Personal Improvement
by Kegler

By 28 Across, eight entries are doing what they can to better themselves.

Across 1 Black glass provided by Western foreign aid is bombproof 8 Clio's upset, with good reason 12 Solo involves abbreviated measure for composer 13 One silly person in Belgian city 15 Light brown ant squashed 16 Dodge model recalled in Missouri 17 Data repository making D.A. bounce off the wall 18 Backorder stock, mostly camping gear 19 Fraternal order includes manor owner, perhaps 20 A couple of assistants holding back crazy former president 22 In ads, having fewer calories fired up appetite, at last 24 Offering from within a sanctioned long-distance travel agency? 25 Rejected some computers in swindle 27 Have a kid's desire to comprehend answer 28 See instructions 31 Drink up at a particular joint, we hear? 33 Maps out concert requirements 35 I live by feral goat 37 Five vehicles without first-class tape decks 39 Inventor's stale crackers 41 Tennessee crosses each mountain 42 Adult left individual without help 44 Discussed cold food 45 Cheer up young man clutching horseshoe 46 One foot towards the rear 47 Excellent assist on energy (hyph) 48 Desirable quality of hound, first off 49 Speaks about Liberal and wows an audience 50 Those who despise Hearst's maneuvering

Down 2 Have sex with society girl from the South 3 Align basin, reportedly 4 Oil city laid out in a nonsensical fashion 5 I live with certain writer having a poetic quality 6 Turner returns, capturing new record 7 Misrepresented two unceasingly ridiculous diets 8 Debauchee's lewd look taking in church 9 Dental assistant put out easily? Right on! (2 wds) 10 White gold covered with green 11 Fire consumes empty French city 14 One demonstrating piece from putatively Martian vehicle 15 Old flyer's no-good vibrating sound 21 Like before, I start to adjust for bodily weakness 23 Returning, Mrs. Eisenhower cut off religious leader 26 A fish and seaweed-based gelatin 29 Wild coon swallows one down? That's impossible (3 wds) 30 Precise one-time performance 31 Scene I choreographed for relatives... 32 ...while covering ski resort's advantages 34 Verse written about, essentially, dahlia's plant tissue 36 Certain radical Lucy's landlady described 38 Two continents connected by union sweatshop? 40 Misprinted flier's one with a run-on sentence? 43 Facilitate unlimited leases

Solution