Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by the puzzle’s editor, Stan Newman. I started with 13-D, four letters, “Typewriters with typeballs,” a giveaway, which gave away 9-A, five letters, “De Niro’s Raging Bull brother” and 16-A, five letters, “Crest collaborator.” Whee. But I found the bottom half of the puzzle considerably more difficult.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

2-D, nine letters, “Major merger partner of 2015.” I dislike this kind of trivia.

4-D, six letters, “Belly up.” Thanks, poetry.

8-D, eight letters, “Unable to sail, say.” Adding an element of mystery to the puzzle.

9-D, eleven letters, “What Kramer saves catalogs from.” I like this kind of trivia.

11-D, five letters, “Overnight delivery specialist.” Note: specialist.

23-A, fourteen letters, “The nation’s largest power station.” Surprising to see it in a puzzle.

35-D, five letters, “Inspiration to many mathematicians.” In the online image of the print puzzle, the third column of text ends with the word many. Reading no further, I struggled for a ridiculously long time to figure out an answer.

29-A, four letters, “Ocean liner.” I was not fooled.

31-A, letters, “Number lines.” I was baffled.

33-D, nine letters, “Togetherness?” Nice.

38-D, eight letters, “Sheryl Crow and Paul McCartney.” I thought the answer might be a sign of the zodiac.

41-D, seven letters, “Windows users.” I get the joke, but are they truly users?

44-D, six letters, “Name associated with 11-Down’s time.” Some pretty rarefied trivia.

46-D, six letters, “Clash-prevention expression.” A little too Hi and Lois-y for me.

47-A, fourteen letters, “Fed people.” The answer has an odd ring to it.

48-D, five letters, “Down clue answer, often.” Nicely Stumper-y.

59-A, five letters, “Operatic Charlestonian.”A great clue.

My favorite in this puzzle: 54-A, four letters, “Gym ball.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

No small step

I think that Hi-Lo was taunting the reader. Trixie was “almost ready” to take a first step yesterday — those words appeared in her thought balloon. But no step today: Hi is at work.

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[The F on the boss’s chair is for Foofram, as in Foofram Industries.]

Trixie walks?

I’m not sure if Hi-Lo is toying with us. It could be that Trixie is just standing up.

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Shovel-ready (Hi and Lois watch)

[Hi and Lois, January 19, 2024. Click for a larger view.]

People of the future should know that in the early twenty-first century, it was common to carry one’s snow shovel through one’s living room. From the kitchen or dining room through the living room to the front door, that’s how we rolled.

But seriously: this panel suffers from redundancy. Chip has said he will shovel “later” — whenever that might be. Hi is headed outside, dressed in his winter togs. He need not carry a shovel for the situation to be clear.

In the second (final) panel of today’s strip, Hi is lying down on the blue sofa, which appears to have been moved, with a heating pad on his back. He whimpers: “AAAEEUGH.” (Notice: no exclamation point, and not even a speech balloon.) And Chip asks Lois, “How is this my fault?”

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[In Peanuts, it’s “AAUGH!”]

Intertextuality

[Hi and Lois, January 11, 2024. Click for a larger view.]

[Zippy, January 11, 2024. Click for a larger view.]

Intertextuality in today’s comics.

How did Lois know to use that enormous pot to make cocoa? She got hold of the script.

Venn reading
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Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by “Lester Ruff” (Stan Newman) is supposed to be on the easy side, but it took me half an hour’s worth of effort. I’d say “May B. Ruff” might be a better name for today’s Stumper. Or “S. Purdy Ruff”? The clue that opened up much of the puzzle for me: 69-A, eight letters, “He said ‘Appreciation is a holy thing.’” Thank you, sir, and not for the first time.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-D, six letters, “Check writing.” Always. But sometimes more than one check is needed.

8-D, fifteen letters, “Social media ancestor.” Eh, I’m not sure about this. Social media is for everyone.

11-D, six letters, “iPod ancestor.” A little strained.

12-D, eight letters, “Putting holes in, perhaps.” Getting this right made finishing the puzzle possible for me.

17-A, eight letters, “Imagined opponent of a drawn dog.” I smiled.

22-A, five letters, “Après-ski amenity.” I went for the obvious, and the obvious appeared right for a while.

27-A, five letters, “Training area.” Stumper-y.

29-D, four letters, “Level.” EVEN? FAIR? RAZE? TELL? So much indirection. I like it.

37-A, fifteen letters, “Not quite ‘Correct.’” And pretty bland. Somehow I immediately imagined someone in Hi and Lois saying it.

39-D, eight letters, “Lamb or kid.” I did not know the word.

43-A, five letters, “Be orally awesome, these days.” I dunno about this definition.

60-D, four letters, “Novelist Sinatra brawled with.” Yes, to brawl does not require that one resort to fisticuffs.

64-A, eight letters, “Verb related to ‘island.’” MAROONED?

My favorite in this puzzle: 51-D, six letters, “Homeric wise guy.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, July 29, 2023. Click for a larger view.]

Golf. Golf. Golf. Rake. Rake. Rake. The punchline in today’s strip: “You can’t play golf with a rake!” I somehow begin to suspect that I am not the Hi and Lois target audience.

But that doesn’t explain why there isn’t a single leaf on the ground. Might today’s strip have kept until, say, October?

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Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, July 8, 2023. Click for a larger view.]

At a glance you can see that something’s wrong in today’s Hi and Lois. Or that some things are wrong:

~ A tiny bit of the door is missing at the bottom.

~ The wall that holds the doorframe is at a 10° angle. (I used an online protractor to check.)

~ The door cannot close on its (imaginary?) sill. More floor is needed for that to be possible.

Feel free to draw on your screen to check these claims.

Construction is often haphazard in the Hi and Lois world — this panel is still my favorite example — but today’s strip represents a radical departure from the norms of design.

And to think that the strip was once created with a floor plan for the Flagstons’ house.

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[A bonus in today’s strip: the boat in its first panel has the name BIG 2♡ED on its side.]

Medieval Nancy

[Hagar the Horrible, May, 5, 2023. Click for a larger view.]

Geo-B spotted Nancy in today’s Hagar. Thanks, George.

There’s a happy tradition of one comic strip referencing another, as in this Hi and Lois traffic jam, or many others, as in this Hi and Lois crowd scene. But neither George nor I know what a medieval Nancy might signify. Do the words “my husband” portend an appearance by a medieval Sluggo?

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Et in Hi and Lois ego

[Hi and Lois, February 24, 2023. Click for a larger, more disgusting view.]

Hi and Lois failed the breakfast test today, at least if you don’t belong to one of the bird species that eat the dead.

Dot offers the punchline in the second panel: it’s called carrion “because birds fly away with it.” What a riot.

I have a soft spot for squirrels, as this post, this post, and others will confirm.

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[Post title with apologies to Latin.]

Changing jobs

Zippy, as Griffy deconstructs the concept of narrative continuity in today’s Zippy  : “Is it too late to work for Hi & Lois?”

Venn reading
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Hi and Lois watch

I noticed a Flagston thermostat, or “thermostat,” in 2009. And an improved thermostat in 2012. A “thermostat” returns in today’s Hi and Lois, as the strip mines the apparently inexhaustible comic premise that Dad will see his family freeze rather than turn up the heat. Thrifty Dad! Now the whole family can fight over Trixie’s sunbeam.

[Hi and Lois, December 30, 2022. Click for a larger view.]

Perhaps the colorist wanted to call attention to the thing on the wall. And Nest thermostats do make use of color. But not like that. I suspect that the Flagston wall is meant to hold what it appeared to hold in 2012: a Honeywell T87, a classic mid-century design. Allow me:

[Hi and Lois revised, December 30, 2022. Click for a larger view.]

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On Saint Patrick’s Day

[Hi and Lois, March 17, 2022.]

Attaway, Hi-Lo Amalgamated: have Thirsty Thurston, the strip’s resident alcoholic, dress as a leprechaun and offer greetings.

This panel also loses points for Hi’s announcement. Yes, Hi, we see your tie.

Today’s strip worsens in its second panel: “You’re not even Irish,” says Thirsty. (As if Thurston is a recognizably Irish surname?) And Hi replies, “I can still be lucky, can’t I?” What a wag. But don’t you mean “get lucky,” Hi? Uh, no — it’s a family strip. There’s room for alcoholism, but there’ll be no fooling around.

If I may take a place on the Hi-Lo assembly line for a minute, I’d like to offer an idea. First panel: Trixie stares with a puzzled but happy expression. Second panel: we see that she’s staring at a green sunbeam. (Pantone 347 U.) And she thinks, “On Saint Patrick’s Day even sunbeam’s wearing green!” Aww.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

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[The name Leddy is Irish.]

Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, February 7, 2022.]

As another comic strip would say, Good grief!

Lois, here’s a recipe for Coppola/“Godfather” sauce. Even Chip will enjoy it. You’re welcome.

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Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, November 19, 2021. Click for a larger view.]

I am puzzled by the painting to the far left. Is it meant to suggest a recognizable work of art?

I am puzzled by today’s gradient. It’s one thing for a wall to be rendered with a gradient (happens often in this strip); it’s another for a wall to blend into a floor.

I am not puzzled by the green wall and blue sofa. That’s easy: the Flagstons are using a set left over from an Almodóvar movie.

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Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, November 5, 2021. Click for a larger view.]

I missed this moment yesterday (oil change). I’m not sure if it’s a Hi-Lo attempt at edgy humor, or one more exhibit of the strip’s cluelessness. At any rate, Chip has taken his dad’s advice and is in the closet.

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Hi and Lois watch

In today’s Hi and Lois, the talk has shifted to “the new series on Netflix.” “I thought this was a book club,” sniffs Lois.

[Hi and Lois, September 28, 2021. Click for a larger view.]

The third hand from the left: is it on Lois’s leg? I don’t think so. I think there must have been a problem with the instructions for the assembly of today’s strip. Or to say it less fancifully: the colorist messed up.

[Hi and Lois, September 28, 2021, labeled by me. Click for a larger view.]

I think that Part A, or at least part of Part A, is really the arm of the middle character’s chair and should be green. Part B is Lois’s other pant leg and should be blue. I think.

As for figuring out the oddly shaped book in Lois’s lap: I give up.

[Click for a larger view.]

*

6:08 p.m.: I think I have it: the small brown and white patches should be green. They form the arm of Lois’s chair in partial profile.

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[Is there such a dearth of imagination at Hi-Lo Amalgamated that all three characters must wear pants of the same or nearly the same color? Maybe it’s the club uniform.]

Recently updated

Hi and Lois watch Now with no Odie.

Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, September 9, 2021. Click for a larger view.]

No masks, no distancing in today’s Hi and Lois ? Okay, it’s the comics. But no legs on the desks? There’s a way to fix that problem.

[Hi and Lois revised, September 9, 2021. Click for a larger view.]

If you look closely, you’ll see that I’ve made another revision that all self-respecting teachers should appreciate.

*

An observant reader points out that the dog on the poster is Odie from Garfield. Thanks, Kevin. And we agree, given that it’s a Garfield poster, it should come down.

[Hi and Lois revised again, September 9, 2021. Click for a larger view.]

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Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, September 2, 2021.]

Wrong-way swodniw are a fact of life in Hi and Lois. Though that’s not necessarily a wrong-way window. Lois and Trixie could be dining al fresco in today’s Hi and Lois. But it sure don’t look it.

More troubling than the window: the menu has a picture of a juice box. Jeez.

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[Yes, swodniw is a plural.]