LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Mix Six”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a famous American company.
Answer: LEVI STRAUSS & CO., found by 547 solvers, of which 526 were solo solves

We needed a famous American company last week. Could it be EBAY or UBER? DOLE or DELL? JEEP or JUUL? Let’s take a look at our five theme entries:

17-A: [1930 Evelyn Waugh satire about London’s party scene] = VILE BODIES. Buy a first edition here for a mere $26,000.

20-A: [James Bond movie with a theme song by Wings] = LIVE AND LET DIE

36-A: [Reasoning technique that removes bias] = VEIL OF IGNORANCE. Coined by this interesting person.

51-A: [He played Boris Spassky in 2014’s “Pawn Sacrifice”] = LIEV SCHREIBER

57-A: [Hannibal Lecter or Henry Hook, e.g.] = EVIL GENIUS. Henry would surely respond, upon reading this clue: “What?! I’m way more evil than that guy!”

So we’ve got VILE, LIVE, VEIL, LIEV, and EVIL as the first words of these, all anagrams of each other. What famous American company fits the bill? LEVI STRAUSS & CO., found by 547 solvers.

Mikey G says:

You brought the Strauss down with this one!

DIS thought this was:

A work of jeanius.

Sharkcicles wonders:

Let’s see if I’ll be blue after submitting…

And finally, Jason T says:

L_ve i_!

And another T besides Jason T: Thanks to Gridmaster T for the solution grid above.

Week 2 beckons…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is described at 18-Across, 38-Across, and 63-Across.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.