Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Stella Zawistowski. I started with 13-D, seven letters, “Ceres’ Greek analog” and began shopping around. It was a tough puzzle.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

2-D, six letters, “Sequenced.” CUEDUP? Nope.

9-D, eight letters, “Bostonian’s rubber bands.” Never heard of the term, but I’m assured that it’s real. When I lived in Boston, I used binder clips, paper clips, and staples to keep things together.

12-D, seven letters, “Term in environmental law.” I was tempted to guess early on but didn’t. Coming next to 13-D, my guess would have helped a lot.

14-A, ten letters, “Certain baker’s dozen.” I’m in.

17-A, ten letters, “Digressive.” The answer needs to be more in the news.

36-D, seven letters, “Ironmonger?” Groan.

37-D, seven letters, “Thundering.” Fun with the parts of speech.

46-A, five letters, “Americas’ ‘mother culture.’” I don’t think I’ve ever seen the answer in a crossword.

47-A, four letters, “Huron, Ohio’s county (no kidding!).” In other words, the Ohio county that the city of Huron is in. Wacky geography.

48-D, five letters, “Where Beowulf begins.” Oddly and some might say ridiculously specific.

49-A, four letters, “Pedal pusher’s apparatus.” I thought I was reading a tricky clue about the piano, but I wasn’t.

55-A, ten letters, “Was all over the place.” A wild and crazy clue.

56-D, three letters, “Unheard howl.” Clever.

My favorite in this puzzle: 18-A, four letters, “Gym ball.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Watch your wallet

Jonathan Last and Mary Trump offer commentary on Donald Trump’s latest grift.

Last’s estimate of the cost of producing the $499 Trump watch: $60. The $100,000 watch: $20,000.

Banky’s ghost

[Sidney James as Banky’s ghost. From Joe MacBeth (dir. Ken Hughes, 1955).]

The movie is available to watch at the usual place for out-of-the-way movies.

The New Grown-Ups: “When I Stop Dreaming”

Related posts
“Cumberland Gap” : “My Heart’s Own Love” : “The Devil’s Nine Questions” : “William Blake’s Dead” : “Lonesome Pine” : “Tom Paine’s Bones” : “You Were on My Mind This Morning” : “The Hills of Isle au Haut” : “Treehopper” : “I’d Jump the Mississippi” : “What Will Become of Me” : “Early” : The New Grown-Ups at Bandcamp

Eric Adams, defending himself

Donald Trump, in one variation on a theme: “They are coming after me because I am fighting for you.”

I hear that same narcissism in Eric Adams’s words: “I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target, and a target I became.” Here’s a man who in 2023 proclaimed,

“I am the symbol of Black manhood in the city, in this country, and what it represents. I’m the mayor of the most powerful city on the globe, and people need to recognize that.”

And now, charged with multiple serious crimes, he’s taking up the Donald Trump cry of victimhood.

The Trump/Adams defense makes me wonder: can narcissistic injury be converted into narcissistic supply?

Criterion Channel, 20% off

Now through Monday, September 30: the Criterion Channel is offering 20% off new annual subscriptions. Use the code FALL20.

The Criterion Channel launched on April 8, 2019. I’ve been a subscriber since the get-go. If every other streaming service in the world were to disappear, I could be happy with the Criterion Channel alone.

Four Corners (fun)

🟡🔵🔵🔵
🔵🔵🔵🔵

🔵🔵🔵🟡
🔵🔵🔵🔵

🔵🔵🔵🔵
🟡🔵🔵🔵

🔵🔵🔵🔵
🔵🔵🔵🟡

If you share your Strands results as a foursome, trying for Four Corners adds an element of tension to the play. The corners need not be in order. Good luck to the person who ends up with the challenge of getting Corner No. 1.

I will cite Annie Black, the bookstore owner (Rebecca Pidgeon) in State and Main (dir. David Mamet, 2000): “If you don’t make it yourself, it ain’t fun — it’s entertainment.”

The New Grown-Ups: “Early”

Related posts
“Cumberland Gap” : “My Heart’s Own Love” : “The Devil’s Nine Questions” : “William Blake’s Dead” : “Lonesome Pine” : “Tom Paine’s Bones” : “You Were on My Mind This Morning” : “The Hills of Isle au Haut” : “Treehopper” : “I’d Jump the Mississippi” : “What Will Become of Me” : The New Grown-Ups at Bandcamp

Figuring out how to be yourself

Nick Lowe, interviewed on the PBS News Hour last night:

“Johnny Cash once said to me, incredibly disappointingly, I thought at the time, ‘Nick, what you have got to do is figure out how to be yourself.’

“I didn’t really know what he meant. I thought, ‘Is that the best you can do, John?’ But actually, now I do. Because when you’re young, you’re trying to sort of cop an act, you’re trying to be — always trying to be somebody that you’re not. And you’ve got to sort of welcome in the things that you don’t really like about yourself, you know, but welcome it in. Because if you can figure out how to be yourself, it makes things so much easier.”

A related post
W.H. Auden on discovering who we are (With special guest Mr. Peabody) : Peter Drucker on where one belongs (With special guest Norman Spencer)

[My transcription. I had “what you ought to do,” but now I think “what you have got to do,” spoken very quickly, is right.]

The New Grown-Ups: “What Will Become of Me”

Related posts
“Cumberland Gap” : “My Heart’s Own Love” : “The Devil’s Nine Questions” : “William Blake’s Dead” : “Lonesome Pine” : “Tom Paine’s Bones” : “You Were on My Mind This Morning” : “The Hills of Isle au Haut” : “Treehopper” : “I’d Jump the Mississippi” : The New Grown-Ups at Bandcamp