Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, composing as Lester Ruff. And this puzzle is indeed les ruff. I started with 11-D, eight letters, “Ovid’s swift maid” and never looked back.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

13-D, eight letters, “Tortuous travels.” Nice.

14-A, nine letters, “The first Harley-Davidson carburetor.” A fun fact, if indeed it’s true.

18-A, five letters, “Chestnutlike.” A bit tricky.

35-A, fifteen letters, “Emulates orcas or beach bums.” Heh.

35-D, eight letters, “Extremely hardy.” And applicable to various life forms.

38-D, four letters, “‘Jeet ___?’ (Aussie’s ‘Had dinner?’).” I’ll take Lester’s word for it.

43-D, three letters, “‘Ausiness’ adder in 2024.” But this one was in my wheelhouse.

44-A, three letters, “Orwellian dictator.” This took me back to sixth grade.

63-A, nine letters, “Clean and green.” And concisely clued.

65-A, four letters, “Elucidation intro.” Maybe the most oblique answer in the puzzle.

My favorite: 66-A, four letters, “A buck or two or twenty.” Just because.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.