Saturday, December 14, 2019

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper has a Lester Ruff byline (“less rough”), but it’s another puzzle that I’d credit to Maura. Or maybe to one of the other Ruff siblings: Mo? Riley? I staggered around for forty minutes before finishing. Is that 60-A, ten letters, “Epic!”? No, not really. But the ten-letter answer for that clue fits, at least sort of.

Some clues I liked:

16-A, ten letters, “Overposter’s affliction.”

19-A, “Capital southwest of Timbuktu.” Thanks, Roswell Rudd and Toumani Diabaté.

24-D, four letters, “Only Oscar winner/Nobelist before Dylan.” Think about it for a bit and you might say, “Oh, yeah, of course.”

31-D, nine letters, “Dreamlike and distorted.” This clue drove me bonkers, because I never think about what’s in the answer. I just don’t care. But maybe I should think about what’s in the answer when I do crosswords.

36-A, three letters, “Something set to keep things in line.”

40-A, eight letters, “Didn’t charge.” Also drove me bonkers. (WENTDEAD? No.)

52-D, five letters, “Simmer or steal.”

One awkward clue with an awkward answer: 42-D, seven letters, “E-tailer’s count.” E-tail seems hopelessly corny to me. The answer is corny too.

No spoilers: the answers, corny and non-, are in the comments.

comments: 4

Michael Leddy said...

QUITEAFEAT. BLOGORRHEA. BAMAKOMALI. SHAW. DALIESQUE. WENTSLOW. POACH. WEBHITS. (As opposed to some other kind of hit?)

Michael Leddy said...

Oh, and TAB.

shallnot said...

TAB is the best marrying of clue and answer of the lot. No straining credulity there!

Michael Leddy said...

It’s a nice one. I’ve become so accustomed to clues about bar tabs that it took me a while to realize that this clue is about typing.