CULLEN MURPHY, CARTOON COUNTY — To get a comic strip off the ground you needed syndicate backing. ... And they had rules. You... couldn't show a navel, even on children... Mort Walker began retaliating by... adding crates of navel oranges into the story line.
To get a comic strip off the ground you needed syndicate backing. Sometimes the syndicates owned the strip in whole or in part. And they had rules. You could draw a girl in a bikini but you couldn't show a navel, even on children, and for years the bullpen took an X-acto knife to the offending squiggles, until Mort Walker began retaliating by drawing extra navels on his characters and gratuitously adding crates of navel oranges into the story line.
| A. | Like a blacked-out dialogue balloon | CENSORED |
| B. | What X may stand for | UNKNOWN |
| C. | Went through an evening | LEVELED |
| D. | What writing in cursive is becoming (2 wds.) | LOSTART |
| E. | Opinion in print or sketch | EDITORIAL |
| F. | Music you don't like | NOISE |
| G. | Legendary | MYTHIC |
| H. | Cancellation; ruin | UNDOING |
| I. | People with lots of pheomelanin | REDHEADS |
| J. | Activity done on a small hill | PITCHING |
| K. | Peaceful and happy, as days of yore | HALCYON |
| L. | The lighter side? | YANG |
| M. | Instrument heard in "A Hard Day's Night" | COWBELL |
| N. | College matchup of services (hyph.) | ARMYNAVY |
| O. | Internet browser command | REFRESH |
| P. | Height of a regulation basketball rim (2 wds.) | TENFEET |
| Q. | Tone taken by W.W. II G.I.s? (2 wds.) | OLIVEDRAB |
| R. | Holmes who sang the blues | ODETTA |
| S. | Bean, noodle, gourd | NOGGIN |
| T. | Icon for online shoppers | CART |
| U. | Bonus features of a DVD reissue | OUTTAKES |
| V. | One from the African Great Lakes region | UGANDAN |
| W. | Items it's impolite to double-dip | NACHOS |
| X. | Like some titmice and puffins | TUFTED |
| Y. | Hanna-Barbera character who lives in a park (2 wds.) | YOGIBEAR |