Saturday, August 9, 2025

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by Matthew Sewell, has something of a summery, rural flavor: 21-D, twelve letters, “Corn mazes, hayrides, etc.” And 40-D, seven letters, “Hit shows at county fairs.” Neither of which helped me much. What did help: 2-D, nine letters, “Reunion rendition.” Before hitting on that answer, I was, as they say in crosswords, ATSEA.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

4-D, twelve letters, “Metaphoric height.” Wow.

5-D, five letters, “Zebra crossing?” The rules of the road don’t help here.

11-D, five letters, “57-Across forerunner.” This answer brings back memories. (57-A, five letters, “Urban legend spreader.”)

14-A, four letters, “Rosetta Stone characters.” Pretty fiendish.

19-A, fifteen letters, “Pedestrian.” I’m not sure the clue is true to the answer, but I like the answer.

27-D, four letters, “Quick game.” Clever, but also yikes!

30-A, eleven letters, “Taking for a ride.” I wrote in the answer with nothing more than the last five letters without feeling that I was being taken for a ride.

39-A, eleven letters, “Sign of falling down on the job?” Heh.

46-D, five letters, “What ’our opposition ... don’t know how to handle’”: John Lennon. And it’s what we need now, though it’s not enough.

50-A, fifteen letters, “Model power source.” Crazy good!

50-D, four letters, “Name on the cover of Primary School Geography (1894).” My start, and I’m glad it was here.

61-A, four letters, “Banners of the Charleston era.” Early on I read this clue and thought I will never finish this puzzle.

My favorite in this puzzle: 48-A, six letters, “Real-time loggers.” Because my mom.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

comments: 3

Michael Leddy said...

AGRITAINMENT. DERBIES. ALMAMATER. STRATOSPHERE.

VELDT. TELEX. EMAIL. (Here’s a telex from a friend.)

ETAS. MEATANDPOTATOES. (M-W: “of fundamental importance,” ”concerned with or emphasizing the basic aspects of something.” Not at all similar to “pedestrian.”)

DEER. (Run, you critters!) SUCKERINGIN. HARDHATAREA. HUMOR.

RUBBERBANDMOTOR. RAND. DRYS. STENOS.

Geo-B said...

A friend and I were thoroughly lost, driving around south of the city Thursday. At an Oasis on a tollway, I saw a sign that said "visitor desk," so I grabbed the Rand McNally road atlas from my trunk and dashed in. There was no one on duty at the visitor desk, but I importuned a janitor who gave me some useful advice. I thought the fact that I had a Rand McNally road atlas dated me.

Michael Leddy said...

We used to travel with one, pre-Google Maps, pre-Garmin, pre-MapQuest. Maybe we still should — there are places where the cell service drops out.