Instructions: Guess the words defined by the cryptic clues (answers vary in length from three to seven letters, six are capitalized, and one is foreign) then enter them in the grid one after another in the same order as their clues, starting in the upper left corner. Across words that don't end at the right continue on the next row, and down words that don't end at the bottom continue in the next column. Five across words and four  down words won't fit in the grid unless one of their letters is omitted. Those nine letters, taken in order as they occur in across and down words, spell a three-word phrase related to the title and another three-word phrase hidden in the correctly completed grid. Thanks to Kevin Wald for test-solving and editing this puzzle. If you are having trouble printing these puzzles, you can download an Adobe Acrobat version of the puzzle and grid. [Want to see some hints?]

1. Guardian dog before a rocky hill
2. Studies with cheer and comfort
3. Sailor thrashing rascal
4. Kramer returned note
5. First ancestor with a point of view
6. Make old city gloomy
7. Quit wearing a ring
8. Guy with a soft drink
9. Censure for rope getting snarled
10. Weary, troubled editor deleting zero
11. Waiter dropping rare cut
12. Cultivate French extension
13. Got teeth into a Kennedy fitted with a restraining device
14. Left Ellery going around counter
15. Round vessel ultimately became egg-shaped
16. Gold and lead smelted in trial
17. Laval's middle name
18. Large menu trashed as a bore
19. Operator's age
20. Subset of children in Italy
21. Everything in Spanish is fuss
22. Made noise peeling orange
23. Islander's orbit veering north
24. Time exposed and talked up

1. Ducal mix-up with Earl for a name
2. Group includes Rod and Mark
3. Book train in Paris for brother
4. Recover a diode incorporating a broadcaasting device
5. Village liar's misinterpretation is spreading rapidly over the internet
6. Stark, ragged, limestone landscape 
7. Ivan sat awkwardly for a painting
8. Hymenopteran beginning to taste edible root
9. Interest in voice judge
10. To be very hungry will have very "in" look
11. King or teacher
12. Paddling once around a boat
13. Evil spirit of bad one turning 50 into 500
14. Conrad condemned impartiality
15. Anuran heard and drove obliquely
16. Root wildly for fighting bull
17. Charlie's proposal for treasury
18. Outer limits of notation define zenith
19. Torn charter
20. Wrong lead, right tree
21. Cause doer to get accustomed
22. Spin right instead of left in drink
23. Muse is in over at Olga's
24. Back room for Othello, for example
25. Mangle crushed earth in a blend