Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by Greg Johnson, made me think of Magic Eye. Remember? You were supposed to stare at a rectangle of swirling colors and see an image therein. The image always remained hidden for me, and that how I felt looking at this puzzle: staring and staring and never seeing what I was supposed to see. But finally I did.

Many clue-and-answer pairs of note:

2-D, five letters, “Stock market purchase.” Elaine will like this one.

4-D, eight letters, “It’s for those who don’t give a darn.” NEWSOCKS?

7-D, three letters, “Keys to quality care.” A nice tip of the hat.

20-A, seven letters, “They hold world records.” Clever.

22-A, seven letters, “Crucians live there.” I think playing Worldle helped me see the answer.

30-D, four letters, “Locale in ‘Homer’s Odyssey’ (1990).” LOL. A nice treat to bring into class.

31-A, eight letters, “Start of a scale model.” The west-central section of the puzzle gave me fits, and this clue was one reason why. I thought it must have something to do with ratios. And then I realized that I needed to spell something differently.

32-D, four letters, “Diagnostician’s denouement.” Say what? It’s the west-central section again, with alliteration coming at the expense of meaning.

42-A, twelve letters, “One in a grade school organization.” PTAPRESIDENT?

43-D, six letters, “Chiller of the ’30s.” DRACUL?

45-D, six letters, “Word from the Greek for ‘ship.’” Yes, of course.

57-A, five letters, “Smashing, in show biz.” I’m glad I know some Variety lingo.

My favorite clues in this puzzle:

26-A, twelve letters, “Purple Crayola color.” Yes, I have the Big Box (ninety-six crayons), and I got this answer right away.

And 37-D, eight letters, “Parenthetical trio.” For dowdy reasons.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.