Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, constructing as “Anna Stiga” (Stan Again). The pseudonym is supposed to be the sign of an easier puzzle, but I found this one quite challenging. (Forty-one minutes.) One difficulty: the puzzle’s northwest and southeast sections each have just one point of exit or entry. No other cross streets, so to speak.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

2-D, nine letters, “‘Jezebel of Jazz’ who sang with Satchmo and Shearing.” Yes! But how she must have hated that name. She sang with Louis Armstrong at least once, sort of. With George Shearing, I just don’t know. But Stan must be a fan.

4-D, seven letters, “Mused till morning.” Kinda misleading.

5-D, six letters, “Billy Bob or Angelina, in 2000.” If you say so. I don’t have much patience for this sort of factoid.

10-D, eight letters, “Household wedge.” Neat. My first thought was HANDIRON.

17-A, eight letters, “Suckers ready to scam.” A nicely colloquial answer, but I think “to be scammed” would be clearer.

18-A, five letters, “Sucker with sensors.” Ha.

23-D, seven letters, “Word from Malay ‘fish sauce.’” Huh.

29-D, nine letters, “Muppet collectibles, e.g.” I’d want something less blatantly commercial as an example.

30-D, nine letters, “‘Best musical satirist of the 20th century,’ per Dr. Demento.” The doctor is right.

33-A, seven letters, “What to do at a reunion.” Crossing with 23-D, this answer is a bit of extra fun.

39-D, six letters, “Hail-fellow well met.” Well, I’ll be: that’s an adjective.

40-A, eight letters, “Advocate hyperactively.” I imagine people might still be said to do it.

42-D, five letters, “The loudest of them was 112 decobels, per Guinness (2021).” Ick.

My favorite in this puzzle:49-A, eight letters, “What might cover your elbows.” Academic that I am, or was, I thought of suede patches. But I like this answer better.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.