Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Winston Emmons, and it’s considerably easier than his last. I did the puzzle last night, starting a little after 11:00 (Central) and figuring I might get a handful of answers during the commercials that preface and then repeatedly interrupt 30 Rock. Instead I was getting answer after answer, no letting up. Elaine: “Do you want to hit Pause?” Yes, thank you.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

8-D, fifteen letters, “Annoyingly inventive.” APAININ — no, too short.

9-A, six letters, “US’ highest-grossing French language film (2001).” My starting point: I suspected that my guess was correct, but I can’t believe it was that long ago.

15-A, eight letters, “Kennedy Center Honors actor of 2016.” Well, it wasn’t gonna be Sylvester Stallone. Here too I made a guess, no crosses, that turned out to be correct.

20-A, seven letters, “Word from the French for "ladder rung.” Huh. But I’m sure I’ll forget immediately.

21-D, three letters, “Costumer service.” A value-added clue.

22-A, four letters, “Balance checkers.” ATMS seems like the obvious answer, doesn’t it?

33-A, fifteen letters, “Any house pet.” Aww.

34-D, four letters, “Name above Le Discourse de la Méthode quotes in Bartlett’s.” Thank you, solid liberal-arts education.

36-D, eight letters, “National Historic Landmark that moves every day.” Heh.

55-A, six letters, “Trip up.” A meta clue.

My favorite in this puzzle: 25-D, four letters, “Guy embracing invigoration.” I’m not sure that the clue makes sense, but I’m happy that I saw the answer.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.