SPOILER...
Six of the Across entries contained the (in)famous present-tense conjugation of the verb AMARE (to love), familiar from Latin 101 and/or Crosswordese 101:
- 16A [Citrus fruit used in Earl Grey tea] = BERGAMOT: AMO (I love)
- 24A [Bit of diving gear] = SCUBA MASK: AMAS (you love)
- 30A [Allegorical figure depicted on many campuses] = ALMA MATER: AMAT (he/she loves)
- 43A ["That is moderately entertaining"] = I AM AMUSED: AMAMUS (we love)
- 48A [Playmaker?] = DRAMATIST: AMATIS (you (plural) love)
- 62A ["Sex and the City" role] = SAMANTHA: AMANT (they love)
What now? Inspired by the puzzle's title, "Sensitive Subjects," we should think about the subjects of all of those verbs. And lo and behold, each of them appears as the first word of one of the clue - using a little bit of creativity for the second person plural:
- 10D ["I, Claudius" role for Siân Phillips] = LIVIA
- 59D [You might call this your hoppy place] = OAST
- 37A ["She walks these hills in a long black ___" (Lefty Frizzell lyric)] = VEIL
- 66A [We are here!] = EARTH
- 4D [Y'all, for instance] = REGIONALISM
- 15D [They might show seat numbers] = STUBS
Taking the first letters of those words, we get LOVERS, leading to our alliterative final answer, LATIN LOVERS.
Thanks for solving! We'll conclude this discussion with the greatest Latin lesson of all time:
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