Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by “Lester Ruff” (Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor), is not that much less rough. To my mind it’s a challenging puzzle. My ruffometer may be off.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-D, eight letters, “Spread around for sealing.” Tile background FTW.

5-D, four letters, “Sound made by toasters.”

14-D, six letters, “One of MLB’s oldest mascots.” I had no idea.

15-A, ten letters, “Conservative leader since October 2022.” Not exactly a giveaway, as it’s necessary to know the spelling.

23-D, three letters, “Lib. ___.” Surprising stuff.

25-D, six letters, “One of ‘The French Dickenses.’” I knew it, I knew it.

35-A, three letters, “Preschoolers?” Groan.

37-A, three letters, “Home deconstruction tool.” It’s really spelled like so.

42-D, seven letters, “One present at autograph sessions.” I want to quibble about the answer, but the answer is a thing.

48-D, six letters, “To whom ‘hello’ is ‘alofa.’” Uh, BAKERY?

50-A, five letters, “KFC freebie.” Gee, thanks, Colonel Sanders!

56-D, four letters, “Thumb-made preface.” Weird and wonderful.

65-A, ten letters, “Keats and Yeats.” I find it difficult to think of the answer as appropriate to either poet.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.