0107-10 New York Times Crossword Answers 7 Jan 10

This is my solution to the crossword published in the New York Times today. If you are doing the New York Times crossword in any other publication, you are working on the syndicated puzzle.

Here is a link to my answers to today's SYNDICATED New York Times crossword.

Completion Time: 35m 27s

Theme: PEST CONTROL ... the 10 theme answers match the clue, with and without the "ANT".

Answers I  missed: 4 ... IKEBANA (IKEWANA!), D'ABO (DAWO!), MEDEVAC (MEDIVAC), GET ME (GIT ME!)

Today's Googlies ...

Across

1 JIMJAMS: New to me, the jimjams are a nervous feeling, the jitters.
16 COMBATANT: I think the idea is that one might encounter an enemy combatant.
18 KNEE: "I come from Alabama, with my banjo on my knee".
19 HESSE: "The Glass Bead Game" was written by German Swiss author Hermann Hesse.
22 SST: The SuperSonic Transports, like Concorde, are all grounded now.
23 RIDE: The Teacups (known as the "Mad Tea Party" at Disneyland), the carnival ride most likely to make me sick!
32 FANTABULOUS: A fantabulous, slang blend of fantastic and fabulous.
37 IKEBANA: I can  never remember that ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement.
43 NLER: The Diamondbacks (D-Backs) and Cardinals (Cards) are National League Baseball teams (NLers)
44 TIN: When I was growing up in Ireland, I was forever invading the biscuit tin, or as we call it on this side of the pond, the cookie jar.
45 ISSUE: "O" and "W" are celebrated magazines (that I would never read!).
49 SPOT: The reference is to the series of children's illustrated books called "Where's Waldo", originally titled "Where's Wally" in Britain where they originate.
57 PENN: The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) is an Ivy League school in Philadelphia.

Down
1 JACKS: Jacks are superior to 10s in a deck of cards.
2 IRONS: Fetters are chains for the feet or ankles, leg irons.
3 MR MET: Mr. Met is the mascot of the New York Mets, that now play at Citi Field.
5 AVA: Ava Gardner starred with Clark Gable in the African Safari movie "Mogambo" from 1953.
6 MATHIS: Johnny Mathis recorded the 1959 album "Heavenly".
8 PERE: Alexandre Dumas, pere (father) was the famed writer of "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo". Alexandre Dumas, fils (son) was also a noted writer.
15 MES: Mes amis ... (My friends ...)
20 SECANT: The secant (sec, for short) is the ratio of the hyptenuse of a triangle to its adjacent side, and is the reciprocal of the cosine, as you all remember from school, no doubt.
23 ROSANNE: Rosanne Cash is the eldest daughter of Johnny Cash, a successful singer in her own right.
25 D'ABO: Olivia d'Abo is a British actress, who apparently plays baddie Nicole Wallace on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent".
27 HAMS: Soupy Sales and the like, comic actors, might be described as "hams", performers who exaggerate their characters.
28 ABE: Shinzo Abe was the youngest prime-minister in post WWII Japan.
34 ORR: Bob Orr is the Justice and Homeland Security correspondent for CBS News.
44 TORERO: In English we might call a torero a toreador, a term not actually used in Spain.
46 SHANE: The reference is to the classic 1953 movie (and novel) "Shane" starring Alan Ladd (Shane) and Brandon De Wilde (Joey Starrett). De Wilde died tragically at 30 years of age, in a motorcycle accident.
UPDATE: Someone has pointed out the Brandon de Wilde was driving a VW camper van when he died. My error!
50 PEREC: "Life: a User's Manual" is Georges Perec's most famous novel.