Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: October 15, 2018

My time: 4:13.

--

Amanda Chung and Karl Ni team up once again to prove that they are still YOUNG / AT HEART with this playful puzzle.  In five themed answers, various words for a young animal are found in the center.

INCUBUS hides cub, AKITA shelters kit (I'm not a fan of this answer being used for the theme because it's another animal, but whatever), OPTICAL FIBER holds calf, ARE YOU KIDDING ME has kid, and JOHN COLTRANE, of course, contains a colt in the middle.

The answer to "brandy fruit" is APRICOT, which I don't think of when I think about brandy.  Which isn't all that often, let's be honest.  But most things that are billed as apricot brandies are actually flavored liqueurs.

"Perfume, as in a religious ceremony" is the verb CENSE, which to me seems a bit outré for a Monday.

Know your state symbols?  The state tree of Massachusetts is the ELM TREE.  Specifically, the American elm, Ulmus americana.

IDA is a very common crossword name, but this one hasn't been used before: IDA B. Wells, an African American suffragist, journalist, abolitionist, and feminist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the 1890s.  A figure from American history well worth knowing, and certainly more deserving of a statue in a southern city square than those treasonous terrorists who declared war on us.

I knew this word once but had long forgotten it: DEVA, a term for a divinity in Hindu religion, or just for the divine.  Shiva is a deva, for example.

Clever clue: "Stand around the mall?" is KIOSK.

And that's it!  A fun, quick puzzle, one with which I have no quibble.  A real ACE among puzzles.  I am EAGER to start in on Tuesday!