Welcome, friends, to this week's Smooth Sailing Sunday meta puzzle. This one is called "Top-Level Domains."
The photo shows the spectacular Liriodendron Mansion in Bel Air, Maryland. We had the pleasure of visiting this beautiful domain last summer for a bluegrass concert.
NUDGES
Nudge 1: What is a top-level domain, anyway?
Nudge 2: Do you see any of them in the asterisked answers?
Nudge 3: Is there another common one that is missing from the five themers?
Nudge 4: There's a word that's used three times in the clues -- far more than chance! -- that might serve as a useful signpost.
Nudge 5: There's also a number in the clues that appears far more than three times. What is it?
Nudge 6: And how should you use it, you ask? Why, reread the clue for 36A.
My deep thanks to Alan Kennan, Bob Harris, Cap'n Rick, and an incognito test-solver -- their suggestions greatly improved this puzzle. And where would we be without Joe Ross, who has been a paragon of patience while teaching all of us constructors how to format our puzzles for publication? (That is a rhetorical question. Where we would be is in deep trouble.)