Bald Mountain's Range, The woman in a J. P. Donleavy novel, Star of 2009's Fame Ball Tour,

Constructor: Paula Gamache

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none

Word of the Day: DER ALTE (18A Old West German moniker) —
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman. As the first post-war Chancellor of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1963, he led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that forged close relations with old enemies France and the United States.^[1] In his years in power Germany achieved prosperity, democracy, stability and respect.^[2] He was the first leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a coalition of Catholics and Protestants that under his leadership became and has since remained the most dominant in the country.
Adenauer, dubbed "Der Alte" ("the old one"), belied his age as the oldest elected leader in world history by his intense work habits and his uncanny political instinct. (from wiki)

• • •

It's Friday, and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament festivities begin this evening. First competitive puzzles are in the morning. Bookmark that link if you'd like to track results, as scores will be posted there whenever judges have them available.

This is treedweller, filling in for Rex so he can drink and socialize prepare for the event. In case you haven't heard, our fearless leader has announced this will be his last time to compete. And if that doesn't entice you, I hear there is a betting pool in a secret forum at one of the other blogs. Just send a couple of emails around and I'm sure you can get in. If you can pick the exact finishing order of all 579 contestants, I think it's paying twenty-to-one.

So, anyway, this is Friday and I finished without cheating. That usually qualifies as easy, but only because there is nothing easier in the ratings system. This is the kind of experience I always hope for late in the week: hard enough that I don't think I'm going to get more than a few answers at first, then I don't think I'll get more than half, then I think I'll never get that last corner, then I realize the last three answers are obvious. Most of the time, I don't reach the last step or two more than once per weekend, so look out for tomorrow.

Plenty to like here, and nothing to complain about. Oh, I'm sure someone will drum something up to make conversation, but nothing that isn't worth the trade. Wait, got one: LADY GAGA crossing READY-TO-WEAR? As if!

Bullets:

• 43A Imitated a wound-up toy YIPPED —  
• 29D Behave with respect to DO BY—At first, I YIPPED at DO BY, but I just needed a second to figure out why it works. That Y gave me a very confident YoyoED, which hurt me for some time. When I finally got it, it was off the P in
•  44D Ruthless sort PIRANHA— So, I enjoyed the bonus of imagining little, yippy dogs being atacked by PIRANHAs. Also, I never know where to put the H. I think the dogs would escape and possibly even kick the pirhana pirahna piranhas' AAAS. Those guys have some nippers. Pi ran. Ha!
• 40D Kia model SORENTO — I'm not even going to launch my usual rant about the corporate plug because it made possible a corner with a MOB BOSS (39D Icing supervisor?) and BEER GOGGLES (57A Bar glasses?).
• 15A One of the Big Three in credit reports EQUIFAX — Still not, even though my initial thought was Expedia, which led to a Travelocity-Orbitz-Priceline tangent. Because that got us 
• BEST BUDS (1D One of a tight pair)—I suppose the guy who introduced them would be their pairer, though I doubt you'd ever hear that colloquially. Please respect the children as you further discuss this clue in the comments. I don't want to get one of those google XXX flags on Rex's site the second day he's gone.
• and a SUN BATH (17A Baking session). I already had a cross or two to rule out "batches" and was stumped for a second guess. I didn't even like it as an answer, but there it was. So I did a lot of undo/redo stuff here.
• 45D Eatery seen in a "Manhattan" scene ELAINE'S—Still not, because this is iconic and I feel so sophisticated when I get the New York clues. Or, as they say in "The City," the Big Apple.
• cf. 10D Parts of the Big Apple BOROS— It's Friday. They don't have to clue it as a variant or anything. But the urbane, modern, renaissance man picks these things up. I get around.
• 36A "The Whiffenpoof Song" ending BAA BAA BAA—I do have limits. I have only the vaguest idea what this song is. But once you get one BAA, you pretty much get them all.

Signed, treedweller, on behalf of
Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld