I'm not the brightest bulb on the marquee but for the last week I've been out in the cold here - unable to download any kind of a grid.  I roger your posted message but is there any kind of prognosis or work-around that can put me back in the Across Lite business?

THEME:   PART removed from words and phrases yielding complete words
   
GOOD ONES:    
2006 Scorcese film {& theme}   THE-DEPARTED    
RAMS [ramparts], RIDGE, SANS [Spartans], COMMENT [compartment], CLASSY [class party], POSTUM [post partum], FELLA [fell apart], TAKE   
Capp chap  ABNER  [I got a picture of Lady Violet referring to him    ]   
   
   
BTW:   
SCHMO is a Yiddish term which I believe is the source of Al Capp's Schmoo, which before that was a WWI cartoon SMOO --- head with big nose hanging over a flat line (fence?).   

Postum is a de-caffeinated coffee brand   

Didn't much care as much for IMED because it's an abbreviation (instant messaged) and doesn't fit with the whole words theme.  (I'm also apparently too old to have any use for such technology --- guess I'm a bigoted ageist [I like the redundancy].)   
   
   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

THEME:   covert: last words of phrases are synonyms for separation
   
GOOD ONES:     
Tennis server's setback  DOUBLEFAULT [a geoloical fault is a separation]   
   
   
   
   
BTW:   
Two words, NAG and CUR, could easily have been, and more commonly are, BUG and CAD; which sadly I had first.  Was forced to write-over     
   
OST and enero are not used in English, ever.   
   
   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

THEME:   NE, symbol for neon, intrudes in normal phrases yielding strange ones
   
GOOD ONES:    
Moniker on a box of pasta?   PENNE-NAME [pen name]   
Kangaroo from a lab?   CLONED-HOPPER [clod hopper]   
Cops' disagreement?   FINEST-FIGHT [fist fight]   
"No military bigwigs allowed!"?   BRASS-BANNED [brass band]   
Slanted column   OPED [are all opinions by definition slanted? --- mine aren't  ]   
Mind reader?   EEG   
Rock or metal   GENRE [never realized the basic nature of these music terms]   
Level or bevel   TOOL [I thought TRIM, which would fit but was wrong]   
   
   
BTW:   
Cantina condiments   SALSAS [salsa is a sauce and does not connote condiment]   
   
Cold explosion?   ACHOO [less an explosion than "expression," which would make a better clue]   
   
Speaking of OUTRE, ARI shipping  is certainly that.   
   
The title "Neon Lightness" is a stumper for me.  It seems NE is added to phrases so in a sense they, the phrases, would not be "light" or missing something. Perhaps the suggestion is that NE "lights" up the phrases by its intrusion.   
   
RATING:   
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

I had not noticed the S-P-O-T order --- probably because I was put off by the misquote.  Thanks for pointing it out and for providing the stat to prove my observation about NPR.