Today’s Newsday crossword is not a Stumper. The Stumper is gone, replaced by somepin else, an easier themeless Saturday. Today’s puzzle is by Newsday puzzle editor Stan Newman, composing as Lester Ruff. Les Ruff, that is, easier, as every Newsday Saturday now promises to be. And this puzzle was easier, though it felt difficult. Is it a pseudo-Stumper? A semi-Stumper?
Some clue-and-answer pairs I enjoyed:
1-D, six letters, “California’s ‘Garlic Capital of the World.’” I love garlic, so I know the name. But probably anyone who’s bought garlic in an American supermarket has seen the name. The capital appears in Les Blank’s documentary Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers.
36-D, seven letters, “Papal, in Michelangelo’s day.” I learned something.
44-A, four letters, “Former Volvo alternative.” For me it signified (rightly or wrongly) Yuppie. Yuck.
67-A, six letters, “Feel like fighting.” But only because I misread the answer and felt mystified.
I didn’t find much 5-D, five letters, “Roy Lichtenstein ‘impactful’ pop-art painting” in today’s puzzle. Maybe next week’s Saturday will offer more.
No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.
Saturday, January 16, 2021
Today’s Saturday somepin
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comments: 3
GILROY.
SISTINE. M-W: “[from PopeSixtus IV †1484] : of or relating to the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican,” from “Italian sistino, from New Latin sixtinus, from Sixtus, name of some popes.”
SAAB. SEERED. (I was trying to understand how seer could be a verb.)
WHAAM. Or Whaam!
SEERED: Remember when crossword puzzles kindly told you they were looking for more than one word?
I suppose, if you 'verbify' seer, it could be one word SEERED. Now use that in a sentence: "Croesus seered and after being told by the Delphic Oracle 'if Croesus goes to war, he will destroy a great empire' he decided you fight the Persians".
In general I dislike most 'verbifications' especially if perfectly good alternatives exist. The worst was hearing, during the 2010 Winter Olympics here, "he podiumed". How banal. "Took gold" or "ascended the podium" (Mt. Parnassus?) sounds much more heroic.
Howard Cossell wouldn't have had people 'podiuming'... Nor would English sports commentator Sid Waddell who once said: "When Alexander of Macedonia was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer..... Bristow's only 27". — (regarding darts player Eric Bristow)
I never heard podium as a verb. I wonder if that one came and went. There’s medal, which seems not nearly as bad.
I know that nouns are always turning into verbs, but that doesn't mean a speaker or writer has to use any particular one.
I had no idea that darts get commentary like that, or that competitors have walk-on music (I just looked him up).
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