Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, constructing as Lester Ruff. Sometimes I find Lester Ruff puzzles less rough; sometimes I find them as difficult as the average Stumper, as I did today. I sometimes have issues with what Stan calls “tough factual clues,” or what I would call arcane trivia. I started with 35-D, eight letters, “Bard’s ‘I love your Majesty’ speaker,” not arcane, and most helpful.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

3-D, six letters, “King, birthwise.” Which one?

5-D, three letters, “Dieter’s complaint.” I was not fooled.

7-D, letters, “Hunt’s dad on Mad About You.” Here’s what I mean by arcane trivia. He appeared in this role in four of the original show’s 164 episodes, in 1996, 1997, and 1999. The name can be had by way of crosses, but still. There must be a better way to clue this name. I’ll suggest one in the comments.

9-D, three letters, “Senate salutation.” See 5-D.

14-A, five letters, “One-author first name on books in nine Dewey Decimal categories (1950-1992).” Less arcane than 7-D, if you think of someone known for cranking out books.

27-A, ten letters, “Cellphone part.” How about “one-time cellphone part”?

37-A, three letters, “Short-notice flight.”

42-A, four letters, “I think, therefore       ” (’90s hardware slogan).” Predates my awareness of such hardware.

43-A, ten letters, “Daily's text + images + graphics.” Ugly word.

44-D, six letters, “‘The supreme master,’ per Christie.” If you say so.

55-A, five letters, “Canaries’ keeper.” I wondered if AVIAN is a word for a birdlover.

My favorite in this puzzle: 11-D, eight letters, “Toon with a niece Deezil.” Another tough factual clue, but it’s about a cartoon, and I learned something that I liked learning.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.