In the word of 53-A, five letters, “Peanuts plaint”: ______! Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Lester Ruff, or Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, composing under the pseudonym that signals an easier Stumper. The puzzle is fairly easy, but I hit a snag in the upper left corner: 17-A, six letters, “Physician’s patron.” All I could think of was HERMES, which is not a good answer, but ASCLEPIUS didn’t fit. So I searched for “Physician’s patron,” and magically, that corner fell into place, becoming as straightforward as I think it was meant to be.
Some more clue-and-answer pairs of note:
1-A, six letters, “Whom Alda got his M*A*S*H nickname from.” Lifelong learning.
12-D, eight letters, “Monitored?” Clever.
16-A, eight letters, “Successor to LAN technologies.” What once sounded like the future now sounds like science-fiction of the past.
22-A, three letters, “Not following.” Befitting a Stumper.
24-D, five letters, “Changes to one’s story.” Not LIES.
25-D, four letters, “Viva Rock Vegas character.” An idiosyncratically specific way to clue this name.
35-A, fifteen letters, “Nothing I can do.” Just a nice bit of colloquial speech.
36-D, eight letters, “It achieved statehood in 1901.” Statehood, eh? NEWMEXI? — oops, no.
48-A, six letters, “811, to librarians.” Or to readers who know the stacks.
My favorite in this puzzle: 46-D, six letters, “Cat without a coat.” More lifelong learning.
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
Saturday, June 10, 2023
Today’s Saturday Stumper
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comments: 5
AAUGH. STLUKE. BUMPPO. (Hawkeye is one of Natty Bumppo’s nicknames.)
ONSCREEN. ETHERNET. PRE. EDITS. DINO.
ITSOUTOFMYHANDS. TASMANIA.
POETRY. SPHYNX. (Sphinx and sphynx are different words with different meanings.)
“Whom Alda got his M*A*S*H nickname from.”
That’s a bit awkward isn’t? Perhaps a future writing improvement post?
“Alda got his M*A*S*H nickname from. whom?” Not quite right as the character pre-dates Alan Alda (and Donald Sutherland for that matter).
It is awkward, and “correct.” When I saw your comment, I thought, Uh-oh, did I turn it into who? That sounds much more idiomatic to me, and I could imagine myself typing and changing the whom without realizing it. As it is, I copied and pasted without noticing. I think this kind of whom is nearing extinction.
The clue could be revised into “Source of M*A*S*H character’s nickname” (instead of Alda’s nickname). Or “The original ‘Hawkeye.’” How’s that?
For complete misdirection: "Whom Benjamin Franklin got his nickname 'Hawkeye' from".
i.e. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
Woah! I’ve watched the show now and then, but I didn’t know the character’s full name. That clue would’ve stumped me.
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