1. What a comment might be made in → JEST
5. Plant often confused with algae → MOSS
9. "The Craft" → WICCA
14. Pulitzer-winning historian and journalist Applebaum → ANNE
15. Understanding response → ISEE
16. Amazon smart speakers → ECHOS
17. British singer with the top 10 albums "Crash" and "Brat" → CHARLIXCX
19. Some suitors → BEAUS
20. Sets in motion → CAUSES
21. Sake, for one → RICEWINE
23. Not fixed, as a stone → UNSET
24. Drinking game with projectiles → BEERDARTS
25. Sign of healing → SCAR
26. New service member → RECRUIT
27. Mental image, for short? → EEG
28. Fun-size, so to speak → TINY
29. Stalk → STEM
31. First releases → DEBUTS
33. Taking out the trash and others → CHORES
35. Lab liquids → SERA
36. Max ___, boxer nicknamed "Madcap Maxie" → BAER
37. Corn ___ (snack misnomer) → NUT
39. Longtime Nestlé candy brand → SNOCAPS
41. Arizona tribe with matrilineal clans → HOPI
42. 1992 Whoopi Goldberg comedy → SISTERACT
45. Survived, so to speak → COPED
46. Portmanteau for evidence based solely on personal accounts → ANECDATA
47. Popular name of the 1958 Italian hit "Nel Blu, Dipinto di Blu" → VOLARE
48. ___ month → LUNAR
49. Act of writing down whatever comes to mind in order to clear mental clutter → BRAINDUMP
51. Wipe → ERASE
52. Biblical locale in a Steinbeck title → EDEN
53. Golfer Aoki → ISAO
54. Rationed (out) → METED
55. Bleak → DIRE
56. Gravitate → TEND