Shift from one dialect to another, depending on the social context / TV host with the autobiography "Born a Crime" / Animal wearing red pajamas in a children's book / Pioneer who lent his name to six U.S. counties / World capital once behind the Iron Curtain

Constructor: Erik Agard

Relative difficulty: Easy (6:25)

THEME: "Stoners' Film Festival" — phrases containing both words that can be interpreted as pot-related and words that can be interpreted as movie-related are hilariously interpreted as such

Theme answers:

• PUFF PIECES (23A: Stoner movies?)
• POT SHOTS (30A: Components of stoner movies?)
• HIGH DRAMA (43A: Tension in a stoner movie?)
• SMOKE BOMB (46A: Stoner movie that flops at the box office?)
• JOINT RESOLUTION (62A: Ending of a stoner movie?)
• ROLLING IN / THE AISLES (82A / 84A: Like an audience during a stoner movie?)
• BAKED HAM (98A: Bad actor in a stoner movie?)
• DIRECT HITS (107A: Be behind the camera for a blockbuster stoner movie?)

Word of the Day: NOSRAT (Samin ___, best-selling cookbook author) —

Samin Nosrat (Persian: ثمین نصرت‎, /səˈmin ˈnʌsrɑːt/, born November 7, 1979) is an American chef and food writer. She is a regular food columnist for The New York Times Magazine and has a Netflix docu-series based on her cookbook, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.

...

Nosrat's 2017 cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, illustrated by Wendy McNaughton and including a foreword by Michael Pollan, was named "Food Book of the Year" by The Times of London and was a New York Times best seller. The cookbook also won the 2018 James Beard Award for Best General Cookbook, was named Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and won the 2018 IACP Julia Child First Book Award.

A Netflix docu-series based on the cookbook, also called Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, was released on October 11, 2018, with each of the four episodes based around one of the four elements of cooking set out in the title. In episode 1, Nosrat goes to Italy to talk about the use of fat in cooking; in episode 2, Japan for salt; in episode 3, Mexico for acid; and in episode 4, returns to the United States, cooking at Chez Panisse as well as with her own mother, to discuss heat. The show was described by The Washington Post as "unlike any other food show on TV." (Wikipedia)

• • •

It's me again, indie constructor Christopher Adams filling in for Rex while he's in DC for the Indie 500 this weekend. I've spent the day following along on Twitter (and feeling the #fomo) and wishing I could've seen everybody there today. Among the many excellent people there include tournament organizer Erik Agard, whose byline I really wish I saw more of. I was very excited to see his name on this puzzle, though honestly it didn't need it—his voice, personality, and style shine through this puzzle so much that I would have very little doubt, as a solver, identifying him as the constructor if I didn't know that ahead of time.

And, as expected, I loved this puzzle; it was, as the kids might say these days, MONDO DOPE (109A: Very, in slang / 110A: Hella cool). The theme is straightforward, but very well done; the title and the first theme answer perfectly give away the idea, and I had fun finding each theme answer as I made my way through the puzzle. It usually didn't take more than a letter or two to figure them out, but I genuinely enjoyed each of them.

The rest of the puzzle, I thought, was pretty easy too; the only difficulties, if I can even use that word, were things like writing AXES for AXED (25A: Fired), messing up my French (COTE for CITE at 27A: Île de la ___), or guessing the wrong AP class (CALC instead of CHEM for 88D: Tough H.S. science class). For that last one, in my defense, I'm a huge math person, and I'd just filled in STEM for 114A: Big acronym in education.

TARO is the only acceptable Bubble tea flavor, don't @ me

Anyway, even with some errors, and a few typos on top of that, this puzzle wasn't much of a challenge. I'd like to specifically note that the fill on this is squeaky clean, and between that and the clues, not a single letter is in doubt. This is a well-constructed puzzle, and it is what more puzzles should be (or, at least, aspire to be). I don't even care that the theme type isn't some boundary-pushing stunt or idea. It's a standard idea, but it's tried and true, and in the hands of a master craftsman, it works beautifully.

And on top of that, the fill absolutely sings. CODESWITCH, FLOOR MODEL, KEG STANDS, OFF THE GRID, LOUISVILLE, MOTOR CITY, and even AMATEURISH would all be assets in a themeless; here, where there's not as many long answer slots to go around (and more constraints, due to the theme), it's amazing that these are all great. Fun, new short fill too: the aforementioned NOSRAT, MONDO, and AP CHEM, but also CHICANA, I DID NOT, and RAINN (especially as clued).

Olio:

• ELIS (Ancient Greek land that hosted the Olympics)  was a complete unknown as clued, even though this is, more or less, the clue used three of the last six times ELIS has been in the NYT. At least crossings were fair. But definitely felt out of place, difficulty-wise. (See also CITE, a valid English word clued otherwise.)
• Film heroine who says "Somebody has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, flyboy" is a great quote for LEIA, who will be dearly missed in the upcoming The Rise of Skywalker; also, interesting to have this intersecting LANDO without a cross-reference, or at least an acknowledgement in the clues.
• Part of V.S.O.P. is OLD; it stands for Very Superior Old Pale.

Yours in puzzling, Christopher Adams, Court Jester of CrossWord

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]