Saturday, June 13, 2020

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Matthew Sewell, and it’s pretty easy by Sewell standards. But not too easy. Stacks of three eleven-letter answers give the puzzle a bracing start and finish. I started with an eleven-letter clue, 17-A, “Source for Vermeer's blues.” Blue paint — it’s gotta be, right?

Clue-and-answer pairs that I especially liked:

4-D. three letters, “Henry Louis Gates, circa 1971.” PHD? No, too young.

13-D, eight letters, “‘Outrageous!’” I imagine the answer as spoken by Nancy Ritz.

22-D, eight letters, “Built like the Eiffel Tower.” A lovely word that should see more use.

32-A, seven letters, “What Lysol lacks.” If you say so.

34-A, five letters, “Union capital.” Clever.

34-D, three letters, “Hip replacement?” I, like, dig.

36-D, eight letters, “Kerosene antecedent.” Makes me think of a certain work of literature.

39-A, four letters, “Half of New Delhi.” A smart way to clue a bit of familiar crosswordese. I saw it right away.

No spoilers: the answers are, like, in the comments.

comments: 4

Michael Leddy said...

LAPISLAZULI. ELI.

THENERVE. (Imagine Nancy, indignant.)

LATTICED. AMMONIA. DOWRY.

DEF. WHALEOIL.

ELHI. (Crosswordese for K–12, elementary to high school.)

joecab said...

I got stuck forever at the center right, with BADEN for "Half of a hyphenated haven"

shallnot said...

32-A, seven letters, “What Lysol lacks.” If you say so. : Ammonia

This reminds me of a packet of rice crackers that proudly proclaimed that they were gluten-free. How can you claim the lack of something that was never there in the first place? They might as well have claimed that the crackers were glass-shard-free.

Steven

Michael Leddy said...

Baden: that’d be clever. How about “Either half of a hyphenated haven”? I didn’t understand HIDEY at first. It must be “hidey-hole”?

I guess ammonia-free might be a selling point because of the danger of ammonia and bleach being used together. Lysol is also gluten-free, right?