Sample Page Title

Constructor: Emily Rourke

Relative problem: Easy

THEME: “HELLO KITTY!” (39A: Fictional feline from Japan … or how one may greet 17-, 24-, 54- or 65-Across) — fictional felines!

Theme solutions:

• 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 missing in braveness)
• 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), additionally identified by her full title Kitty White (キティ・ホワイト, Kiti Howaito), is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu, at the moment designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese firm Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as an anthropomorphized white cat with a pink bow and no seen mouth. According to her backstory, she lives in a London suburb along with her household, and is near her twin sister Mimmy, who’s depicted with a yellow bow.

Hello Kitty was created in 1974 and the primary merchandise, a vinyl coin purse, was launched in 1975. Originally Hello Kitty was solely marketed in direction of  pre-teenage ladies, however starting within the Nineteen Nineties, the model discovered industrial success amongst teenage and grownup customers as properly. Hello Kitty’s reputation additionally grew with the emergence of kawaii (cute) tradition. The model went into decline in Japan after the Nineteen Nineties, however continued to develop within the worldwide market. By 2010 the character was value $5 billion a yr and The New York Times referred to as her a “world advertising phenomenon”. By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years previous, she was value about $8 billion a yr. (wikipedia)

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***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS*** How is the brand new yr treating you? Well, I hope. Me, uh, not nice up to now (COVID, you already know), however I’m 95% higher, and was by no means terribly sick to start with, so I’ve each motive to imagine issues will flip round for me shortly, thank God (and vaccines). Anyway, it is early January, which implies it is time as soon as once more for my annual week-long pitch for monetary contributions to the weblog. Every yr I ask readers to contemplate what the weblog is value to them on an annual foundation and provides accordingly. I’m unsure what to say about this previous yr. This will sound bizarre, or melodramatic—or possibly it will not—however each time I attempt to write about 2022, all I can assume is “properly, my cat died.” She (Olive) died this previous October, very younger, of a silly congenital coronary heart downside that we simply could not repair (thanks all on your sort phrases of condolence, by the best way). I’m wanting on the picture I used for final yr’s fundraising pitch, and it is a image of me sitting at my desk (this desk, the one I’m typing at proper now, the one I write at every single day) with Olive sitting on my shoulder, gazing me, and making me snicker. It’s a joyous image. Here, I’m simply gonna publish it once more:

I really like the picture each as a result of you’ll be able to inform how goofy she is, and the way goofy she made me. Her loss harm for the apparent causes, but in addition as a result of she was a lot part of my every day routine, my every day rhythms and rituals. She was on a regular basis. Quotidian. Just … on me, close to me, being a weirdo, particularly within the (very) early mornings once I was scripting this weblog. She took me out of myself. She additionally made me conscious of how a lot the quotidian issues, how every day rituals break up and set up the day, mark time, floor you. They’re simple to trivialize, these rituals, exactly as a result of they *aren’t* particular. Feed the cats once more, make the espresso once more, resolve the crossword once more, and so on. But dropping Olive made me reevaluate the every day, the quotidian, the apparently trivial. In a basic manner, these small every day issues *are* life. No in the future is so vital, or so totally different from the others, however cumulatively, they add up, and thru the times upon days you develop a apply—a apply of affection, care, and a spotlight given to the issues that matter. If you are studying this, then crossword puzzles are undoubtedly an vital ritual for you, simply as writing about crosswords for you all is a vital ritual for me. It offers me a lot. I hope that even at my most important, my real love for crosswords—for the best way my mind lights up on crosswords—comes via. I additionally hope that the weblog brings you leisure, perception, laughter … even (particularly) in case you disagree with me a lot (most? all?) of the time. 

[man, I really wear the hell  out of this red fleece…]

The weblog started years in the past as an experiment in treating the ephemeral—the here-today, gone-tomorrow—prefer it actually mattered. I wished to cease and take a look at this 15×15 (or 21×21 factor) and take it critically, take heed to it, see what it was attempting to do, take into consideration what I appreciated or did not like about it. In brief, I gave the puzzle my time and a spotlight. And I proceed to try this, every single day (Every! Day!). And it’s work. A whole lot of work. Asking for cash annually (and solely annually) is an acknowledgment of that truth. There is nothing to subscribe to right here … no Substack or Kickstarter or Patreon … and there are not any advertisements, ever. I desire to maintain monetary issues easy and direct. I’ve no “hustle” in me past placing my ass on this chair each morning and writing.

I had enjoyable making this puzzle (due to Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty for proofing it for me!). For non-snail-mailers who wish to resolve the puzzle, don’t fret: I’ll make the puzzle out there for everybody a while subsequent month. Please notice: I do not preserve a “mailing record” and do not share my contributor data with anybody. And in case you give by snail mail and (for some motive) do not need a thank-you card, simply point out “NO CARD.”  Again, as ever, I’m so grateful on your readership and help. Now on to right this moment’s puzzle…

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Hard snicker at right this moment’s revealer, because it jogged my memory of the time Shortz rejected a puzzle as a result of it had HELLO KITTY in it and, I imply, who had ever heard of that? Certainly not *his* viewers. HELLO KITTY was thus deemed “not well-known sufficient” and that was that. This was… I wanna say within the late ’00s, properly after HELLO KITTY had develop into a worldwide phenomenon, an icon that may very well be seen far and wide, most notably (from my perspective as a father or mother) on little ladies’ backpacks and lunch bins and watches and what not throughout North America and past. The finest a part of the story (if I’m remembering it accurately) is that Will was flying on a airplane not lengthy thereafter and bumped into HELLO KITTY within the in-flight journal, after which later informed the constructor about it: “Isn’t {that a} humorous coincidence”? I neglect what the constructor’s response was, however mine would’ve been “yeah, haha, TAKE MY PUZZLE NOW!” Anyway, the constructor on this story is Andrea Carla Michaels (yesterday’s co-constructor!), so if I botched it considerably, she will appropriate me. It’s simply so nice to see HELLO KITTY dead-center, not solely *in* the puzzle however *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 is fictional cats! I like cats, and these definitely are some. Kind of an arbitrary set—fictionality is the one factor holding the set collectively, so far as I can inform, and there should be plenty of fictional cats, however that is undoubtedly an iconic set, they usually all match symmetrically within the grid, so possibly that is adequate. Not like I can consider any evident “how dare you!?” omissions. As an idea, there’s not a lot to this, however the theme does have one actually authentic factor about it—a revealer (HELLO KITTY) that can also be a theme reply in its personal proper. That is, it is a self-referential revealer—it factors to all the opposite theme reply, but in addition to itself, a lot in order that I’m stunned “39-Across” was not included among the many examples of fictional felines one may greet this manner. Wait … oh no, is HELLO KITTY not the kitty’s title? LOL I simply took it without any consideration that the cat was truly referred to as HELLO KITTY, however possibly that’s utterly improper, and she or he’s like a Julie or Inga or Kimiko or one thing!? Anyway, in my thoughts, that cat is definitely *named* HELLO KITTY, and she or he’s no less than as iconic as all the opposite cats, so … do not take this away from me. It’s the one factor that is making this puzzle really feel particular to me.