Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Steve Mossberg. Gosh, is it ever. When I finished, forty-three minutes after starting, I thought of a clue to capture my reaction: “Initial disbelief.” Answer: WTF. I’ve rarely seen a Stumper this difficult. In other words, I loved it. Or better: I loved having solved it.

The three clues that broke the puzzle open for me: 16-A, ten letters, “Group amusement”; 40-A, thirteen letters, “Literally, ‘harm joy’”; and 59-A, five letters, “Seasonal swimmer septet.” That last clue was my starting point, which gives some idea of this puzzle’s difficulty.

Some other clue-and-answer pairs of note:

5-D, seven letters, “Entry-level guy.” Clever.

7-D, four letters, “Duettist in Haydn’s Creation.” My first thought was OBOE. If it’s in a crossword, it must be an OBOE, right?

13-A, ten letters, “Instrumental part favored by Beethoven.” It seems to be true.

26-D, ten letters, “Made a cactus garden, say.” Hoo boy.

31-A, three letters, “Toaster’s goal, perhaps.” Pretty oblique.

35-D, eight letters, “Hybrid outerwear.” Initial disbelief hardening into permanent disbelief.

36-D, eight letters, “Directive for details.” Not exactly misdirective, but not especially directive either.

56-A, ten letters, “They pair well with pasta.” I should have seen it right away.

My favorite in this puzzle: 50-D, four letters, “What a seer often says?” It’s my favorite because I didn’t understand it until thinking about it for the third or fourth time.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.