Neighborhood spot for cheap booze / MON 1-23-23 / African mammal that's resistant to snake venom / Camera setting for novice photographers / Alessandro who invented the electric battery / Egyptian counterpart of Hades and Pluto / So-called master gland of the endocrine system / Jellied fish in some British pies

Constructor: Adrian Johnson

Relative difficulty: ??? Medium ??? (I did it Downs-only, and it definitely put up a fight)

THEME:"DON'T BLOW IT!" (51A: Advice to a musician with a 23-, 26- or 43-Across) — theme answers end with a word (or word part) that is also a woodwind instrument (the theme answers themselves, though—not instruments, which is why, presumably, you shouldn't blow them):

Theme answers:

• TAPE RECORDER (23A: Device with Rewind and Fast Forward functions)
• SHOEHORN (26A: Aid for squeezing into a tight piece of footwear)
• CHAMPAGNE FLUTE (43A: Glass frequently used for toasting the New Year)

Word of the Day: PITUITARY (32D: So-called "master gland" of the endocrine system) —

In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, 0.5 grams (0.018 oz) in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The hypophysis rests upon the hypophyseal fossa of the sphenoid bone in the center of the middle cranial fossa and is surrounded by a small bony cavity (sella turcica) covered by a dural fold (diaphragma sellae).

The anterior pituitary (or adenohypophysis) is a lobe of the gland that regulates several physiological processes including stress, growth, reproduction, and lactation. The intermediate lobe synthesizes and secretes melanocyte-stimulating hormone. The posterior pituitary (or neurohypophysis) is a lobe of the gland that is functionally connected to the hypothalamus by the median eminence via a small tube called the pituitary stalk (also called the infundibular stalk or the infundibulum).

Hormones secreted from the pituitary gland help to control growth, blood pressure, energy management, all functions of the sex organs, thyroid glands and metabolism as well as some aspects of pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, water/salt concentration at the kidneys, temperature regulation and pain relief. (wikipedia)

The fact that this grid had so many longer Down answers made it more challenging than usual from a Downs-only perspective (and Downs-only is how I appear to be solving Monday puzzles now, for better or worse). The grid shape is actually one of the most appealing features of the puzzle. I really like the mirror symmetry, and the audaciously-stacked theme answers at the upper-middle of the grid. It's a narrow grid (just 14 today), so your time might well have been faster than usual, but I don't think the puzzle is any easier than an average Monday, and it's certainly got more ... grit? charm? funkiness? Something. It's got more something than your typical Monday. The revealer is lively as a standalone answer, and it gives the theme a great second-level dimension—not just a puzzle where theme answers end with woodwinds, but one that adds a layer of semi-hilarious preposterousness (conjuring the image of someone, presumably someone who has drunk too much champagne, trying to make music by blowing into a CHAMPAGNE FLUTE or TAPE RECORDER or (funniest of all, for some reason) SHOEHORN. What's more, the fill is way more lively and interesting than a Monday puzzle's fill has any right to be. I noticed this quite a bit since my attention was focused exclusively on the Downs, which is where all of the non-theme showiness was located. There are eight (8!) answers of 7 or more letters, all of them are solid, and a few of them ("OH GOD NO!,"LOCAL DIVE, and "I'M FOR IT!") are outright winners—answers that would liven up any puzzle. Plus there's virtually no dreck to trip or groan over. A really nifty Monday puzzle, I have to say.