Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: SIX DEGREES (40A: Often-cited distance between things ... or what's hidden in this puzzle) — rebus puzzle with SIX educational DEGREES crammed into squares throughout the grid

Word of the Day: MABEL / MERCER (5D: With 52-Down English born cabaret singer) —
Mabel Mercer (3 February 1900 – 20 April 1984) was an English-born cabaret singer who performed in the United States, Britain, and Europe with the greats in jazz and cabaret. She was a featured performer at Chez Bricktop in Paris, owned by the hostess Bricktop, and performed in such clubs as Le Ruban Bleu, Tony's, the RSVP, the Carlyle, the St. Regis Hotel, and eventually her own room, the Byline Club. Among those who frequently attended Mercer's shows was Frank Sinatra, who made no secret of his emulating her phrasing and story-telling techniques. (wikipedia)
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Picked up the rebus at ICE MAKER, though I didn't know if EM or MA was the rebus square at first. With MA in one square, I thought maybe there'd be some kind of family or kinship theme, but then SIX gave me SIX DEGREES, and I knew what was up. Even so, finding five more different degrees was tough.

Theme answers:
- CABFARE / ABFAB (6D: Hit Brit sitcom)
- ICE MAKER / MAINE
- CMDR / EMDASHES
- VJDAY / JD SALINGER (67A: Writer featured in the memoir "Dream Catcher")
- BATOR / BASS HORN
- SLAMBANG / ZIMBALIST (12D: Notable violinist) — best degree square of them all
Bullets:
- 1A: Traditional keikogi accessory (OBI) — I stupidly thought LEI at first.
- 17A: "Sleepers" co-star, 1996 (DE NIRO) — No idea. I probably saw this, but have no recollection of it. That's pretty back-catalogue, as DE NIRO movies go.
18A: Literary source of "Bless us and splash us, my preciousss!" ("THE HOBBIT") — read it as "precsiousness," so did not pick up the obvious "LOTR" reference.
- 33A: Pill bug, for one (ISOPOD) — absolutely no idea what "pill bug" is. Oh, it's one of those armadillo-type bugs. Used to see them in CA. Haven't seen them since moving east.
- 49A: Aegean island near Naxos (IOS) — stone cold guess that happened to be right.
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