Welcome back, NYT Crossword Saturday warriors. This one wasn’t a deadly as Friday’s, though it also has a long answer that only a few people will know and nobody could easily guess. Themeless, of course.
The clue I’m talk about is the Hip-hop producer. I guess some solvers follow such things. Not I. The person’s first name is short and common. If you don’t know it, you’ll have to get the last name from the crosses. Not a person, as I thought for a little while, who’s famous for his animated features.
More hints:
Highway sections: This is a more generic word than you might be considering. The answer could even be, in a totally different context, clued as a verb: Something one does before aerobic exercise or during yoga.
Figure in a beret: Commonly found on tee shirts, particularly a few decades ago.
Word appearing 39 times in the King James Version of Matthew 1: Someone actually counts the number of times a given word appears in a particular part of the Bible? If the clue was 38 times, then I’d know it immediately! Anyway, I would have thought you’d find this word a lot in Genesis. Maybe even more than 39 times.
HanesBrands brand: Seems like Michael Jordan’s all over crosswords this week. Who knew his underwear was rubbery plastic?
They bite but don’t have teeth: Not a riddle, just a variety of animal that can give you a nasty bite without using any teeth, which, apparently, it doesn’t have.
Bygone 20-Across fashion magazine…whose grown up mommy is still going strong.
Mythical predator of elephants: It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a crossword puzzle favorite! If you didn’t know this one, learn it, it’s very popular to crossword writers. It’s an anagram of Bilbo’s least favorite species.
Composure: More commonly found ending in ED as an adjective. As a noun, it’s two words.
Musical intensifier: No, it’s not a drug or a piece of stereo equipment. Psst: It’s one of those musical terms derived from Latin.
Genre of the double-platinum box set “Songs of Freedom”: Is “double-platinum” supposed to tell us were completely out of it not to know it? Can’t see how else it helps. Anyway, don’t be scared if the last two letters look like more Latin, you’ll discover this kind of music in a different sea than the Adriatic.