What Can I Say, It's Catchy!

That’s how I imagine justifying my high school self why I turned from listening to Three Days Grace and Wolfmother to Harry Styles and Sabrina Carpenter. Sure I listen to a lot of other music too, but you can’t deny pop music - it’s synthetically engineered at every step to be good. Top songwriters working with top producers working with top mixing and mastering engineers, it’s the Eggos of music - you’re not going to tell me years of research, testing, and development by the good food scientists at Kellogg’s resulted in a toaster waffle that isn’t delicious and addictive. Though I do feel more and more like Jerry from Rick and Morty as I grow older.

This week’s puzzle pays homage to another giant of the “there’s so much money behind it, it can’t be bad” world.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

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What Can I Say, It's Catchy! by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

Should I go for McDonald’s? I feel like nothing I order these days will taste as good as a Big Mac did back in university at 2:30 am after partying with friends. Sure, I can try to replicate the feeling by staying up until 2:30 am and eating a burger, but now it feels a little sad. I’ll save my cravings for my next road trip (though that would mean cheating on my bae A&W).

Tegan and Sara make an appearance today, with their incredible song I Was A Fool.

Today’s Theme

I’m not sure what subcategory of theme this one is, but it brings me joy, so it’s a good theme. The revealer is 20-Across, [Famous fast food slogan whose preceding melody is illustrated by the circled squares (read from left to right)]. Solving this reveals I’M LOVIN IT, the famous slogan of McDonalds. The melody preceding it, then, is BA DA BA BA BA, as found in the circled letters. That’s not quite theme enough for me, though.

You may notice that when read from left to right (not top to bottom), the circled notes ascend and drop again, illustrating (roughly) the notes of the melody. 4 notes ascending, followed by a falling 5th note. :)

Here’s the original jingle and slogan, performed by everyone’s favourite ramen-haired 90’s hearthrob, Justin Timberlake.

Behind the Clues

13A. [Great crust substitutes for homemade pizzas] is drawn from personal experience - can you tell? We have pizzas/flatbreads with naan as the crust on a fairly regular basis. Shout out Hello Fresh for introducing the idea to me.

19A. I love a clue that puts a strong image in my head. [Subtle acknowledgement that pairs well with a close-mouthed smile] is such a classic move we’ve all done as we pass by a stranger or see someone we know, but don’t feel like getting into conversation with right now. Just give them a NOD, and they know we’re cool.

27A. I don’t throw too many question mark clues in puzzles, but sometimes I can’t resist some wordplay. [Plays one’s part?] of course alludes to fulfilling your role in a team, but one also plays a part when one ACTS on stage. You could also parse this as “play one”’s part, as in an actor’s part, or ROLE, but that’s not the answer here.

9D. Do you remember Reboot? When I was younger, it gave uncanny valley feelings, but now that I’m older, nostalgia has set in. Following the creatively-named Bob, Dot Matrix, and her son Enzo Matrix, it’s got that YTV charm of the early 3D cartoon era, alongside other favourites like Beasties.

16D. My goal with [Puts up a parking lot, say] was to get Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell in your head. Did it work?

29D. Just for my partner’s family, a little bathroom humour in this one. [What beans, the magical fruit, will make you do, according to a song] is TOOT, as I’m sure we can all attest to. If it’s in a song, it must be true!

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon