Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Matthew Sewell, and it’s a doozy, perhaps the most difficult Stumper I’ve ever done, though there’s nothing outré, nothing strained.
I started with four-letter words, 1-A, “Rock Hall honorees inducted by the Bee Gees”; 1-D, “What Michael Jackson wore in The Wiz ”; and 2-D, letters, “Tik-Tok coiner (for a 1907 kids’ book).” And then I wandered and stumbled. I didn’t think I’d get it all until I filled in my last answer, another four-letter word: 57-A, four letters, “Big 12 invite accepter for 2024.”
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
12-D, ten letters, “Spills a lot.” Hah.
15-D, six letters, “Franchise element.” I was thinking of, say, Dairy Queens and owner-operators.
17-A, ten letters, “Grand Canyon run gear.” How's one supposed to run in the Grand Canyon?
23-A, twelve letters, “Mexican wrestling accouterment.” All those hours of UHF television paying off at last.
27-D, ten letters, “Blocked by booming.” Lordy.
28-D, ten letters, “Illuminating accent.” The novelty of this answer made me laugh.
29-A, seven letters, “Tokyo monorail maker (1964).” I had one letter from a cross, figured that there are companies that make everything, and guessed, correctly.
40-A, seven letters, “Comes back.” Tricky.
42-D, six letters, “First noun in Richard III.” Of course.
48-D, four letters, “Shelley’s ‘love disguised.’” I take every Shelley clue in a crossword as something like a hello from my late friend Rob Zseleczky.
52-A, ten letters, “Analphabetic.” I thought it had something to do with being out of alphabetical order.
56-A, ten letters, “Written up earlier.” Whew.
My favorite in this puzzle: 10-D, six letters, “Word from Greek for ‘tattoo.’”
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
[Green stone heart amulet. From Egypt, 26th–29th Dynasty, ca. 664–30 BCE. 3 cm × 2.1 cm. (1 3/16″ × 13/16″.) Gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910. Metropolitan Museum of Art. From the online collection. Click for a larger view.]
