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.
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10 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.
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