Today’s Saturday Stumper

I found today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by Ben Zimmer, wildly difficult. Daily puzzles — Newsday, the Los Angeles Times, the syndicated New York Times — seem to me increasingly easy. I can often do an entire puzzle, or nearly an entire puzzle, from Across clues alone. But the Saturday Stumper seems to get more and more difficult and unfun. Humph.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-A, five letters, “Little-used.” This clue starts the puzzle off with a bang: three or four different letters could plausibly fill the answer’s first square.

1-D, eight letters, “Social media ‘Spare me your replies.’” Never heard of the answer. I must need to partake of more social media. Oh, wait — I don’t.

2-D, fifteen letters, “Signals profound change.” Surprisingly easy to see.

4-D, four letters, “Barcelona bros.” Yes, but. Pretty arcane, imho. 1-D!

8-D, fifteen letters, “Unforgettable, in a way.” I liked this one.

10-A, six letters, “Papers’ attention-getter.” I thought it had to be a slang term for a giant headline.

19-A, nine letters, “Weird Al parodied it with ‘Bologna’ (1979).” Good grief.

25-A, six letters, “What the first jeans were, per its etymology.” I was sure the answer had to do with Nîmes and denim , but nothing would fit, not even after I took a seamripper to the grid.

26-D, letters, “Wellington museum models.” Can you tell that I found this puzzle exasperating?

40-A, seven letters, “Slide-show subjects.” Cute. The clue, not the subjects.

42-A, six letters, “Legendary rock singers.” Rock on.

44-A, four letters, “Name on a Scotch bottle above a clipper ship.” I know it, but there is no reason anyone in 2026 should be expected to know it.

My favorite in this puzzle:

30-A, eight letters, “Seller of Tova cosmetics to QVC (2002).” Because it’s utterly bizarre and patently ridiculous — and because it was my starting point in the puzzle.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.