Keyed up about the May 19 crossword

[Thomps2525]

Adrian Kabigting earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Rutgers Business School. He is a clerk and data processor with the Middlesex County Mosquito Extermination Commission in Edison, New Jersey. He also creates crosswords. His puzzle today includes
KEYBOARDWARRIOR ("Internet troll, slangily"). The last word of each of four long answers is a key on a computer keyboard:

First house: STARTERHOME
Skill of elite WNBA players: BALLCONTROL
It may provide arch support: SHOEINSERT
Emergency exit with a ladder: FIREESCAPE

Henry Mill of London, England patented a "typing machine" in 1714, although there is no evidence he ever built a working model. Early typewriters looked more like sewing machines. They even had a treadle which controlled the carriage. The first successful typewriter (as we know them today) was invented in 1867. Here is an illustrated history:

https://www.daskeyboard.com/blog/typing-through-time-the-history-of-the-keyboard/

"Photo-sharing app, briefly" is INSTA.  Does anyone call Instagram "Insta"? I highly doubt it. "Sandwich cookies" is OREOS. Yes, another crossword with OREO. There are several every week. Nabisco is surely grateful for all the free advertising. "Horror trio?" is ARS. The word "horror" contains three R's. I do not see any AR's. Crossword creators often spell out a letter, even though each letter of the alphabet is its own spelling and does not need more letters added. I often see VEE for "victory sign" or CEE for "average grade" or ESS for "highway curve." The letters are V, C and S, not "vee," "cee" and "ess." Has anyone ever gotten a grade of "Cee" on a test paper? Or a "Bee" or a "Dee"? In almost all puzzles, words have a minimum of three letters and therefore V, C and S are not usable. Puzzle makers use individual letters by spelling out the letter's pronunciation. I wish they would come up with better clues for ARS, VEE, CEE and ESS and not treat those words as if they were individual letters.

"___ Angeles" is LOS. "Los Angeles" is one of the world's most mispronounced city names. It means "the angels" in Spanish. The pueblo was founded in 1781 as "El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles" ("The Town of the Queen of the Angels"). For more than two hundred years it was believed the town's full name was "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula" ("The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola"). In the 2000s, scholars examining old deeds, land grants and other records concluded that the original name was simply "El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles."

Porciúncula was the original name of what is now the Los Angeles River. It comes from porziuncola, "little portion" in Italian. The Porziuncola is a tiny chapel located inside the Basilica of Santa Maria in Italy. It was there that the Franciscan Order was founded – and Franciscans built several missions in California. The original inhabitants of what is now Los Angeles County? The Tongva tribe, 6,500 BC, and the Chumash tribe, 11,000 BC. Here is a brief history of Los Angeles and some of its best-known landmarks:

https://la.curbed.com/2018/4/20/17016988/los-angeles-history-timeline-facts-earthquakes

Getting back to the typewriter, I remember one of my classmates telling me he bought a typewriter. I asked, "It's a lot quicker and neater than using a pen, isn't it?" "Yes," he agreed, "but it certainly doesn't spell any better."

I'm out. Stay safe and healthy, everyone!