Producer of the world's most widely read consumer catalog / What nyctophobia is the fear of / "Special Agent ___" (animated Disney show about a bear) / Its national drink is the pisco sour / Meadow grass with brushlike spikes

Constructor: Matthew Stock

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (6:30)


THEME: Off Br& — company names are taken as clues to something else that's not related to the company, so all the fun comes from figuring out these different contexts; YMMV here, but I thought they were all done well.

Theme answers:

• OFFENSIVE LINE (Five guys?)
• WIND TURBINE (Green giant?)
• OLD MACDONALD (Jolly rancher?) (debatable whether he's actually jolly, but I'll give it a pass because the song's fun and the animals seem to be enjoying it)
• MILITARY ACADEMIES (General mills?) (the best of the bunch, IMO, and a worthy central entry)
• STEEL GUITARS (Texas instruments?)
• SOUNDSYSTEM (Band aid?)
• SPANISH ARMADA (Old navy?) (a very close second for best theme answer / clue pair)

Word of the Day: KVASS (Fermented Baltic drink)

Kvass is a traditional fermented Slavic and Baltic beverage commonly made from rye bread, which is known in many Central and Eastern European and Asian countries as "black bread". The colour of the bread used contributes to the colour of the resulting drink. Kvass's alcohol content from fermentation is typically low (0.5–1.0% or 1–2 proof). It may be flavoured with fruits such as strawberries or raisins, or with herbs such as mint. Kvass is especially popular in Russia.

Kvass is made by the natural fermentation of bread, such as wheat, rye, or barley, and sometimes flavoured using fruit, berries, raisins, or birch sap. Modern homemade kvass most often uses black or regular rye bread, usually dried, baked into croutons, or fried, with the addition of sugar or fruit (e.g. apples or raisins), and with a yeast culture and zakvaska ("kvass fermentation starter"). (Wikipedia)

• • •

It me again, occasional indie constructor Christopher Adams for my second (and last) day of blogging to open up ~two weeks of guest blogging; handing the reins off tomorrow to a familiar face. But for now, I get to enjoy a good puzzle for a second straight day, and I'm thankful for that—Sunday puzzles can be very hit or miss, but when they're good, they're worth it.

The theme's a bit on the simpler side; other than reinterpreting the company names in the clues to mean different things, there's nothing tricksy with wordplay going on here, and there's no shenanigans going on in the grid either. And that's perfectly fine—not every puzzle needs to be super complex, and most times a simple(r) theme done well (as is the case here) is better than a puzzle that tries (and doesn't quite succeed) to do something more complex.

That's especially the case when you're in the hands of a master constructor, as Matthew Stock is; in addition to a fun theme, there's lots of good fill here: TOO COOL, FWIW, NEW-AGEY, OOPS!, GOD COMPLEX, LAYSHIA, TAO and TAU (at least, I find the juxtaposition amusing), KNOTS UP, AND DONE, etc. The only thing I didn't like was PREDIAL (Relating to land, old-style), but I'll take (at most) one meh word (out of 140) any day of the week (and especially on Sunday).

saw lcd soundsystem live in december 2017, showed up hella early and was directly in front of james murphy the entire show (and got his setlist at the end)

Lots of fun clues as well, which always adds to the enjoyment, especially when the theme may not be everybody's cup of tea. In no particular order, my faves:

• STENCIL (Help when writing a letter) and ART ROOM (It might have desks and drawers) — both artistic, and both misleading; in the first case, it's not a document but an actual letter of the alphabet, while in the second, "drawers" should be interpreted as "draw-ers" (i.e. people who draw).
• GLASSES (They can help you see or taste) — I enjoyed this because it's two separate meanings of the answer, but those meanings are united by reference to two of the five senses; always a good thing when you can bring together two different things so smoothly, as is the case here.
• LIE ("I promise I won't laugh," often) — evokes a nice, funny, somewhat specific scenario, and for that I enjoyed it. Similarly, SLIM (Like the odds of finding a needle in a haystack) and SMORE (Dessert with some assembly required) also brought amusing and/or delicious images to mind.
• ORLANDO (Magic can be seen here) — the masked capital (i.e. the first word being a proper noun and not just capitalized because it's the first word of the clue) strikes again!
• PESO (South American capital) — the masked capital (i.e. the word "capital" referring to not a capital city, but to currency) strikes again!
• EWELL (Apt name for a Christmas caroler?) — OK, I didn't actually like this clue; I am (in general) not a fan of "apt name for a[n] ___?" clues. Like, yay, words are spelled like and/or sound like other words; that doesn't mean that similarity is interesting. (I am fully aware that this also describes a lot of crossword themes, and that my views on those may or may not agree with my views on these clues. I am large, I contain multitudes.) Anyway, it's apt because EWELL is possibly a homophone for YULE, depending on where you live. (The existence of dialects / multiple valid pronunciations for words is one of the many reasons why I don't like pronunciation-based themes in general, though there are some that transcend this difficulty and that I do like.)

there's no compelling reason in the grid to post this here; i just needed another video to break up this wall of text, and i really love this band. their EP "the last pillar of light" is all bangers, no skips, and i can't wait for their full-length debut

Olio:

• CELESTE (___ Ng, author of "Little Fires Everywhere")  — a wonderful book; got to meet her when she was part of a discussion panel for Charles Yu's book "Interior Chinatown" (also a wonderful book; if you haven't read this or "Little Fires Everywhere", please do so ASAP).
• LAYSHIA (___ Clarendon, first openly transgender W.N.B.A. player) — as per yesterday's notes, more fill and clues like this, please. 
• ELIO (___ Perlman, role for Timothée Chalamet in "Call Me by Your Name") — aside from being a great movie (that I am not ashamed to admit I cried at), I just wanted to point out the style guide of cluing names as fill in the blank answers, as is the case in all three bullet points up to this point. I know it's done in some cases to alleviate confusion (e.g. is this a first name or a last name?) but IMO the NYT seems to overdo it.
• SOAP (Lava, e.g.) — almost a stealth theme clue; at least, it references another brand. I usually get Lava soap mixed up with GOJO soap, which smells like how tangerine White Claw tastes.
• AA TEAM (Binghamton Rumble Ponies or Birmingham Barons) — assuredly a gimme for Rex, and also a gimme for me; the Rumble Ponies have one of the best names in all of sports, though the Rocket City Trash Pandas and Montgomery Biscuits (also both AA teams) are up there as well. But the Rumble Ponies are better, if only because they're affiliated with the Mets, and I'm a Mets fan.
• HEPTAGONS (The British 20-pence and 50-pence coins, geometrically) — fun fact: part of the reason for this shape (with slightly rounded corners) is that these coins have a constant breadth, no matter which way you measure across; as a result, you can use them in vending machines without difficulty.

Yours in puzzling, Christopher Adams, Court Jester of CrossWorld

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