Today’s Newsday Saturday

Today’s Newsday  Saturday crossword is by “Anna Stiga,” Stan Again, Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, constructing under the name he used for easier Saturday Stumpers of his making. Today’s puzzle is a Themeless Saturday, not a Stumper, but it solves like a medium-ish Stumper, with triple stacks of ten-letter answers and triple columns of nine. I was struck by the abudance of proper names as answers — people, places, things — twenty in all. But I can’t complain: one of them, 34-D, five letters, “Boxing great from Panama,” broke the puzzle open for me. No idea how I managed to pull up that name.

Some clue-and-answer pairs I especially liked:

4-D, six letters, “Slot feature.” Not LEMONS.

5-D, twelve letters, “Get on with it.” Yes!

29-A, six letters, “She’s up.” A good reminder that he cannot be considered a default setting. Which reminds me: notice how clues for ADMAN and ADMEN have changed.

30-A, three letters, “Play date.” Clever.

32-D, nine letters, “Doubly misnamed edible.” A main staple, but I still didn’t see it at first.

49-D, five letters, “Part of the Elvis persona.” Here the proper name is in the clue.

54-A, four letters, “Dismiss, with ‘out.’” I wanted RULE.

56-A, ten letters, “Like the French motto.” Just a crazy clue.

59-A, ten letters, “‘The King of Latin Music.’” A giveaway, but I’ll take it.

61-A, ten letters, “Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient of ’93.” Not a giveaway.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.