Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by Matthew Sewell, is a winner. Cleverness, trickiness, and difficulty from the get-go: 1-A, five letters, “Led to lineally.” At times I could identity with 38-A, fifteen letters, “I’m stumped!” But then I didn’t, or wasn’t.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-D, five letters, “Cabbage or clams.” Obviously money, but what kind?

5-D, four letters, “Poor Richard’s cure-all herb.” Oh, sneaky. My first thought was SAGE.

10-A, four letters, “Side of ribs.” SLAB seemed to fit.

11-D, nine letters, “Gamer’s acquisition activity.” I think this term might define everything that happens in Ms. Pac-Man. That’s the extent of my gaming.

17-A, ten letters, “Capital within 500 mi. of 40% of all in the US.” I don’t like geographical trivia, and I’m tempted to dismiss this clue as too Jeopardy-like, but the clue is more of a clue than one might first think.

23-A, four letters, “Authoritative quote source.” Nice.

34-D, nine letters, “What the Emmys are named for.” I remember looking it up once.

37-D, seven letters, “Windows 95 introduction.” Brian Eno created the startup sound, but that’s not what the clue is asking for.

46-D, five letters, “Head honchos?” Yes, if it has to be in a puzzle, at least clue it comically.

59-D, three letters, “Pepsi’s root beer.” A&W? No. Dad’s? No. Barq’s? No. Hires? No, that’s not even made anymore. I’d call the Pepsi brand the forgotten root beer, but maybe that’s because I don’t drink root beer.

My favorites in this puzzle: 27-A, five letters, “Look-both-ways guy” and 55-A, seven letters, “Look-both-ways traveler.” There’s real ingenuity in the second clue.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.