THEME: "HELLO, DOLLY" (64A: Classic Broadway musical about an N.Y.C. matchmaker ... or how one might respond to the introductions of 17-, 24-, 39- and 50-Across) — theme answers are dolls, clued via the years in which they were "introduced":
Theme answers:
RAGGEDY ANN (17A: Redhead introduced in 1918)
AMERICAN GIRL (24A: 18-inch figure introduced in 1986)
CABBAGE PATCH KID (39A: Adoptable playmate introduced in 1982)
BARBIE AND KEN (50A: Fashionable pair introduced in 1959 and 1961, respectively)
Word of the Day:CABBAGE PATCH KIDs(39A) —
Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cloth dolls with plastic heads first produced by Coleco Industries in 1982. They were inspired by the Little People soft sculptured dolls sold by Xavier Roberts as collectibles. The brand was renamed 'Cabbage Patch Kids' by Roger L. Schlaifer when he acquired the exclusive worldwide licensing rights in 1982.
The doll brand set every toy industry sales record for three years running, and was one of the most popular lines of children's licensed products in the 1980s and has become one of the longest-running doll franchises in the United States. Additional Cabbage Patch products include children's apparel, bedding, infants' wear, record albums and board games. [...]
At the peak of their popularity, between 1983 and 1986, the dolls were highly sought-after toys for Christmas.Cabbage Patch riots occurred as parents literally fought to obtain the dolls for children. (wikipedia)
• • •
The revealer on this one feels very weak. This theme is really just ... four arbitrary dolls. Like, why these dolls? (Answer: because they fit symmetrically, I'm guessing — that's why Ken *and* Barbie but only RAGGEDY ANN, no Andy). I would never put CABBAGE PATCH KIDs with these others. Maybe that's just because their fame was short-lived. Anyway, why these dolls? Why not other dolls? The dolls have nothing in common besides being dolls. It's four random dolls—that's your theme. That's not much of a theme. Actually, it's *five* random dolls, which brings me to another serious problem with this theme: you would not say "HELLO, DOLLY" to BARBIE AND KEN—you'd have to say "Hello, dollies." The revealer is trying hard to create some kind of coherence today, but again—it's just four (five) dolls. Where are the BRATZ or POLLY POCKET or BETSY WETSY or BABY ALIVE or FURBY or etc. etc.? Also, a lesser problem, but CABBAGE PATCH KID in the singular is weird. It's always plural. AMERICAN GIRL is singular (despite there being many of them), but Cabbage Patch Kids, plural, it's plural. They didn't introduce a single "kid" in 1982, they introduced the "Kids." I'm nitpicking because, again, there's not nearly enough coherence to this thing. Better theme, less pettiness.
Outside the theme, it's an unremarkable Monday. The grid seems fine, the two long Downs are solid, although ... no one calls the sandwiches SUBMARINES (29D: Footlong sandwiches). If you're going to go all formal like that, you'd definitely say "submarine sandwiches." It's that or SUBS. There's no in-between. SUBMARINES is still a fine answer, just ... not with that clue. Now that I look the grid over carefully, there's probably more crosswordese than you want here, especially on an easy Monday. ARTIE ECRU OBI LYS ... and that's just in the broader SW section. ACAI SITH BAMA BLAH. Never ever gonna like the brand-name-only plural ECHOS (52D: Amazon smart speakers). A better, tighter core theme concept and a somewhat livelier and cleaner grid—that's what this Monday needs.
The Downs-only solve was relatively uneventful. TOON for BIRD as my very first answer (1D: Tweety, Woodstock or Woody Woodpecker) was peak difficulty drama. LEGS was also not a gimme for me, so fixed was I on the definitive stork part (the beak) (3D: Storks have long ones). Took some doing to finally see "GLAD I ASKED" (the best answer in the grid by a long shot), but once the two themers that cross it went in (giving me the "I" and the "K"), I saw it. At the very end, I had the "HELLO-" and, looking at the theme answers I had in place, and seeing they were all toys, I wrote in the only toyish thing that came to mind: "HELLO KITTY!" But that didn't last long. Finished with an error, but that's only because I didn't check my cross at 65D: Fleur-de-___ and wrote in LIS, which is how it's spelled sometimes, isn't it? Ha ha, yes—most of the time!
Bullets:
45A: Where Z is in the alphabet (LAST) — really glad I wasn't reading Across clues because I took one look at this clue and definitely thought the answer was going to be a geographical place. "Uh ... CUBA?"
33A: Long-running police drama (NCIS) — find someone who looks at you the way the NYTXW looks at NCIS, my lord. Get a room. (Everything I know about NCIS, I learned from crosswords—for instance, I hear Mark HARM-N is involved somehow)
4D: Summation symbol, in math (SIGMA) — speaking of things I know solely because of crosswords—this answer! I read this clue, thought "I don't know that," but looked down and found my fingers just typing in SIGMA. "Trust us," they said.
60D: Palindromic Parisian periodical (ELLE) — yes, ELLE is crosswordese, but at least this clue is trying to have some fun. This clue gets it.
THEME: "HELLO KITTY!" (39A: Fictional feline from Japan ... or how one might greet 17-, 24-, 54- or 65-Across) — fictional felines!
Theme answers:
PINK PANTHER (17A: Titular animated character whose theme music is by Henry Mancini)
TONY THE TIGER (24A: Cereal mascot who says "They're gr-r-reat!")
COWARDLY LION (54A: Oz resident lacking in courage)
CHESHIRE CAT (65A: Lewis Carroll character with a disembodied smile)
Word of the Day: HELLO KITTY (39A) —
Hello Kitty (Japanese: ハロー・キティ, Hepburn: Harō Kiti), also known by her full name Kitty White (キティ・ホワイト, Kiti Howaito), is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as an anthropomorphized white cat with a red bow and no visible mouth. According to her backstory, she lives in a London suburb with her family, and is close to her twin sister Mimmy, who is depicted with a yellow bow.
Hello Kitty was created in 1974 and the first item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in 1975. Originally Hello Kitty was only marketed towards pre-teenage girls, but beginning in the 1990s, the brand found commercial success among teenage and adult consumers as well. Hello Kitty's popularity also grew with the emergence of kawaii (cute) culture. The brand went into decline in Japan after the 1990s, but continued to grow in the international market. By 2010 the character was worth $5 billion a year and The New York Times called her a "global marketing phenomenon". By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years old, she was worth about $8 billion a year. (wikipedia)
• • •
***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** How is the new year treating you? Well, I hope. Me, uh, not great so far (COVID, you know), but I'm 95% better, and was never terribly sick to begin with, so I have every reason to believe things will turn around for me shortly, thank God (and vaccines). Anyway, it's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. I'm not sure what to say about this past year. This will sound weird, or melodramatic—or maybe it won't—but every time I try to write about 2022, all I can think is "well, my cat died." She (Olive) died this past October, very young, of a stupid congenital heart problem that we just couldn't fix (thank you all for your kind words of condolence, by the way). I'm looking at the photo I used for last year's fundraising pitch, and it's a picture of me sitting at my desk (this desk, the one I'm typing at right now, the one I write at every day) with Olive sitting on my shoulder, staring at me, and making me laugh. It's a joyous picture. Here, I'm just gonna post it again:
I love the photo both because you can tell how goofy she is, and how goofy she made me. Her loss hurt for the obvious reasons, but also because she was so much a part of my daily routine, my daily rhythms and rituals. She was everyday. Quotidian. Just ... on me, near me, being a weirdo, especially in the (very) early mornings when I was writing this blog. She took me out of myself. She also made me aware of how much the quotidian matters, how daily rituals break up and organize the day, mark time, ground you. They're easy to trivialize, these rituals, precisely because they *aren't* special. Feed the cats again, make the coffee again, solve the crossword again, etc. But losing Olive made me reevaluate the daily, the quotidian, the apparently trivial. In a fundamental way, those small daily things *are* life. No one day is so important, or so different from the others, but cumulatively, they add up, and through the days upon days you develop a practice—a practice of love, care, and attention given to the things that matter. If you're reading this, then crossword puzzles are undoubtedly an important ritual for you, just as writing about crosswords for you all is an important ritual for me. It gives me so much. I hope that even at my most critical, my genuine love for crosswords—for the way my brain lights up on crosswords—comes through. I also hope that the blog brings you entertainment, insight, laughter ... even (especially) if you disagree with me much (most? all?) of the time.
[man, I really wear the hell out of this red fleece...]
The blog began years ago as an experiment in treating the ephemeral—the here-today, gone-tomorrow—like it really mattered. I wanted to stop and look at this 15x15 (or 21x21 thing) and take it seriously, listen to it, see what it was trying to do, think about what I liked or didn't like about it. In short, I gave the puzzle my time and attention. And I continue to do that, every day (Every! Day!). And it is work. A lot of work. Asking for money once a year (and only once a year) is an acknowledgment of that fact. There is nothing to subscribe to here ... no Substack or Kickstarter or Patreon ... and there are no ads, ever. I prefer to keep financial matters simple and direct. I have no "hustle" in me beyond putting my ass in this chair every morning and writing.
How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):
Second, a mailing address (checks should be made out to "Rex Parker"):
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)
All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. My daughter (Ella Egan) has designed a cat-related thank-you postcard for 2023, just as she has for the past two years, but this year, there's a bonus. Because this year ... the postcard is also a crossword puzzle! Yes, I made a little 9x9 blog-themed crossword puzzle for you all. It's light and goofy and I hope you enjoy it. It looks like this (clues blurred for your protection):
I had fun making this puzzle (thanks to Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty for proofing it for me!). For non-snail-mailers who want to solve the puzzle, don't worry: I'll make the puzzle available for everyone some time next month. Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support. Now on to today's puzzle...
• • •
Hard laugh at today's revealer, as it reminded me of the time Shortz rejected a puzzle because it had HELLO KITTY in it and, I mean, who had ever heard of that? Certainly not *his* audience. HELLO KITTY was thus deemed "not well known enough" and that was that. This was... I wanna say in the late '00s, well after HELLO KITTY had become a global phenomenon, an icon that could be seen all over the place, most notably (from my perspective as a parent) on little girls' backpacks and lunch boxes and watches and what not all over North America and beyond. The best part of the story (if I'm remembering it correctly) is that Will was flying on a plane not long thereafter and ran into HELLO KITTY in the in-flight magazine, and then later told the constructor about it: "Isn't that a funny coincidence"? I forget what the constructor's reaction was, but mine would've been "yeah, haha, TAKE MY PUZZLE NOW!" Anyway, the constructor in this story is Andrea Carla Michaels (yesterday's co-constructor!), so if I botched it substantially, she can correct me. It's just so great to see HELLO KITTY dead-center, not only *in* the puzzle but *anchoring* it, all these years later. [I'm just remembering now that this story was actually the inspiration for the first puzzle I ever submitted for publication—a hidden Norse gods theme (e.g., HELLOKITTY) that was rejected by crossword legend Patrick Berry because the Chronicle of Higher Ed., whose puzzle he was editing, had published a similar type of theme recently; I put the puzzle aside, and then later I discovered that a puzzle with the identical theme had been published, somewhere (the New York Sun!), by the great Joon Pahk. And I remember all this because of Andrea's HELLO KITTY story, which lives in my head as the quintessential example of editorial blindness and hubris—thanks, Andrea!] [UPDATE: Oh, wow, looks like this "hidden Norse gods" theme has been done a lot—here's one from the NYT in 2015 that I forgot about (by Kevin Christian and my friend Brad Wilber!), and it looks like the Patrick Berry eventually *did* run the theme in the Chronicle when a version of it was submitted years later by the talented and wildly prolific Zhouqin Burnikel; anyway, this is a good example of how a bunch of people can independently come up with a very specific theme idea] [UPDATE to the UPDATE: I almost forgot—every incarnation of this theme would of course have featured ODIN among the hidden gods—I think most of us hid him in "MOOD INDIGO"]
As for *this* theme ... it's fictional cats! I like cats, and these certainly are some. Kind of an arbitrary set—fictionality is the only thing holding the set together, as far as I can tell, and there must be lots of fictional cats, but this is definitely an iconic set, and they all fit symmetrically in the grid, so maybe that's good enough. Not like I can think of any glaring "how dare you!?" omissions. As a concept, there's not much to this, but the theme does have one truly original thing about it—a revealer (HELLO KITTY) that is also a theme answer in its own right. That is, it's a self-referential revealer—it points to all the other theme answer, but also to itself, so much so that I'm surprised "39-Across" was not included among the examples of fictional felines one might greet this way. Wait ... oh no, is HELLO KITTY not the kitty's name? LOL I just took it for granted that the cat was actually called HELLO KITTY, but maybe that is completely wrong, and she's like a Julie or Inga or Kimiko or something!? Anyway, in my mind, that cat is actually *named* HELLO KITTY, and she's at least as iconic as all the other cats, so ... don't take this away from me. It's the one thing that's making this puzzle feel special to me.
The puzzle played Very easy and somewhat old-fashioned. The grid is crammed with fill that has been (over-) familiar for years, esp. where names are concerned: ENOLA, OTT, LAHTI, ENO, REN, IPHOTO, ITT, LAO-TSE (the last of which gives me that "howsitspelled?!" feeling every time!) (it can be LAO-TZU as well). The cats themselves were all very last century, with HELLO KITTY being the most current thing about the themer set, so you wouldn't exactly call the grid TOPICAL, but I didn't find it stale, either. DOWN PAT, MONSTER, and GLASGOW all give the grid some much-needed life, and the theme itself is so vibrant (animated, even!) that all the fill really has to do is stay on its feet, which I'd say it does. I winced at the A TREE / A TASTE juxtaposition, but that's a minor thing. The only slowness / hesitation I had today came at NOBLE (I wanted INERT, which, to my enormous, self-extended credit, is not completely wrong), TOPICAL, and LAO-TSE (for the aforementioned spelling reasons). Otherwise, this was a write-em-as-fast-as-you-can-read-em situation. Oh, I did hesitate right out of the box, at 1A: "Rent" character who sings "Light My Candle" (MIMI). I went from "pfff, I *saw* "Rent" and I don't know that" to "wait, why do I want to say MIMI!?" to "it's based on 'La Bohéme,' right? Maybe there's a MIMI in that!?!" (there is!) to just writing it in, where the crosses immediately confirmed it. So it turns out you can actually know a lot about something you don't know at all. More of the magic of crosswords. See you tomorrow.
THEME: "YOU'VE GOT MAIL" (55A: 1998 Hanks/Ryan rom-com ... or a hint to the starts of 20-, 34- and 41-Across) — first words are all things that might come in the mail:
Word of the Day: LETTER PRESS (34A) —
Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing. Using a printing press, the process allows many copies to be produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable type into the "bed" or "chase" of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type, which creates an impression on the paper. // In practice, letterpress also includes other forms of relief printing with printing presses, such as wood engravings, photo-etched zinc "cuts" (plates), and linoleum blocks, which can be used alongside metal type, or wood type in a single operation, as well as stereotypes and electrotypes of type and blocks. With certain letterpress units, it is also possible to join movable type with slugs cast using hot metal typesetting. In theory, anything that is "type high" and so forms a layer exactly 0.918 in. thick between the bed and the paper can be printed using letterpress. // Letterpress printing was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century to the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century. Letterpress printing remained the primary means of printing and distributing information until the 20th century, when offset printing was developed, which largely supplanted its role in printing books and newspapers. More recently, letterpress printing has seen a revival in an artisanal form. (wikipedia)
Theme answers:
BILL OF RIGHTS (20A: Early addendum to the Constitution)
LETTERPRESS (34A: Gutenberg invention)
PACKAGE DEAL (41A: Sauna plus massage at a spa, perhaps)
• • •
I've got nothing against Hanks/Ryan, but do yourself a favor and watch The Shop Around the Corner, which is not only the best Christmas movie, but one of the best movies ever made. From scene one, the storytelling, acting, character development ... it's stupid how perfect it is. I watch it over and over this time of year, just to admire the craftsmanship and laugh and feel the love vibes. Ernst Lubitsch! THE LUBITSCH TOUCH is 16 letters long, but there's an answer I would mind seeing a grid go oversized for. Or maybe there's a way to use it on a Sunday. Good stuff. Lubitsch is my No. 1 ERNST, followed by ... I guess Max ERNST. Surrealism is fun. My point is, watch The Shop Around the Corner. And if you need more Christmas fare, move on to Christmas in Connecticut, and if you're still yearning for yule, try Holiday Affair, and then if you're bummed out by all the black & white, watch The Ref (the best Christmas movie shot in color). OK, back to the puzzle. The theme is just fine. Aces. Bills and letters and packages do indeed come in the mail (esp., if you are lucky, this time of year), and here they are all found inside answers where they are clued differently from their mail meaning. The bill in the BILL OF RIGHTS is a non-mail bill, the LETTER in LETTERPRESS, same, and so forth. The one briefly toughish part, for me, was LETTERPRESS, since I really wanted Gutenberg to have invented the PRINTING PRESS, because he did invent the PRINTING PRESS, in 1440—LETTERPRESS was the technique (movable type, in a bed, impressed on paper), PRINTING PRESS was the machine. But since I got the front end first, from crosses, I wrote in LETTERPRESS pretty readily and then was happy to find out it was right.
[Christine Baranski!! Mwah!!]
There was one downside, and a big one, to this puzzle, which is a couple of Wince Words. Long ones that just genuinely made me cringe and stop to take screenshots. Here's Wince Word One:
And here's Wince Word Two:
In both cases, I thought "ew, that can't be right, not on a Monday!?" and then slowly felt myself sink as all the crosses checked out. No one uses these adjectives. They just don't. They are arcane and odd and ... like, not *hard* to get, but just not in-the-language. I'm trying to imagine using SORORAL instead of "sisterly." And NATANT instead of "floating." Oof. It's all very olde-tymey professorial, and it's no fun at all. There's no reason an easy Monday grid should be gunked up by this stuff. Let the fill be plain and let the theme shine and there you are, a wonderful Monday. But NATANT SORORAL FARE is literally no one's idea of a good time. You'd have to tear those sections out and redo them, but it would be worth it. I don't understand why certain words don't set off red lights / alarm bells in constructors' / editors' heads. Maybe you let yourself get away with one of these fussy rarely-used adjectives, but definitely not both.
Ran up against yet another kealoa* today when I had the "V" at 52D: Give the slip (EVADE) and wrote in AVOID. That clue can actually kealoa in two different directions: if I'd had the "E" I would've probably written in ELUDE. As for the rest of the fill ... SAFE SPACE is a nice newish answer. SMOLDER is always hot. The rest is just fine. Somewhat better than MEH. That's all. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*short common fill that you know but can't write in because Even With Certain Letters In Place it could be one of two (or more) options. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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