Saturday, November 17, 2018

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Matthew Sewell, is a tough one, particularly in the center-west and south-west. 26-Down, ten letters, “Take your time” was the clue that finally (finally) let me work out six or seven other missing answers. And then there was 54-Across, three letters, “Application placeholder.” What? I got that one on a first guess and had to look it up to understand what I had typed.

My favorite clues in today’s puzzle: 5-Down, twelve letters, “I asked for so little!” and 25-Down, four letters, “Theatregoer, quite possibly.” Fiendish, that clue. No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

I’m not sure what’s happening to the Newsday crossword. A paywall now rules the site, with a digital subscription costing $3.49 a week, but an adblocker should make the puzzle playable for non-subscribers. The puzzle is also available at BrainsOnly. I hope that Newsday, like The New York Times, will offer a crossword-only subscription. That’d be appropriate for solvers with no particular ties to Long Island.

comments: 4

Michael Leddy said...

EASYDOESIT. NMI. YOUHADONEJOB. BRIT.

NMI: no middle initial, I think.

joecab said...

Yep, that's what NMI stands for. I got stuck forever in that damn center left section!

Elaine said...

I have to use NMI all the time; my parents already had a girl and were apparently not prepared for a second one! It's unusual for a Southern child (especially a girl) not to have a middle name. I use my maiden name/initial.

I did not find Newsday to have a firewall/charge, but BrainsOnly is WAY faster to download, so thank you very much! No waiting!

Hope your Thanksgiving was delightful.

Michael Leddy said...

I have a middle initial but it appears only in official settings. My dad, on the other hand, had both of his in the 1965 NYC telephone directory (there’s one online — I had to look us up). Probably for disambiguation.

The Washington Post gives me trouble now. I subscribe to the paper but have to disable my adblocker and run a video before the puzzle will load.