Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Matthew Sewell, is a tough one, half-hour territory for me. My spirit sagged at 1-A, five letters, “Norwegian flatbread.” (NJAAN?!) I found a better start at 14-A, five letters, “Ladderback chair elements.” 18-A, nine letters, “India, essentially” helped a lot, as did 39-A, eleven letters, “Overlong addresses.” That last answer is one of several unusual longish ones in this puzzle.
Some other clue-and-answer pairs of note:
3-D, nine letters, “Guitar-and-castanets performances.” It took me a long time to see that the answer was not another nine-letter word.
15-A, five letters, “Part of a Moscow mule, perhaps.” And with a complicated history. No thanks.
21-D, eight letters, "What some game app developers work with." Not every pun deserves respect.
23-A, thirteen letters, “Xenomorph.” You see what I mean about unusual longish answers?
25-D, eight letters, “Insects that coevolved with tropical trees.” Also unusual medium-length answers.
27-D, four letters, “The Bard's ‘being next to Devil,’ per Coleridge.” Misparsing the clue makes the easy answer much more difficulty to see.
30-D, nine letters, “Mustard or cocoa.” Someone understands me.
37-D, eight letters, “The ’40s Motorette, e.g.” What?
My favorite in this puzzle: 29-A, eleven letters, “It may not be all that it’s cracked up to be.”
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
comments: 6
LEFSE. (Elaine knew this one right off.) SLATS. PENINSULA. PERORATIONS.
FANDANGOS. STOLI. (Some history.) DEERMEAT. ALIENLIFEFORM. FIGWASPS.
IAGO. EARTHTONE. MICROCAR. (some history). CAGEFREEEGG.
P.S.: FANDANGOS, not FLAMENCOS.
“India, essentially”? How about: “What everyone lives on, essentially.” 6 letters (answer below).
Speaking of FANDANGO, try singing the words of Procol Harum’s song “Whiter Shade of Pale” to the theme tune of “The Muppet Show”. Of course, the reverse can also be done. Be careful,, though. You might get to the point where you can no longer hear the right words with the right tune for either of them...
Steven
ISLAND
I know (well, now I know) that there’s debate about whether India is rightly called a peninsula. I was just happy to get the answer.
I’ll have to look up the theme to The Muppet Show and the Procol Harum lyrics. And then find a quiet place to practice.
India is usually referred to as a 'subcontinent,' and it's pretty big for PENINSULA to be apt.
I still do not know 33D and 17A (but at ths late date I Do. Not. Care.
Got most of the puzzle, so you probably thought it was easy!
“Subcontinent”: yes, though that’s a politically charged term. I remember when I taught the Bhagavad-Gita always using “South Asia.”
It wasn’t easy for me at all — it took me half an hour.
Post a Comment