Saturday, February 15, 2020

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Given the difficulty of last Saturday’s puzzle, I thought that this week’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Brad Wilber, would have to be easier. And it was, much easier. I began solving with 1-A, eleven letters, “Gets no help.” I needed no help getting an answer, and I didn’t realize until long after I finished the puzzle that I might have started with an equally plausible, nearly right answer. The longer steps beneath 1-A posed more difficult: 12-A, thirteen letters, “Cast layer” and 14-A, fifteen letters, “Frequent letter carriers.” But still, I got them, without help.

Some good cultural stuff, old and new, in today’s puzzle:

2-D, five letters, “Vague ‘rumeur.’” Probably my favorite clue in the puzzle, if only because I was pleased with myself for nailing the answer right off. I did have help from 1-A.

8-D, seven letters, “‘To thine own self be true’ addressee.” Easy, I think, but I’m not sure.

22-D, five letters, “Mayflower Cafe entrée.” I had never heard of the Mayflower Cafe (no accent), but thinking about its name helped me get the answer. After looking up the Mayflower, I think I may have eaten there, many years ago.

34-A, six letters, “Poet/novelist/critic/inventor from Ottawa.” Inventor? I didn’t know that.

40-D, six letters, “‘Benighted walks under the      sun’: Milton.” I will admit though to not knowing the source, having last read it forty or more years ago. But I do remember, forty or more years ago, typing out lines from that work — “Offering to every weary traveller / His orient liquor in a crystal glass” — and taping them to a magazine ad for Suntory whisky featuring George Raft in black tie. I cannot find the ad online, so you’ll have to take my word that such an ad existed.

50-A, fifteen letters, “College news of 2019.” The challenge here was just how to phrase the answer.

55-A, eleven letters, “Creator of ‘the miserable monster.’” No, the answer predates reality TV.

And no, no spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

comments: 6

Michael Leddy said...

GOESITALONE. (Not DOESITALONE.) PANCAKEMAKEUP. WINDOWENVELOPES.

ONDIT. LAERTES. SCROD. The Mayflower Cafe in Provincetown, Massachusetts, has it on the menu. New England-y fare. I think I may have had a Portuguese seafood dish there many years ago on a trip to the Cape.

Margaret ATWOOD invented of the LongPen.

MIDDAY. From Comus.

CHEATING SCANDAL.

MARYSHELLEY.

Michael Leddy said...

Oops. Margaret ATWOOD invented the LongPen.

Geo-B said...

Apropos of the LongPen, did you know that Thomas Edison developed an electric pen, that evolved into the tattooing needle? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo_machine

Michael Leddy said...

I did not know that. I wonder if most tatted people do. (I’m not among them.)

Elaine said...

Solved it in 20 minutes....epic, esp after last week.

Michael Leddy said...

Congrats! Challenging but doable is what I like too.