Today’s Saturday Stumper

The Newsday  Saturday Stumper seems to have settled into a permanent state of way-difficult. Today’s puzzle, by Steve Mossberg, is yet another killer. I give you 5-D, ten letters, “Bears fan.” And 7-D, four letters, “Bar food.” Wut, and wut. My last answer was 5-D, and I knew it had to be right, but it still looked strange enough to send me to the dictionary. Strange indeed.

Some more clue-and-answer pairs of note:

4-D, eight letters, “Fellini’s first Oscar film.” It happens to be in our queue.

15-A, eight letters, “Storage facility.” “Facility” is mean misdirection, or merely a stretch.

20-A, seven letters, “Spaced out.” I was once told that I taught with a 20-A expression on my face. I was not, however, spaced out.

22-A, three letters, “Baby sitter?” Wonderfully clever.

28-D, ten letters, “Repurposing.” Always consider the part of speech, Michael.

30-D, nine letters, “Sphinxian.” Had to be.

36-D, eight letters, “Literally, ‘great queen.’” A little knowledge let me figure out the answer.

41-A, five letters, “Group in discussion.” Wildly misdirective. See 28-D.

42-D, five letters, “‘16 on 16’ competition.” A joke on, say, 3 on 3 in basketball? I don’t think the expression “16 on 16” has any currency in this form of competition.

46-A, three letters, “‘Quit clipping me!’” Another great clue for a three-letter answer.

My favorite in this puzzle: 54-A, eight letters, “Musician on the move.” Delightful.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.