Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by S.N., Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor. Too much dated trivia for my taste: e.g., 5-D, six letters, “2009 Forbes Celebrity 100 novelist” and 25-A, seven letters, “It’s sung about in ‘Happy Morning’ ads (c. 2006).” The highlight: two wonderfully unexpected twelve-letter answers.
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
6-A, five letters, “Early influence on Asimov.” Think of a writer and you’d be wrong.
14-A, five letters, “Select.” Select your part of speech.
18-A, nine letters, “Selection from Seagram’s.” I think that’s a bit of misdirection.
21-D, four letters, “Surname akin to Russo.“ Huh.
24-D, seven letters, “Basis of comparison re primary school success.” Never heard of it.
37-D, eight letters, “First ones in the fight” Trace Adkins tune. I tried REDNECKS. Oops. Woe is I.
41-D, seven letters, “Bon Appétit’s ‘invention that redefined baking.’” We were just talking about it, though not about the magazine.
42-D, four letters, “Much, much more than a wink.” I thought it had to be LEER.
44-D, six letters and 51-D, five letters, “Title character of 19th-century French lit.” A bit tricky.
55-A, nine letters, “Height of a media mogul’s ambition.” Clever.
One quibble: 34-A, five letters, “Telenovela 39 Down.” I think there’s another word that would be far more typical.
My (obvious) favorites in this puzzle: 30—A, twelve letters, “Many Peruvians’ ancestry” and 40-A, twelve letters, “Extraordinarily bright.” Bright indeed. Brilliant even.
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
Saturday, March 4, 2023
Today’s Saturday Stumper
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comments: 4
MEYER. (Stephanie.) FOLGERS. PULPS. ELITE. GINGERALE. REID. AGEMATE.
SEMPERFI. CAKEMIX. EONS. BOVARY. ATHOS (A count.) SANSIMEON.
ASTRO. 39-D is STAR. I’m pretty certain that the usual word in Spanish is estrella. The Google Ngram Viewe backs me up: estrella de cine far outnumbers astro de cine.
INCANDESCENT. INCANDESCENT.
A clarification: the clue for 39-D is “One in the lead.” That kind of star.
WHo knew a repeated entry could be so enjoyable? It reminds me of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament finals whjere 3 different groups of finalists solve a puzzle with the exact same fill but the clues are hard for the C group, harder for the Bs, and hardest for the As. It's all in how you clue it, baby.
So neat. The second INCANDESCENT was my first answer, and when I hit the second, much later, I thought, Didn’t I already fill that in?
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