0110-23 NY Times Crossword 10 Jan 23, Tuesday

Constructed by: Emily Rourke
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Hello Kitty

We say HELLO to four famous KITTIES in the themed answers:

  • 39A Fictional feline from Japan … or how one might greet 17-, 24-, 54- or 65-Across : HELLO KITTY or HELLO, KITTY
  • 17A Titular animated character whose theme music is by Henry Mancini : PINK PANTHER
  • 24A Cereal mascot whose catchphrase is “They’re gr-r-reat!” : TONY THE TIGER
  • 54A Oz resident lacking in courage : COWARDLY LION</li>
  • 65A Lewis Carroll character with a disembodied smile : CHESHIRE CAT

Bill’s time: 6m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “Rent” character who sings “Light My Candle” : MIMI

The musical “Rent” by Jonathan Larson is based on the Puccini opera “La bohème”. “Rent” tells the story of struggling artists and musicians living in the Lower East Side of New York, and is set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. The main character in both “La bohème” and “Rent” is named Mimi. In the former, Mimi is a seamstress suffering from tuberculosis. In the latter, Mimi is an erotic dancer with HIV.

5 “And there you have it!” : VOILA!

The French word “voilà” means “there it is”, and “voici” means “here it is”. The terms come from “voi là” meaning “see there” and “voi ici” meaning “see here”.

10 “Woo-hoo! The weekend’s here!” : TGIF!

“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF)

15 Darling one : MOPPET

A moppet is a young child, with “moppet” being a variant of “poppet”.

17 Titular animated character whose theme music is by Henry Mancini : PINK PANTHER

The Pink Panther is a character who appears in the main title of most of “The Pink Panther” series of films. The character became so popular that he was featured in a whole series of short films, and even merited his own “The Pink Panther Show”, which was a cartoon series that was shown on NBC on Saturday mornings.

Not only was Henry Mancini an amazing film composer, he was a very accomplished flautist. I once heard him play the challenging “Flight of the Bumblebee” on the flute on a British talk show. Very impressive …

21 Indian and Arctic : OCEANS

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world’s oceans, and accounts for almost 20% of the Earth’s surface. It was named for the country of India, which forms much of the ocean’s northern boundary.

The Arctic Ocean is in the north polar region, and is almost completely covered by sea ice in the winter. The amount of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean during the summer has been dropping in recent times, as a consequence of climate change.

23 Baseball great Mel : OTT

I wonder if Mel Ott had any idea that he would turn in crosswords so very often?

24 Cereal mascot whose catchphrase is “They’re gr-r-reat!” : TONY THE TIGER

Tony the Tiger has been the mascot of Frosted Flakes cereal since the product’s introduction in 1951. As Tony would say, “They’re Gr-r-reat!” Well, I thought they were when I was a lot younger …

29 Like a famed piper : PIED

The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin dates back to medieval times. Recently there have been suggestions that the story is rooted in some truth, that the town of Hamelin did in fact lose many of its children, perhaps to plague. The suggestion is that the tale is an allegory. The use of the word “pied” implies that the piper dressed in multi-colored clothing. Our contemporary idiom “to pay the piper” means “to bear the cost of a poor decision”. It is a reference to townsfolk of Hamelin who refused to pay the Pied Piper for ridding the town of rats. They ultimately paid the cost when the piper lured their children away.

31 Winning tic-tac-toe line, when player X isn’t paying attention : O-O-O

When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

39 Fictional feline from Japan … or how one might greet 17-, 24-, 54- or 65-Across : HELLO KITTY

Hello Kitty is a female bobtail cat, and a character/brand name launched in 1974 by the Japanese company Sanrio. Folks can overpay for stationary, school supplies and fashion accessories with the Hello Kitty character emblazoned thereon.

45 Wooden part of a railroad track : TIE

The rectangular supports under rails in railroad tracks are known as railroad ties or crossties here in North America. Over on the other side of the Atlantic, we call them railway sleepers.

46 Animal with a long, sticky tongue : ANTEATER

Anteaters tear open ant and termite nests using their sharp claws and then eat up the eggs, larvae and mature ants using their tongues. They have very sticky saliva which coats the tongue hence making the feeding very efficient. The tongue also moves very quickly, flicking in and out of the mouth at about 150 times per minute.

50 ___ Gay (W.W. II plane) : ENOLA

The Enola Gay was the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb, the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in August 1945. Enola Gay was the name of the mother of pilot Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr.

54 Oz resident lacking in courage : COWARDLY LION

The Cowardly Lion in L. Frank Baum’s “Land of Oz” books was portrayed by Bert Lahr in the celebrated 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz”. The costume that Lahr wore in the film was made from real lion fur, and weighed a whopping 60 pounds.

59 Jenna Fischer’s role on “The Office” : PAM

In the excellent sitcom “The Office”, the character Pam Halpert (née Beesly) is played very ably by Jenna Fischer. If you’ve seen the original version of “The Office” from the UK, then you’d have met Pam’s equivalent character, whose name is Dawn Tinsley.

61 Toy item set up to be toppled : DOMINO

White masks with black spots were commonly seen in the old Venetian Carnival. The masks were known as “domini”. The domini loaned their name to the game of dominoes, due to the similarity in appearance between the mask and a domino tile.

65 Lewis Carroll character with a disembodied smile : CHESHIRE CAT

CHESHIRE CAT

68 Hoppy beers, in brief : IPAS

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

69 “Take the ___” (Duke Ellington classic) : A TRAIN

The A Train in the New York City Subway system runs from 207th Street, through Manhattan and over to Far Rockaway in Queens. The service lends its name to a jazz standard “Take the ‘A’ Train”, the signature tune of Duke Ellington and a song much sung by Ella Fitzgerald. One version of the lyrics are:

You must take the A Train
To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem
If you miss the A Train
You’ll find you’ve missed the quickest way to Harlem
Hurry, get on, now, it’s coming
Listen to those rails a-thrumming (All Aboard!)
Get on the A Train
Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem.

71 London art museum : TATE

The museum known as “the Tate” comprises four separate galleries in England. The original Tate gallery was founded by Sir Henry Tate as the National Gallery of British Art. It is located on Millbank in London, on the site of the old Millbank Prison, and is now called Tate Britain. There is also the Tate Liverpool in the north of England that is located in an old warehouse, and the Tate St. Ives in the west country located in an old gas works. My favorite of the Tate galleries is the Tate Modern which lies on the banks of the Thames in London. It’s a beautiful building, a converted power station that you have to see to believe. As of 2018, the Tate Modern was the most visited art museum in the UK.

72 Body parts that might be “bumped” : FISTS

The fist bump is that tapping of fists together as a form of greeting. It is a more “hip” version of a handshake, and might be called a “pounding of flesh”.

73 Celebratory stadium cries : OLES

The Greek word “stadion” was a measure of length, about 600 feet. The name “stadion” then came to be used for a running track of that length. That “running track” meaning led to our contemporary term “stadium” (plural “stadia”).

Down

1 Shaggy Beatles hairdos : MOP TOPS

The classic Beatles haircut is called a mop top. Apparently John Lennon and Paul McCartney saw someone wearing the style in Hamburg, and they liked it. The pair hitchhiked from Hamburg to Paris, and when they arrived at their destination, they had their hair cut that way for the first time.

2 Inane : IDIOTIC

Our word “inane” meaning “silly, lacking substance” comes from the Latin “inanitis” meaning “empty space”.

7 Old Apple picture-editing app : IPHOTO

iPhoto is a digital photo manipulation application that Apple no longer supports, having replaced it with the Photos app.

9 “___ Grows in Brooklyn” : A TREE

Betty Smith’s novel “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” is a story that is largely autobiographical. The tree referenced in the title and the story is the “tree of heaven”, a deciduous variety native to China that was brought into the US in 1784. The tree is so successful here in America that it takes over vacant lots and many “waste” spaces of land, and is now considered to be a weed. An awfully big weed, I’d say …

10 Pickleball relative : TENNIS

Our modern sport of tennis evolved from the much older racquet sport known as real tennis. Originally just called “tennis”, the older game was labeled “real tennis” when the modern version began to hold sway. Real tennis is played in a closed court, with the ball frequently bounced off the walls.

Pickleball is a sport invented in the 1960s that combines elements of tennis, table tennis and badminton. Originally marketed as a game for children to play in backyards, pickleball is now played on purpose-built courts by many, many adults, but mainly in North and South America.

11 Scottish city on the River Clyde : GLASGOW

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and sits on the River Clyde. Back in the Victorian Era, Glasgow earned a reputation for excellence in shipbuilding and was known as “Second City of the British Empire”. Glasgow shipyards were the birthplaces of such famous vessels as the Lusitania, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. People from Glasgow are known as Glaswegians.

12 Web connection letters : ISP

An Internet service provider (ISP) is just what the name indicates, a company that provides its customers with access to the Internet. One way that ISPs differentiate themselves from each other is in the way in which end users are connected to the ISP’s network. So, there are cable ISPs, DSL ISPs, dial-up ISPs and satellite ISPs.

18 Avocado’s center : PIT

The wonderful avocado comes from a tree that is native to Mexico and Central America. The avocado fruit is sometimes called an avocado pear, because of its shape, even though it is not related to the pear at all. The fruit might also be referred to as an alligator pear, due to the roughness of the green skin of some avocado cultivars.

25 Like the gases argon and xenon : NOBLE

The chemical element argon has the symbol Ar. It is a noble gas, and so by definition is relatively nonreactive. The name “argon” comes from the Greek word for “lazy, inactive”. There’s a lot of argon around, as it is the third-most abundant gas in our atmosphere.

Neon (Ne) was discovered in 1898 by two British chemists, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They chilled a sample of air, turning it into a liquid. They then warmed that liquid and separated out the gases that boiled off. Along with nitrogen, oxygen and argon (already known), the pair of scientists discovered two new gases. The first they called “krypton” and the second “neon”. “Krypton” is Greek for “the hidden one” and “neon” is Greek for “new”.

26 Ma who once left a $2.5 million cello in the trunk of a taxi : YO-YO

Yo-Yo Ma is a “ma-velous” American cellist who was born in Paris to Chinese parents. Ma started studying the violin when he was very young, working his way up (in size) to the viola and finally to the cello. He has said that he wanted to play the double bass, but it was just too big for his relatively small frame.

27 Ambient music trailblazer Brian : ENO

Brian Eno was one of the pioneers of the genre of ambient music. Eno composed an album in 1978 called “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”, which was the first in a series of four albums with an ambient theme. Eno named the tracks, somewhat inventively, 1/1, 1/2, 2/1 and 2/2.

28 Stimpy’s pal in cartoons : REN

“The Ren & Stimpy Show” is an animated television serial created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi, and which ran on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1996. The title characters are Marland “Ren” Höek, a scrawny Chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, a rotund Manx cat. Not my cup of tea …

30 Morse code “morsel” : DAH

Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the co-inventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements e.g. E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash. When words are spelled aloud in Morse code, a dot is pronounced as “dit”, and a dash is pronounced as “dah”.

A morsel is a small bite, a mouthful of food. The term “morsel” comes from the Latin “morsus” meaning “bite”.

34 Old explosive device used to breach castle walls : PETARD

In days of old, a petard was a small bomb that was used to breach fortified gates and walls. The phrase “hoist with his own petard” comes from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and is a reference to a petard detonating prematurely and blowing up (“hoisting”) the bomber.

35 Retired QB Manning : ELI

Eli Manning is a retired footballer who played quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning retired from football as the quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 2015. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback. Eli, Peyton and Archie co-authored a book for children titled “Family Huddle” in 2009. It describes the Mannings playing football together as young boys.

36 Mount that Moses mounted : SINAI

According to the Bible, Mount Sinai is the mountain on which Moses was given the Ten Commandments. The Biblical Mount Sinai is probably not the mountain in Egypt that today has the same name, although this is the subject of much debate. The Egyptian Mount Sinai has two developed routes that one can take to reach the summit. The longer gentler climb takes about 2 1/2 hours, but there is also the steeper climb up the 3,750 “steps of penitence”.

37 Hairy cousin in “The Addams Family” : ITT

In the television sitcom “The Addams Family”, the family had a frequent visitor named Cousin Itt. Itt is a short man with long hair that runs from his head to the floor. He was played by Italian actor Felix Silla.

40 Philosopher Marx : KARL

Karl Marx was a German philosopher and revolutionary who helped develop the principles of modern communism and socialism. Marx argued that feudal society created internal strife due to class inequalities which led to its destruction and replacement by capitalism. He further argued that the inequalities created in a capitalist society create tensions that will also lead to its self-destruction. His thesis was that the inevitable replacement of capitalism was a classless (and stateless) society, which he called pure communism.

42 Fraction of a min. : SEC

The hour is subdivided into 60 parts, each of which was known as a “pars minuta prima” in Medieval Latin, translating as “first small part”. This phrase “pars minuta prima” evolved into our word “minute”. The “pars minuta prima” (minute) was further divided into 60 parts, each called a “secunda pars minuta”, meaning “second small part”. “Secunda pars minuta” evolved into our term “second”.

43 Artist/activist Yoko : ONO

Artist Yoko Ono operates the website ImaginePeace.com. I checked it out once and found these two lovely quotes:

  • Imagine all the people living life in peace … John Lennon
  • A dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together is reality … Yoko Ono

51 Founder of Taoism : LAO TSE

Lao Tse (also “Lao-Tzu”, “Laozi”) was a central figure in the development of the religion/philosophy of Taoism. Tradition holds that Lao-Tzu wrote the “Tao Te Ching”, a classical Chinese text that is fundamental to the philosophy of Taoism.

52 White House family in the 1840s : TYLERS

President John Tyler was one of two US presidents who lost their wives and remarried while in office (the other was Woodrow Wilson). President Tyler’s first wife was Letitia Christian Tyler, who died of a stroke in the White House in 1842. Two years later, Virginia-born Tyler married 22-year-old Julia Gardiner, a native New Yorker who was thirty years his junior. Tyler already had eight children from his first marriage, and eventually had seven more with his second wife. That total of fifteen means that John Tyler fathered more children than any other US president.

55 Common after-dinner coffee preference : DECAF

The first successful process for removing caffeine from coffee involved steaming the beans in salt water, and then extracting the caffeine using benzene (a potent carcinogen) as a solvent. Coffee processed this way was sold as Sanka here in the US. There are other processes used these days, and let’s hope they are safer …

56 Christine of “Chicago Hope” : LAHTI

Christine Lahti is an actress probably best known for playing Dr. Kate Austen on the TV medical drama “Chicago Hope”. If you read “The Huffington Post” you might run across her as well, as Lahti is a contributing blogger.

57 Norse god of wisdom and war : ODIN

In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. He is usually depicted as having one eye, reflecting the story of how he gave one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom.

64 Energy-monitoring org. : EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was set up during the Nixon administration and began operation at the end of 1970.

66 Ordeal for many H.S. seniors : SAT

Today, the standardized test for admission to colleges is known as the SAT Reasoning Test, but it used to be called the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test, which led to the abbreviation “SAT”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 “Rent” character who sings “Light My Candle” : MIMI
5 “And there you have it!” : VOILA!
10 “Woo-hoo! The weekend’s here!” : TGIF!
14 Stench : ODOR
15 Darling one : MOPPET
16 Otherwise : ELSE
17 Titular animated character whose theme music is by Henry Mancini : PINK PANTHER
19 Place for a ponytail : NAPE
20 Add, as an extra perk : TOSS IN
21 Indian and Arctic : OCEANS
23 Baseball great Mel : OTT
24 Cereal mascot whose catchphrase is “They’re gr-r-reat!” : TONY THE TIGER
29 Like a famed piper : PIED
31 Winning tic-tac-toe line, when player X isn’t paying attention : O-O-O
32 All together : AS ONE
33 Barely manage : SCRAPE BY
36 Certain sib : SIS
38 Triumphed : WON
39 Fictional feline from Japan … or how one might greet 17-, 24-, 54- or 65-Across : HELLO KITTY
42 Yard cover : SOD
45 Wooden part of a railroad track : TIE
46 Animal with a long, sticky tongue : ANTEATER
50 ___ Gay (W.W. II plane) : ENOLA
52 Song refrain syllable : TRA
53 There’s no place like it : HOME
54 Oz resident lacking in courage : COWARDLY LION
59 Jenna Fischer’s role on “The Office” : PAM
60 Negotiator’s refusal : NO DEAL
61 Toy item set up to be toppled : DOMINO
63 Cried : WEPT
65 Lewis Carroll character with a disembodied smile : CHESHIRE CAT
68 Hoppy beers, in brief : IPAS
69 “Take the ___” (Duke Ellington classic) : A TRAIN
70 Partner : MATE
71 London art museum : TATE
72 Body parts that might be “bumped” : FISTS
73 Celebratory stadium cries : OLES

Down

1 Shaggy Beatles hairdos : MOP TOPS
2 Inane : IDIOTIC
3 Under-the-bed resident, in a child’s imagination : MONSTER
4 Peeves : IRKS
5 Middle of many German names : VON
6 Choose : OPT
7 Old Apple picture-editing app : IPHOTO
8 Freeloader : LEECH
9 “___ Grows in Brooklyn” : A TREE
10 Pickleball relative : TENNIS
11 Scottish city on the River Clyde : GLASGOW
12 Web connection letters : ISP
13 Around 2%-3%, for a customer using a credit card : FEE
15 Hand: Sp. : MANO
18 Avocado’s center : PIT
22 Just one tiny bite : A TASTE
25 Like the gases argon and xenon : NOBLE
26 Ma who once left a $2.5 million cello in the trunk of a taxi : YO-YO
27 Ambient music trailblazer Brian : ENO
28 Stimpy’s pal in cartoons : REN
30 Morse code “morsel” : DAH
34 Old explosive device used to breach castle walls : PETARD
35 Retired QB Manning : ELI
36 Mount that Moses mounted : SINAI
37 Hairy cousin in “The Addams Family” : ITT
40 Philosopher Marx : KARL
41 “___, sure, you betcha!” (classic Minnesotan expression) : YAH
42 Fraction of a min. : SEC
43 Artist/activist Yoko : ONO
44 Thoroughly memorized : DOWN PAT
47 Buzzworthy, say : TOPICAL
48 Flow (from) : EMANATE
49 Broadcasts not done in a studio : REMOTES
51 Founder of Taoism : LAO TSE
52 White House family in the 1840s : TYLERS
55 Common after-dinner coffee preference : DECAF
56 Christine of “Chicago Hope” : LAHTI
57 Norse god of wisdom and war : ODIN
58 Negative conjunction : NOR
62 Note “to all staff” : MEMO
63 Cleverness : WIT
64 Energy-monitoring org. : EPA
66 Ordeal for many H.S. seniors : SAT
67 What’s-___-face : HIS