Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, another repeat from 2012, is by Lars G. Doubleday, aka Doug Peterson and Brad Wilber. It started so easily, with 1-A, ten letters, “Trattoria dessert” and 1-D, four letters, “Navigates an obstacle course, maybe.” I navigated nearly the whole course alone. But that southeast section — oy. I had to open a kitchen cabinet to get 58-A, ten letters, “Phrase on a Cheerios box.” And that answer gave me the answer for 44-D, six letters, “Meat rich in zinc,” another clue that flummoxed me. Are Cheerios, too, rich in zinc? I would have to go down to the kitchen again to answer that.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

10-D, eight letters, “Egregiousness.” Yay, properly defined.

13-D, four letters, “NYC storefront closures of 2010.” This clue has, well, aged.

14-A, ten letters, “Head scratcher’s comment.” Nicely colloquial.

15-A, four letters, “Antlered animal.” One that I know only from poetry.

16-A, ten letters, “‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ feature.” This pairing seems weirdly arbitrary: countless titles could be substituted for this one.

23-A, seven letters, “Quantum of Solace introducer.” Another arbitrary pairing.

27-D, ten letters, “Where to see shooting stars.”

34-D, eight letters, “’20s fad just before the crossword craze.” Even when you’re spelling it right, it looks wrong.

40-A, five letters, “Polyester in paints.” SRSLY?

47-A, six letters, “She was billed above Bogart in High Sierra.” And she gets the last word.

56-D, three letters, “Beethoven symphonic notation.” Like 16-A and 23-A, the pairing seems arbitrary.

60-A, ten letters, “Show off a certain paint job.” Groan.

My favorite in this puzzle: 12-A, ten letters, “Asset in an appraisal.” Very tricky.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.