Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is Brad Wilber’s first solo Stumper since July 2021. Welcome back, sir!

I found today’s puzzle easy, really easy. I started, unusually enough, with 1-A, seven letters, “Drinks favored by Hemingway” and 1-D, four letters, “Game-ending word,” and it seemed that every answer led to one or more other answers. Abundance of riches.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

9-A, three letters, “Ancient salutation.” As in a great ancient poem.

11-D, six letters, “Mass movement.” My first thought was EXODUS.

12-D, letters, “Thing secured with a post.” The oddest moment in the puzzle. I wondered if the answer could be right. (It was.)

25-A, nine letters, “Something worn on a hood.” Groan.

28-A, four letters, “Fudge alternative.” I was thinking candy. ROLO? SKOR?

34-A, seven letters, “Purchase before going to court.” Nice misdirection.

35-A, seven letters, “Dictionary directive.” Because I like dictionaries.

35-D, eight letters, “Some poker accumulations.” Unfamiliar to me, but I haven’t played poker in decades.

43-D, six letters, “Wheedler’s refrain.” I like the colloquialism. And it occurs to me that “The Wheedler” could have been a wonderful name for a TV-series Batman villian. Imagine someone in a mask and tights wheedling banks out of money bags.

57-A, eight letters, “Warning heading.” I’m not sure you’d see it any everyday context. I’m not even sure that it counts as a warning. It’s not like DANGER or POISON or DON’T EVEN THINK OF PARKING HERE.

My favorite in this puzzle: 24-D, seven letters, “Boxer’s destination.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.