Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Matthew Sewell. It’s a tough one, and after missing the last two Stumpers by a square, I am inordinately self-satisfied to have gotten all the squares of this puzzle. I began with 6-D, three letters, “Choice word”; 8-D, three letters, “Title from Turkish for ‘lord’; and 14-A, ten letters, “Storming.” The northwest fell quickly; other parts of the puzzle fell more slowly; and the southwest for a long time seemed impossible to crack. 32-D, nine letters, “Querulous quote from Christie.” Agatha? Anna? Chris? Brinkley? I got it, but I had to look it up to understand.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

12-D, nine letters, “Origamist’s purchase.” I learned somepin.

13-D, eight letters, “Pilot products.” A pretty arcane way to clue this answer. But I can think of more arcane.

15-D, eight letters, “Offering from GM’s Cruise.” Never heard of it.

17-A, ten letters, “Crimefighter who's really put together.” LTCOLUMBO comes up short.

26-D, seven letters, “Small fry.” Cute. And nothing to do with the Hoagy Carmichael–Frank Loesser song.

36-A, fifteen letters, “Study of capitalistic crises.” Whoa.

49-D, five letters, “It’s meant to be mixed up.” Only mildly confounding.

52-A, six letters, “Nautically named warehouse carts.” I still remember gondola from my housewares-department days.

54-A, six letters, “App store.” Stumper-y distortion — not a store to my mind.

62-A, ten letters, “Prudent antivirus setting.” Also prudent for security updates. But not prudent for system updates.

My favorite in this puzzle: 63-A, four letters, “Work (out).” I’ve loved the word ever since Betty Aberlin used it in a comment on an OCA post about a Mister Rogers opera. Lady Aberlin!

The answers are in the comments.