2: Cajun cooking thickener
5: Prepare, as Swiss steak
7: Prestigious schools, informally
9: It might be African or Indian
13: Dresses nattily, with 'up'
21: 'Silent' prez, familiarly
29: Took charge of the karaoke machine
31: Genre of novels and essays
46: Black-and-white zoo denizens
49: Overused, as a phrase
56: Geological time periods