Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Paolo Pasco, his first Stumper, I think, and truly Stumpery (twenty-six minutes for me). The northeast and southwest, relatively easy. The northwest and southeast, much more challenging. Here’s a profile of the constructor.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-A, ten letters, “Groups attending board meetings.” I thought of CARPENTERS. Finally getting 8-D right helped a lot here.

3-D, seven letters, “Selling points.” An answer meant to confound.

8-D, seven letters, “Figure skater attire.” My first (wrong) answer.

10-D, ten letters, “Heavy metal instruments.” My second (correct) answer. I took a chance, because I liked the possibility of seeing them in the puzzle.

23-A, nine letters, “They’re often taken out of stock.” Fees of some sort, right? Right?

26-A, nine letters, “Exercise with no running.” Nifty.

33-D, seven letters, “Dutch doctor known for his optotypes.” Who? For his what? Oh, that! Everything has a name.

34-A, three letters, “Guy going back for a plan.” Didn’t fool me.

41-D, five letters, “Trunk depression.” Weirdly defamiliarizing. But not always a depression.

49-A, ten letters, “‘Encore’ antonym.” Ha.

51-A, ten letters, “Shades worn on your feet.” New to me, though not to my feet.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.