Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by S.N., Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor. Too much dated trivia for my taste: e.g., 5-D, six letters, “2009 Forbes Celebrity 100 novelist” and 25-A, seven letters, “It’s sung about in ‘Happy Morning’ ads (c. 2006).” The highlight: two wonderfully unexpected twelve-letter answers.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

6-A, five letters, “Early influence on Asimov.” Think of a writer and you’d be wrong.

14-A, five letters, “Select.” Select your part of speech.

18-A, nine letters, “Selection from Seagram’s.” I think that’s a bit of misdirection.

21-D, four letters, “Surname akin to Russo.“ Huh.

24-D, seven letters, “Basis of comparison re primary school success.” Never heard of it.

37-D, eight letters, “First ones in the fight” Trace Adkins tune. I tried REDNECKS. Oops. Woe is I.

41-D, seven letters, “Bon Appétit’s ‘invention that redefined baking.’” We were just talking about it, though not about the magazine.

42-D, four letters, “Much, much more than a wink.” I thought it had to be LEER.

44-D, six letters and 51-D, five letters, “Title character of 19th-century French lit.” A bit tricky.

55-A, nine letters, “Height of a media mogul’s ambition.” Clever.

One quibble: 34-A, five letters, “Telenovela 39 Down.” I think there’s another word that would be far more typical.

My (obvious) favorites in this puzzle: 30—A, twelve letters, “Many Peruvians’ ancestry” and 40-A, twelve letters, “Extraordinarily bright.” Bright indeed. Brilliant even.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.