Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by David P. Williams, starts out so easily: 1-A, four letters, “Info_____ (Internet, from the German).” But by 5-A, four letters, “Tide that goes out in autumn,” things become more difficult. A satisfying Stumper, with nifty clues, novel answers, and very little awkwardness.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

7-D, three letters, “Letters on much guitar music.” This clue seems strangely arbitrary to me. The answer certainly isn’t specific to guitar music, as any fake book will show.

8-D, eight letters, “Hostilities.” Tricky, because the plural typically means “war” or “overt acts of war.”

9-D, nine letters, “Epicenter.” Getting this answer helped a lot, though it also brought back horrible memories.

14-D, letters, “‘Journey to _____’ (2000s Sesame Street segment).” Aww.

22-D, eleven letters, “Forecast fork.” The clue is more confounding than the answer.

23-A, thirteen letters, “Reeling.” Just fun.

25-D, nine letters, “What the Jasmine Revolution (2010) was part of.” I was thinking about it yesterday while watching Orwell: 2+2=5.

34-A, four letters, “Intro for a million gigs.” I couldn’t make “And now, ladies and gentlemen, it’s star time” fit.

37-A, five letters, “Shortened flights.” I thought my answer had to be wrong. I still don’t get it.

Now I think I get it.

38-A, thirteen letters, “Road to ruin.” It can be. We’re on one.

41-A, five letters, “Library lineup.” Nicely defamiliarizing.

50-D, three letters, “End of a Louis line.” My first thought was XVI. No, not that.

53-A, four letters, “First name of Hoorae Media’s founder.” A novel way to clue a name that often appears in crosswords.

My favorite in this puzzle: 15-A, ten letters, “Love tap?”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.