Monday Puzzle #7 or "Fly Like An Erne to the Sea."

Wasn’t able to complete this puzzle. But, came pretty close. The clues I was not able to decipher were:

26 across, “Boxer Sonny.” Answer is LISTON. He was the world heavyweight champ in 1962. Learning about Liston involves reading a lot about the size of fists, knockouts, etc. Sounds like he had a terrible childhood and may have been murdered.

40 across, “Sea eagle.” ERNE. This is a common clue and answer and I never remember it. (This puzzle also had the good ol’ “wide shoe spec,” EEE.)

62 across, “____ and Novak (old news partnership)” EVANS. Refers to Rowland Evans and Bob Novak. I have heard of/seen Bob Novak. Evans doesn’t ring a bell. It’s funny how there are these male news partnerships – Woodward & Bernstein, Hannity & Colmes, Siskel & Ebert (I know, not news). It’s like a Batman & Robin thing. I wonder if Colmes was Batman or Robin. All the other guys go solo - O’Reilly (The Joker), Anderson (Superman), Schultz (Mr. Incredible). And then there are the token women scattered in there – Catwoman (Campbell Brown), Wonder Woman (Rachel Maddow), The Bionic Woman (Christiane Amanpour), Dr. Girlfriend (Ann Coulter).

19 down, “Villa d’____” ESTE. Villa d’Este? Never heard of it. It is a thing. A villa. In Italy. A UNESCO world heritage site. Renaissance style architecture.

26 down, “Put on board.” LADE. Another vocab issue. My good, free friend Merriam-Webster says, “1a. to put a load or burden on or in, 1b. to put or place as a load especially for shipment.”

Another vocab issue with 23 across, “Withered.” SERE. M-W says, “being dried and withered.”