Brand names used to be taboo in crossword puzzles. Nowadays they appear regularly in clues and answers. Today's puzzle by Roland Huget uses quite a few brand names. Today's puzzle also uses a theme similar to that of Huget's April 17 "Mixed Breed" crossword, which included three answers containing various combinations of the letters in BREED. Today we have three answers containing various combinations of the letters in MASTER:
Good survival skills: STRE
ETSMARTS
Wind current that affects weather patterns: JET
STREAMPet rodent's exercise gadget: H
AMSTERWHEEL
"Sunbeam brand...and a literal hint" to those answers is MIXMASTER.
Sunbeam was founded in 1897 as Chicago Flexible Shaft Company, a manufacturer of machinery to shear sheep and trim horses' manes and tails. Their first appliance, an iron, was introduced in 1921. Nine years later the company launched the first mechanical mixer with two interlocking beaters and several attachments. The Mixmaster would be Sunbeam's best-selling product until the 1970s. Mixers made by Black & Decker, KitchenAid and Hamilton Beach now outsell the Mixmaster.
https://www.sunbeam.com"Longtime TV fitness guru Jack" is LALANNE. François Henry "Jack" LaLanne (1914-2011) opened the nation's first exerccise and fitness club, wrote several books on fitness, produced several exercise videos and hosted an exercise program on television for 36 years -- and his website did not end with his death:
http://jacklalanne.comThere are seven other examples of "product placement" in today's crossword: "Clue or Risk" is GAME. "Facebook thumbs up" is LIKE. "Bausch's partner" is LOMB. "Lipton rival" is NESTEA. "Miata maker" is MAZDA. "Apple mobile platform" is IOS. "Apple's Touch and Nano" is IPODS." I don't know if Roland Huget has permission to use brand names in puzzles -- or if he's just mixed up about the rules.
(Yes, the obligatory dumb pun.)
