan, but no battle was ever won without one.. Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Thanks to Josh for the fun start to Friday.
MM ~ thanks for introducing us to Josh, he already had an impressive resume, now adding CW constructor to it. I’m sure he’ll appreciate your outstanding review of his debut puzzle. My thought at the first themer was also COMPANY CAR, not seeing how the D fit in till filling the rest of them. DNK CHOU or ADAMS but perps fixed that. Paused at VSO, have only seen before as VSOP. We have lots of ARCANA tossed at us in CWs, but it greatly varies among solvers, what is obscure for some may be well known to others, observed daily here in the comments. I liked the clue for ROYCE. FIR in 14:23. My dad had some recordings of REDD Foxx from probably the 50’s, pretty tame now but very risqué then.
Big Easy ~ I can relate to your AC concerns, arrived here in SW Florida on Saturday, the AC worked fine that night after being in “vacation mode” for 5 months. Next morning a power surge affected the unit and it was blowing warm air. A tech came over and inspected the system, said everything appeared OK, but that a power surge can somehow reverse the process and cause the unit to overheat, said to shut down the system for 3 hours to recover. I was skeptical but sure enough, turned it back on and it’s been working fine since.
Took 9:33 today for me to accede to the throne.
I am unfamiliar with whatever company cards are, VSO, Isis (the intersection of VSO & Isis was a lucky guess), and this Jay singer (as well as his genre). But, I knew today's actress (Adams).
Looks like we are back to the Friday add a couple letters routine.
Auto-posting comment? Still learning this new lapTOP. Thanks to our MalMan for another punny review.
FLN - Darren, you are still young, so there's hope for you. (ICYMI, Darren noted that he and I have similar senses of humor.) BTW, when my elderly sister went to a Dodgers spring training game in Vero Beach, she caught a foul ball and got a lot of the team to autograph it. I can't remember all of the names, but Peewee Reese, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snyder and Tommy Lasorda (as a fledgling pitcher) were among them.
Also, when my DW's father died Lasorda (by then the team's manager in Los Angeles) hand-wrote a condolences letter to her mother on Dodger stationary. Tommy knew them from their work at the Little League headquarters in Williamsport.
I’m guessing they are the same as business cards, or company (credit) cards?
Good Morning:
Other than the unknown Chou and Otis, this was a pretty easy and smooth solve, especially for a Friday. Of course, this type of add/subtract a letter theme tends to make the solve easier, once you get the drift of the gimmick. Just another reminder of how much the Friday stumpers of the past are missed. I, too, am only familiar with VSOP. As always, Nae brings thoughts of dear Wilbur.
Thanks, Josh and congrats on your debut and thanks, MalMan, for the fun and facts in your detailed review. You outdid yourself in the pun department this morning!
DO @ 5:56 ~ This old fogey-ess wears a wrist watch, too, although it’s not Atomic!
FLN
Parsan, belated congratulations on your 65th wedding anniversary. This has been quite a milestone year for you!
UncleFred, I hope your new doctor has some positive remedies for your eye problems. Best of luck.
Have a great day.
FIR. For a Friday this was a relatively easy puzzle for me. The theme became evident to me from the reveal, and that helped a lot with the solve.
I got hung up for a while with "accosted cutters" only because key of C and Chou were mostly a mystery to me.
But overall I found this to be an enjoyable puzzle.
KEYOFC CCELL OSU VSO SSI and the partial ORSEA in a grid with just 4 themers? A bit much, IMO. Doesn't help that 14-13-13-14 is a pretty hard layout of theme answers to work with.
Even without the relatively clear themed answers where the first letters AC became quickly obvious (Each clue answer had “AC installed in it”) and thus automatically filled in, Helped correct ARCANe to ARCANA This was one of the easiest end-of-the-week challenges in a month of Fridays..
The answers have two meanings as in accompany cards and company cars (without the D). The other answers don’t follow this pattern of eliminating an end letter: e. g. accost cutters and cost cutters unless I’m missing something which wouldn’t surprise me. But still kwite klever klue-ing 😊
“Folder” not neither a notebook nor not a laundry worker.
Inkovers: plot/PLAN, idle/IDLY
A female comedian said of Marie Kondo’s book on TIDINESS “It encourages eliminating stuff you don’t love, so….I threw the book away”
“What people in a long line might do” work on a crossword puzzle wouldn’t fit
“Kelvin Kiptum! Who? “Mandopop” what? (Hip hop in Mandarin Chinese?)
Turret… TANK TOP
Where an eagle might eat a piece of stolen angel food cake….AIRY
Sauvetage….NICE SAVE
MM: Loved the “broken stereo volume knob” couldn’t turn it down and….. toxins: avoid them “asbestos” you can😊
But aren’t Tactics those little mints that come in a plastic container 🤔
Jinx- my van doesn’t have a TRUNK or I would!
Don't remind me, AC wouldn't start, called guy, he showed me picture of lizard that fried himself with 600 volts trying to walk across my start capacitor. New cap reveals fan motor fried also. Repair $800- but because it's over ten years old and might have a freon leak, they recommend replacing the whole unit $8000-
Sheesh...
Thank you, Josh, and congratulations on your debut! Thank you, Malodorous Manatee
Hand up for first questioning COMPANY CARDS. The full answer with the added AC fit the clue, but I am not as familiar with the term company cards as I am with business cards. It was my last theme answer to complete. I started in the middle of the puzzle, so I knew what the game was by then. The C that intersected CHOU was also my last fill FTW. I'd never heard of singer Jay, so hand up with MM on that one too.
I'd also never heard of the UCSB riots or the burning of the BofA, but I spent about 45 minutes reading various articles after seeing MM's poster image. I would have been too young to have been aware of it.
I learned about the bulldog Handsome Dan as the YALE mascot in this very venue. Sometime in the last 10-12 years.
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Josh (congrats on your debut) and MalMan (great puns).
I FIRed in good time and saw the AC INSTALLATION theme. As well as AC at the beginning of the themers, we had A and C as the first letters of both words in the themers. (I did see Company Cars at first and thought we might be losing letters at both ends of the themers.)
Two inkblots to change Huge to VAST, and Arcane to ARCANA (hi Ray-o).
I waited for perps to decide if those shade trees were Oaks or ELMS, and “it never hurts to Try or ASK”.
A four letter woodwind = OBOE. EKTORP!
Hand up for trying to stretch Moog, when CASIO was needed.
Unknown or unremembered names like CESAR, CHOU, ADAMS, or Americanisms like OSU, SSI perped.
I guessed KENYA, knowing they have so many marathon winners - probably due to training at high altitude in the Rift Valley area.
Kiptum was favoured to win the marathon in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but was tragically killed (along with his coach) in a car crash in February.
unclefred FLN- Hoping your eye problem can be resolved.
Wishing you all a great day.
I considered the D in “company cards” an out-and-out flaw in the theme the moment I filled it in. I suspect young Mr. Horowitz has never heard of company cars. Surely Patti has, though.
I liked the theme concept well enough, but didn’t find it or the puzzle to be quite Friday-worthy—if there is such a thing anymore.
DISLIKES: The obscure Mandopop entry, the “folder” pun that didn’t quite parse, and the flashlight battery.
LIKES: The marathoner had to be from Kenya. I was intrigued by the music theory entry, even though the answer was a letdown. Corvallis High School was a hated but admired rival of my high school. I’m glad to see any attention given to the university, one of the two left behind in the dismantling of the Pacific 12 Conference. But I wish they’d stop calling themselves the “Beavs,” a fairly recent phenomenon. I giggled when I remembered Handsome Dan must be a bulldog.
As with several others my first thought was ACD, but, as others said, D not included in the PLAN. Lots of names, 16, but knew all but 5. Perps to the rescue with those. MalMan 'spained how SAT = MET. I didn't get it until then. Thanx and congrats on your debut, JH, a fun CW creation. As already mentioned TACTICAL and STRATEGIC are different. Terrific write-up, MalMan, you gave me several smiles with your wit, thanx. Thanx too to IM for her comment about my eye problems. Yet another retinal separation, laser "dam" trying to contain it. Oy.
I don't consider installing an AC as a chore, rather something that needs to be done once a summer. A chore, to me, is something that needs to be done over and over, like daily or weekly. However I did enjoy the puzzle. My favorite was "Folders loss". Good one.
Pretty easy FIR for a Friday, not too much ARCANA, and the perps were helpful. Letting tactics drive strategy is a recipe for failure. Hand (wrist?) up for a wristwatch. I'd be lost without one!
Hi All!
ADAMS | MET hung me up at the M. Two ABC runs and I still wasn't sure on the M... L was a contender.
Congrats on the LAT debut, Josh! (wait, you're that Josh Horowitz?)
That you've only been into xwords for only ~4 years, I'm impressed with the smooth grid.
MManatee - what can I say, you punny-man. Great chuckle-worthy expo. Thanks.
WOs: rIch -> AIRY & I put ROLLS in at ROYCE's fill #FacePalm
ESPs: [see: above], CHOU
Fav: I'll go with REDD Foxx. Dude was funny //links = NSFW, IMHO.
I did like seeing Humble in IMHO for a change. That's the way we used it on IRC [Internet Relay Chat] b/f the txt generation got hold of it and became more boisterous.
Hand-up: I thought D was an addition to the AC at COMPANY CARDS.
COMPANY CARD - I used to have one. An AMEX. Apparently, folks took too much advantage of 'em and they were nix'd.
MOOG came to mind but I got Eldest a CASIO to practice on.
Ray-O: people look at me funny when I'm standing inline filling a crossword. It's better than looking at an iThing, IMHO.
CED - find a new AC guy. 10 years is not old for an AC. //and with your skills, you can replace the capacitor. 8K is BS.
Acesaroundagain - Anything you "gotta do" is a chore. Pop [thanks for the SO yesterday, waseeley], who'll be 74yro tomorrow, still does his chore of brining in the cactus every winter.
C, Eh! - I was thinking Ohio or Oklahoma at OSU. Oregon didn't register. It's not just a Canadian disadvantage :-)
No wristwatch for me. I have an iThing that's always hip-ready for the time & temp.
Cheers, -T
Don’t understand 50 A…sat and met
I justified it as in "I sat with..." | "I MET with..." Maybe Josh will pipe in.
Musings
-The gimmick was clever and helpful
-Since my lovely bride still ACCLAIM CHECKS, she only had contact one company where she has automatic withdrawal after we were hacked.
-ACCOST CUTTERS was my never-ending job as a middle school lunch supervisor
-OBOE: How shall I clue thee? Let me count the ways.
-DIALS: The absence of them makes it interesting to turn off today’s TV’s
-ROLLS ROYCE’s Merlin engines were an important component of some WWII aircraft like the Spitfire
-I am subbing for a man today who is about 9/10 on a TIDENESS scale!!
-What did you say? Oh, what I MEANT to day was… NICE SAVE!
-SAVANT – Rainman
-Here comes a gaggle of 8th graders!
What a pleasant Friday puzzle, many thanks, Josh, and we'll look forward to seeing more of them. And thanks too for your always helpful commentary, MalMan--I appreciated that too.
Wouldn't it be great to be a SAVANT, maybe with a degree from YALE, to enjoy and solve puzzles like this, not IDLY but with a fair amount of TIDINESS and TACTICAL skill? Afterwards you could take a TAXI and head down to the beach OR the SEA, while enjoying the VAST scenery with all those ELM trees on the way, and get a lunch and some SODA when you arrive. I MEAN, that would be an AIRY way to spend a day, wouldn't it?
Have a lovely weekend coming up, everybody.
Puzzling thoughts:
Thanks to Josh and Joseph for the juxtaposition and jocularity
Took me just 3-1/2 minutes longer to solve than it took anonymous (@8:05). I count that as a HUGE accomplishment! ;^)
I, too disliked the ACCOMPANY CARDS entry the most, but as a fellow newbie constructor I always appreciate it when the editor gives some puzzle leeway
Today marks the 5th anniversary of Margaret and me as an "in a relationship" couple. You all are lucky that you only have to put up with me every other Friday ... :^)
Probably just that. This was one the editors changed - originally I had "Queens ballplayer" as a clue.
Yeah, the Merlin engine changed the P51 Mustang from an OK fighter to an outstanding one. Old P51s are still used in air races. Going to the one in Reno is on my bucket list.
Thanks everyone for your kind words! And kudos to MalMan - what a fun writeup!
I'm glad you liked my inaugural entry to the crossword world. A good number of the clues were edited by Patti Varol at the LAT, but to peek under the hood, my original clues for the themes were:
- What poker chips might do? [ACCOMPANYCARDS]
- Confront line jumpers? [ACCOSTCUTTERS]
- Praise for paper payments? [ACCLAIMCHECKS]
- A cool home addition, and a hint to this puzzle's theme [ACINSTALLATION]
This puzzle got an "almost" from the NYT and went through a number of revisions over time... ACCOMPANYCARDS was previously ACCOMPANYLOGOS (What (R) and tm might do?). And the original clue for ISM was (Follower of Mao or Marx?).
I've got some more grids planned for the future - hope to see you all again soon.
Okay, I'll pile on and SCOLD the editor for cluing TACTICAL as Strategic, which, as has already been pointed out, are not at all, not even a little bit, the same. And if Chairman Moe has not previously seen VSO as a designation, then VSO is also factually wrong. Although, since it was clued as "Brandy bottle letters" maybe VSO is acceptable, since those 3 letters do appear in VSOP. (Grumble grumble).
As for the theme, I was seeing ACC, not just AC, so it took me a bit longer to sort it out.
EIRE --> ERIN. TRY --> ASK. HUGE --> VAST. (Any men here ever had a huge-ectomy?)
My admiration and thanks to all you bloggers who put in so much time and effort.
Good reading you all.
Thanks, Josh, for dropping bye and sharing your puzzle and your thoughts with us. Also, thanks to all for your nice comments.
Jayce @ 4:33 => as you said, VSO is not a brandy designation that this erstwhile sommelier has seen. But as I mentioned, having a bit of editor leeway - especially if the perps are solid - is sometimes OK if it is the only option. I would have to revisit the grid to see if there might have been another option for Joel. And to Joel, thanks for stopping by and explaining your submission process. That is always welcome here at The Corner!
Bye? Can't blame auto correct for that typo.
Very doable Friday puzzle. I liked the themer: AC company cards. The picture of the poker chips and playing cards was perfect. They accompany each other.
LIU. VSO brandy very superior old brandy is sold around here.
I liked the clue, folders lose their ante.
The Senate sat twenty days this month. The Senate met for twenty days.....
Greetings! Early start, late finish and lots of chores and errands in between. Trial and error time for me. I think I set a personal record for the most WOs in a puzzle because my first impression didn’t fit with the perps, but eventually I finished.
Congratulations on your debut, Josh.
Perps for CHOU. Lots of somebodies know him, but not in my universe.
I did see the theme at my final perusal. Well done!
Oh, MalMan, thanks for the p(h)unny recap! LOL!
Josh
Thanks for stopping by and revealing your original clue ideas. I understand the need for editing to correct errors but not why perfectly good clues need to be changed.
“Mr. Melville we published your wonderful novel but one small chance it’s no longer a great white whale but a giant pink seahorse. See you at the book signing”
😳
Here’s what Wikipedia says about the grades of brandy:
Labelling of grades
Brandy has a traditional age grading system, although its use is unregulated outside of Cognac and Armagnac.[45] These indicators can usually be found on the label near the brand name:
V.S. ("very special") or ✯✯✯ (three stars) designates a blend in which the youngest brandy has been stored for at least two years in a cask.[46]
V.S.O.P. ("very superior old pale"), Reserve or ✯✯✯✯✯ (five stars) designates a blend in which the youngest brandy is stored for at least four years in a cask.[46]
XO ("extra old") or Napoléon designates a blend in which the youngest brandy is stored for at least six years.[46]
Hors d'âge ('beyond age') is a designation formally equal to XO for Cognac, but for Armagnac it designates brandy that is at least ten years old. In practice, the term is used by producers to market a high-quality product beyond the official age scale.
Mr. Jinx, I’m probably not as young as you suspect …altho I’ll always be Young (it’s my last name 😆)
====> Darren
This was a walk in the park today! I thought Josh’s AC theme was verrry cool (ARR arr arr!). As for company cards, I’ve had ‘em in past gigs to pay for expenses, so that was a gimme on my end, and pretty well set the stage for grokking the theme.
Seriously, this was a nice casual workout; about the only buggah in the construction was MET for “sat”; that clue was “meh”. In my book. I thought Josh’s original was much better — and timely, what with the ball game today. I guess it’s one of those cases where editors lose sight of the tree in the woods…
Also gotta agree on the strategic vs TACTICAL angle as noted by our esteemed MalMan (as well as others above); close, but no cee-gar. But it was asbestos I could figure… MM > 😎👍🏽
C cells, dang… I haven’t seen any device that uses that size in about 35 years; I think the last machine I had that used ‘em was an old Brother label-maker.
Fun stuff from Josh (nice job, kid!) along with The Manatee. Thanks to both of ya homeboyz!
====> Darren / L.A.
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