Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by “Lester Ruff,” or Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor. It felt to me like a New Yorker Monday — not too rough (but also not as self-consciously hep). A kinder, gentler Stumper.
Some clue-and-answer pairs I especially liked:
1-D, four letters, “Partner in eye health.” I’ve known the answer from childhood, but with no relation to eye health.
10-D, seven letters, “Big name in big heads.” EGOTISM? No, that’s a word, not a name. It’s a good clue for an ugly, ugly name.
14-A, ten letters, “What may infuse olive oil.” MOREGARLIC? This idea is new to me.
13-D, five letters, “Apple, mostly.” What kind of Apple/apple?
17-A, ten letters, “Rather soft.” I liked seeing the answer, new to me in crosswords.
20-A, nine letters, “45 descendants.” Ugh — I thought of you-know-who. Fortunately, the answer has nothing to do with his spawn.
25-D, four letters, “They may get into a jam.” Yes, but it’s harmless fun.
26-D, ten letters, “Number associated with Yale.” I sometimes wonder what it might be like to be a Yale grad and see oneself — as ELI — in crosswords day after day. Would one preen? Swell with self-regard? The closest I’ve gotten to Yale: 1. watching Gilmore Girls, 2. eating pizza from Frank Pepe, though not at the same time.
34-A, three letters, “Olympic VIP.” Ha.
56-A, ten letters, “Crime story where the perpetrator is revealed early.” New to me, but I realize that it describes every episode of Colombo. Is this a well-known term?
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
comments: 3
LOMB. (I think we had a Bausch and Lomb movie projector.)
BORGLUM. ORANGEPEEL. FLESH. MEZZOPIANO. CDSINGLES.
FIGS. BOOLABOOLA. GOD. HOWCATCHEM.
Here’s a Duke Ellington rendition of “Boola Boola,” with Jeff Castleman (bass) and Sam Woodyard (drums).
Elaine, I deleted your comment by mistake when I thought I was deleting a spam comment. I swear, they switched places on me. But I still had the text of your comment, already posted, in an open tab, so I’m cutting and pasting it here:
That NE corner took me forever. I even had SORGHUM in there for a while. I also resisted putting in ALLAH, as it is considered sacrilegious, is it not? INSOMNIENT was also an entry for a while....pretty sure it's not a word, but it should be, right?
I was pretty sure of NIMITZ (daughter's school was supposed to be Chester A Nimitz Elementary in Cupertino, but I enrolled her elsewhere; at that time the schools were in a fine fix due to Prop 13. Thirty kids in Kindergarten...hoo, boy.) But I digress.
Crumby clue for FORSYTHIA, which is a floweriing shrub, not just 'a flower.'
I think 'Lester' made up HOW CATCH 'EM.
I don’t think it’s considered sacrilegious to write the name. But I gather from looking online that there are various ideas about how something bearing the name is to be disposed of. I imagine there could be some question about whether filling in letters is the same as writing the name, esp. since the letters might not be written in sequence all at once. I may have missed a calling as a theologian.
I somehow know Nimitz, though the name always makes me think of “nimrod.” It will sadden you to know that there are still sometimes thirty kids in kindergarten.
“How catch ’em” is real, even if we’ve never heard it before. I plan to never use it. : )
Post a Comment