Good Morning Crucibverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here once again with a recap of a Friday puzzle. Today's puzzle setters are Taylor Johnson and Christina Iverson. We have previously seen puzzles by each of them in the L.A. Times.
Today's "theme" is something of an odd duck and I find it to be a bit difficult to explain. First of all, it is meta. At five places within the grid (each clue ending with a question mark for a bit of added helpfulness), portions of the clues themselves are used to form the answers. In each case the letters that are employed in this capacity frame the opening portion of the clue. The relationship that each answer has to its clue is the "letter play"and the use of words such as border, case, frame, etc,. Let's look at the first example and see if things might not become a bit clearer.
17 Across: Op-ed column feature?: OPEN BORDER. If we look at OP-ED COLUMN we see that the O P E and N form the word OPEN. OPEN forms, and frames, the left BORDER of the clue (exclusive of the word "feature").
25 Across: Spa service feature?: SPACE CASE. . In the second-from-the-top themed clue/answer, we are presented with SPA SERVICE in the clue. The S,P, A, C, and E of the answer (SPACE CASE) originate in the clue. They could be said the enCASE the clue. The fact that we have two C's and two E's from which to chose might be a wee bit confusing but since we are going with edges and sides we'll go with the first C and the last E for the highlighting, below. Making things a bit more interesting or confusing is that, in this instance, SPACE can frame both the clue and the answer.
The other three theme answers are:
35 Across: Free booze feature?: FREEZE FRAME. FREE BOOZE. As with the previous theme answer, things are a bit more interesting / confusing because FREEZE FRAMEs both the clue and the answer.
48 Across: Lotus pose feature?: LOOSE ENDS. LOOSE frames the ENDS of the clue LOTUS POSE.
58 Across: Chocolate mousse feature?: CHOSE SIDES. CHOCOLATE MOUSSE.
I found the theme, and its execution, to be both clever and a bit unwieldy. YMMV.
In the grid things look like this:
Now, if we are not tuckered out from exploring the machinations of the theme, we can take a look at the rest of the puzzle.
Across:
19. "Un-Break My Heart" singer Braxton: TONI.
20. Reply "stop" to a text message campaign, say: OPT OUT.
21. One of a kind: UNIT. Not a "one off" but one of many (of a type or kind).
3. Pickup spec: ONE TON. Not a pickup bar reference. A truck reference.
4. Ligurian port on a namesake gulf: GENOA. Often clued with a salami reference but, hey, it's Friday.
6. Road goo: TAR.
7. Total: ADD UP. If this had been a truck reference the answer could have been WRECK.
8. Davis of "Beetlejuice": GEENA.
10. Pretend: ACT.
11. Cry for attention: LOOK AT ME.
12. Turpentine ingredient: PINE SAP. First went with PINE TAR.
13. Tweezers targets: SLIVERS. SPLINTERS was too long.
18. Jumper cable?: BUNGEE.
33. Some natural hairstyles: AFROS.
35. Blueprint: FLOOR MAP. More often, FLOOR PLAN but that would not fit.
36. "Black Beatles" hip-hop duo __ Sremmurd: RAE. Ear Drummers spelled backwards. Yo!
37. Matches: AGREES.
38. "None for you!": ALL MINE.
39. Herbal red 22-Down: ROOIBOS. A new one for me but, apparently, not all that obscure.
42. Unadon fish: EEL. A sushi reference.
46. Farewells: ADIEUS. Could have been ADIEUX.
47. Approvals: YESSES.
49. Hangzhou "Hello": NI HAO. Today's mandarin lesson.
50. Metallic waste: DROSS. SLAG was too short.
52. Spectrum-maker: PRISM.
57. Short: SHY. Not a height reference. As in to owe money that one does not have.
59. "The thing is ... ": SEE.