Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Stella Zawistowski, whose name I’ve seen on just one other Stumper, constructed with Erik Agard. Zawistowski deals out cryptic-crossword clues on Twitter and keeps a crossword website, Tough As Nails — and yes, her puzzles are difficult. I like what she says about crosswords and cultural literacy:

I don’t mind having to know who Ralph KINER (a baseball player of the 1940s and ’50s) is, but you should have to know who LIZZO is, too.

Check, and check. But I remember Ralph Kiner as a Mets announcer on TV. He would do beer commercials — I think I remember this — in the broadcast booth, pouring a glass (Rheingold?) and letting it sit. You couldn’t show drinking in commercials.

But I digress.

Today’s Stumper was deeply satisfying — clever, surprising, but never out of range. I started with a giveway, 5-D, three letters, “Part of a Gretel goodbye” and followed it to a non-giveaway, 17-A ten letters, “It’s pitched low.” Some clue-and-answer pairs I especially liked:

1-A, ten letters, “Bails.” You don’t hear this word much outside the dowdy world.

1-D, four letters, “Marches, in lit.” The lit is telling.

11-A, four letters, “Woman wrapped in flannel.” I saw it, or her, immediately. I’m getting used to this stuff.

22-D, eleven letters, “Magnavox introduction of 1972.” News to me.

23-D, eight letters, “Flag.”

35-A, five letters, “She stands on her own two feet.” Noteworthy for the pronouns, I’d say.

39-D, seven letters, “AFI’s #5 male Screen Legend.”

Best of all: 48-A, nine letters, “It’s beside the point.”

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

[I had to check: yes, Kiner poured, and it was Rheingold. Here’s another Mets announcer selling Rheingold.]