Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Stella Zawistowski. I began with 1-D, four letters, “Intro to a classic dilemma,” which seemed to be a giveaway but gave away nothing. But the clue was indeed the intro to a classic dilemma, the dilemma of how to solve a Saturday Stumper. I chipped away, here, there, everywhere, to get the rest of the puzzle.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

10-A, five letters, “Spot strife.” This clue stretches the meaning of strife, but this is the Stumper.

13-D, six letters, “On a higher plane.” A little woo-woo.

17-A, nine letters, “Slight manscaping.” Oh, okay. (Sigh of relief.)

24-D, five letters, “Take a second.” Very Stumper-y.

25-D, eight letters, “Time for a throwaway line.” It took me some time to see the point of line.

33-A, eight letters, “Restraining order.” Nicely colloquial.

36-A, fifteen letters, “Vodka/coffee concoction.” No thank you.

38-D, eight letters, “‘No thank you’ follower, perhaps.” Silly.

40-D, three letters, “Graph add-on.” Yes!

52-A, three letters, “Preceder of up or down, in or out, off or on.” A value-added clue. At least four words fit.

59-D, three letters, “Money-making machine.” Raise your hand if you thought the answer would be ATM.

63-A, five letters, “What some 90% of all people possess.” The answer is definitely not “the answer to this clue.”

65-A, five letters, “Subject of the biography The Right Word.” Easy to guess, but I’ll take it.

My favorite in this puzzle: 46-A, three letters, “Dose, taken another way.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.