Saturday, January 30, 2021

Today’s Newsday Saturday

Today’s Newsday  Saturday crossword, by Stan Newman, is a tough puzzle. As I worked at it, I though, Wait a minute, this puzzle is supposed to be easier than a Saturday Stumper. But this puzzle was comparable to a Stumper in difficulty. Not a lot of trickiness, but an awful lot of indirection. 20-D, five letters, “Official endorsements”? 25-A, four letters, “Office initials”? I had no idea, until I did.

Some clue-and-answer pairs I especially liked:

9-D, five letters, “Soprano line opener.” Clever.

17-A, eight letters, “Flag-capturing game.” I am surprised to see that this game is still around — the answer feels dowdy to me. Quick, to the rec room!

22-A, three letters, “‘Inside‘ amenity.” I was thinking it must be something for A-listers. Silly me.

55-D, four letters, “In the bag, perhaps.” The clue redeems the answer.

61-D, three letters, “He’s old-fashioned, ultimately.” Shades of the Stumper!

And my three favorites:

8-D, fifteen letters, “Diner menu listing that can’t be ordered.” Maybe obvious to some, but new to me. And I like anything with a diner in it.

35-A, “Theft insurance of a sort.” The other fifteen-letter answer in the puzzle. A useful reminder for those who need one.

58-A, eight letters, “Naval enlistee.” I admit it: I had to do some rethinking to see the plainly obvious answer.

One clue-and-answer I have to take issue with: 44-D, six letters, “Stradivari, secondarily.” No, he was not.

January 31: Good news: the Stumper is not gone forever. See this post.

comments: 5

Michael Leddy said...

VISAS. TGIF. GCLEF. STRATEGO. ATM. TOGO.

NED. (Old-fashioNED.) TWOEGGSANYSTYLE. STRONGPASSWORDS.

LUTIST. Stradivari was a luthier, not a lutist. He neither played nor made lutes. Luthier wouldn’t work as a secondary description, as a luthier makes stringed instruments, not just guitars. Stradivari made violins, violas, cellos, guitars, and harps.

shallnot said...

You forgot to type “Naval enlistee” answer.

Michael Leddy said...

YEOWOMAN!

joecab said...

Agreed. Tough! It really threw me off.

Michael Leddy said...

Is Stan messing with us? :)