Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by David P. Williams, was Strange Solving. I started on paper, looked at 1-A, four letters, “Persian product” (RUGS?) and 1-D, four letters, “Confederate” (?), dropped down to 46-A, five letters, “Oedipus uncle” and 41-D, five letters, “Sample of Horatian poetry,” and soon found myself getting nowhere. I then tried the online puzzle with autocheck switched on and found the puzzle falling into place with just a handful of wrong letters guessed. I don’t know how to explain it.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

5-D, six letters, “Egg head.” Oof.

10-D, letters, “Incredulous inquiry.” The constructor has a good ear for colloquial language.

15-A, four letters, “Bonus round?” Well, sort of.

23-D, eleven letters, “Uber-celebrator.” See 10-D.

25-A, thirteen letters, “Incredulous.” And a good ear for old-timey language. He had WHIPPERSNAPPERS as an answer earlier this month.

27-D, ten letters, “‘Join the club’ kin.” See 10-D.

29-A, five letters, “Phish food?” Now I get it.

36-D, eight letters, “Saskatoon’s silly-sider.” So we’re bringing in Canadian slang, eh?

43-A, seven letters, “Cutters’ floors.” So strange: I just looked it up.

43-D, five letters, “Theater backer.” I was too clever for my own good: I thought the answer had to be ACTII.

45-A, four letters, “Love ____.” Also so strange: it’s in the tax photo I’m posting tomorrow.

My favorite in this puzzle: 40-A, thirteen letters, “Awareness confirmation.” You said it, bub.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.