Friday, September 20, 2013, Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: "A" growing family. No A words, though.

For all of you who have noticed (or bemoaned) our recent run of Friday definition puzzles, this week one of our new regular constructors, Jeffrey Wechsler, gives us a progression of clues for grid spanning fill in another variation of the definition theme. I enjoyed this one immensely, as it featured lots of nice intermediate original fill, like,  ADAGIOS, ADMIRER, ALL HERE, BIG LOVE, GIGGLED, HIDEOUT, I BET YOU, I'M IN AWE, MANACLE, SMEAR ON, SUB-ARID, SWIVELS, USELESS, WE HAD TO. Of course when you have grid spanners, there will be some sacrifices, and JW chooses partials, abbreviations and inital-isms as his poison, so let's do our thing.

17A. A : HIGH LETTER GRADE.(15). My oldest went through college with nothing but A's.

27A. AA : TWELVE STEP GROUP.(15). Alcoholics Anonymous.

44A. AAA : US MOTORISTS CLUB.(15) American Automobile Association.

55A. AAAA : VERY THIN BATTERY.(15). I do not think there is any initial-ism here. Just a QUADRUPLE A.

Across:

1. Breadth of fresh hair? : WIG. It always disconcerts me when I do not get  1A.

4. 2000s HBO drama set in Utah : BIG LOVE. You want polygamy, you get polygamy.

11. "Figured it out!" : A HA. The best moment for a solver.

14. Longtime Parlophone record label owner : EMI. "Electric and Musical Industries Ltd was formed in March 1931 by the merger of the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company, with its "His Master's Voice" record label, firms that have a history extending back to the origins of recorded sound. " Per wiki, never heard of Parlophone, but how many three letter record labels were there?

15. Valentine sender : ADMIRER.

16. Submerge : DIP.

20. 2002 World Series champs : ANGELS. Anaheim? Los Angeles? California? They bought Pujols and Hamilton on the downturn.

21. Pawn : STOOGE. Nice word, but tricky clue.

22. Author Carnegie : DALE. The Power of Positive Thinking man.

23. CPR provider : EMT. CardioPulmonary Resuccitation from an Emergency Medical Technician.

25. Library sect. : BIOGraphy.

32. Venerable ref. : OED.

33. Moving line on the ground, maybe : ANTS. Nice visual ...................................................

34. Places to perch : ROOSTS.

35. Rosebud, notably : SLED. A Citizen Kane reference.

36. Lean and sinewy : WIRY.

37. Good thing to pass : MUSTER. From the military inspections.

40. When Bloomsday, which celebrates Joyce's "Ulysses," is observed : JUNE. This coincides with the date in the book. LINK.

41. "Just __ figured!" : AS I.

47. Profound : DEEP.

48. 32-Across cousin of arch. : OBS. Obsolete which is a cousin of archaic.

49. River through the Czech Republic : ELBE.

50. Canadian brewery : LABATT. Very popular beer in Buffalo.

53. Doughboy's helmet : TIN HAT. Tinman makes another appearance.

58. Prefix with tonic : ISO.

59. Restraining device : MANACLE. Nice old fashioned word.

60. Carnival setting : RIO.

61. Messenger developer : MSN.

62. Office chair mechanisms : SWIVELS. Also not a word you see often in the crossword world.

63. Email suffix : EDU.

Down:

1. "There was no choice for us" : WE HAD TO. A nice series of words.

2. "That's mind-blowing!" : I'M IN AWE.

3. Laughed nervously, maybe : GIGGLED.

4. Scene of a lost glass slipper : BALL. Ladies, were you Cinderella?

5. Time to beware : IDES. Be careful Julie...

6. Clock-setting std. : GMT. Greenwich Mean Time.

7. Stewed : LIT. There are so many ways to express being drunk.

8. Handel opera written in Italian : ORESTE. A now time for our musical INTERLUDE.(4:56).

9. Not hor. : VERTical.

10. Consequently : ERGO. Latin.

11. Slow movements : ADAGIOS. JzB want to take this one?

12. Place to lie low : HIDEOUT.

13. Make like : APE.

18. Command to Fido : HEEL.

19. Manhattan variety : ROB ROY. A manhattan (a rye drink) made with Scotch. Can't waste pinch with all that sweet vermouth.

23. Abbr. for dating enthusiasts? : ESTD. Established, seen on many buildings.

24. Hood et al.: Abbr. : MTS. Another recurring theme for the week?

26. Common cellphone feature, briefly : GPS. Global Positioning System.

28. Manservant : VALET. Jeeves anyone?

29. Italian : gennaio :: Spanish : __ : ENERO. January.

30. Patterned cloth : PRINT.

31. Sticks with a horn : GORES. Short but very BRUTAL (0:36)  example, use your discretion in watching.

35. Visit : STOP BY.

36. Milquetoast : WUSS.

37. Pie material? : MUD. Yum, oh you meant literally.

38. Of no help : USELESS.

39. Apply liberally : SMEAR ON. Did any of  you all think of

40. Foresail : JIB.

41. Present and accounted for : ALL HERE.

42. Moderately dry, climatewise : SUB-ARID.

43. Challenging opening : I BET YOU.

45. Twisty pasta : ROTINI. There are many, many kinds. MORE than I knew.

46. It's mostly made of zinc : CENT.

51. Some NCR devices : ATMS. Automated Teller Machines

52. Spring occurrence : THAW.

53. Starbucks order : TALL. Which is small.

54. Followers: Suff. : ITES.

55. Pep : VIM.

56. Service abbr. : NAV.  To keep the Village HAPPY.(4:01).

57. Pre-A.D. : BCE. A real mixed metaphor, as Before Common Era, is used by those who do not accept Anno Domini.

A quick shout out to Mangesh  who in a collaboration with Doug Peterson created the NYT today. He was our first regular from India.

Well,, like I said I really enjoyed this challenge. I missed Happy Mid-Autumn, but for those who are in their sukkahs, enjoy. LINK.  Have a great week, thanks JW, lemonade out.

Notes from C.C.:

1) Further to what Lemonade said earlier, congratulations to Mangesh on his NYT debut. Please check his interview with Wordplay here. He has a LAT coming up next week also.

2) For those who enjoyed George Barany's Turing tribute puzzle, he co-constructed today's The Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle. Please click here. The first one: "Great Dane". Unfortunately, only puz file is available.