Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Matthew Sewell, and it’s quite a challenge. I had to move to the online puzzle and use autocheck, letter by letter, to get the last few words. The one that really flummoxed me: 33-D, eight letters, “The Howling villains,” though in retrospect I can see that the clue is clueful.
Three clue-and-answer pairs that delighted me:
16-A, nine letters, “Snail mail and dumb phones.” I immediately thought of another, though I don’t buy it.
18-A, thirteen letters, “Honeyed bunch.” I thought first of cereal, which I think the clue wanted me to think.
36-A, twelve letters, “Query of the convinced.” Clever: why would someone who’s convinced ask a question?
My favorite in this puzzle: 52-A, nine letters, “Less-than-stately pleasure dome.” It gave me a new way to think of a scene in a movie.
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
Saturday, June 20, 2026
Today’s Saturday Stumper
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WEREFOLK.
ReplyDeleteRETRONYMS. (I thought right away of “acoustic guitar,” although that, for me, is a guitar.)
SWEETNOTHINGS.
WHEREDOISIGN.
SNOWGLOBE. (It made me realize that Charles Foster Kane’s snow globe is something of a pleasure-dome within a pleasure-dome, a Xanadu within Xanadu.)
I almost fell off my chair at 1A: NW Mutual is the company I retired from. It’s a very big company, but not quite a household name.
ReplyDeleteYes, this puzzle started on what for most people must be a really arcane note.
ReplyDeleteOften constructors make 1 Across a real banger to make an impressive start but this puzzle must have started its construction elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI had one letter wrong and had to peak because for "Practice" I started with "try again" and couldn't get my mind to see ENGAGEIN so that second E did me in since it was crossing "tibetan balls" instead of TIBETANBELLS. Oh well!
I liked "First woman in the World Football Hall of Fame (2013)" just because it wasn't US football of course.
I was thinking of BOWLS, as in singing bowls, which of course didn’t fit. I got HAMM from the H — otherwise I would have been, as crosswords say, ATSEA.
ReplyDeleteI was amused and cheered to see what was happening with this puzzle at Crossword Fiend — yes, it was difficult, difficult, difficult.