Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is an updated rerun from 2012, one of the two Stumper reruns that are appearing while the puzzle’s editor Stan Newman is on vacation. I wasn’t doing the Stumper in 2012, so this puzzle is new for me. It’s by “Lester Ruff,” a pseudonym for easier Stumpers of the editor’s making. This one wasn’t all that easy. Take, for instance, 9-D, seven letters, “Called attention to” and 18-A, eight letters, “Take hold of,” whose answers might look wildly wrong with only two or three letters filled in. A solid Stumper.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

7-A, eight letters, “Source of some blasts.” I was thinking of weather from the north.

14-D, six letters, “Secure offshore.” Tricky.

38-D, eight letters, “Freelance writer of a sort.” Feels old-timey to me, thought it isn’t.

54-A, four letters, “Some base men.” CADS. OAFS. SHORTSTOPS?

58-D, four letters, “Much of it comes from Sanskrit.” I did not know that.

60-D, three letters, “You may see it before long.” Playful.

61-A, six letters, “One of the ‘Sacred Books of the East.’” My first answer, and it gave me the southeast corner.

63-A, eight letters, “Highbrows.” Does anyone use the answer unironically?

65-A, eight letters, “Person coming back.” Nicely oblique.

My favorite in this puzzle: 59-A, eight letters, “Expression of wishful thinking.” Negatory.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.