Added ease

I'm just gald I got the theme of today's puzzle. One in particular was quite funny. I was about half done before I started looking up a few clues. Just a few.

Blastoff of Spirit or Opportunity? - emissiontomars
Once-beautiful castle? -estateofruin
Moon-pastry? eclairdelune
Three-hanky film? - emotionpicture

Anyways, a lot of fun clues for me to mull through today:
Lord of the ring, once - ali
It follows a line - bus
What Voltaire and Mark Twain were not - realnames
Choice for people who go Dutch - klm

Something I should know by now:
The Jewish Months - Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Cheshvan, Kislev, Teves, Shevat, Adar.
Henri Nestle - Chocolatier
Baba - Rum or syrup soaked cakes.
Stele - An upright stone or slab with an inscribed or sculptured surface, used as a monument or as a commemorative tablet in the face of a building.

And lastly, as a means to lift our spirits:

SONNET: POLITICAL GREATNESS

Nor happiness nor majesty nor fame
Nor peace nor strength nor skill in arms or arts
Shepherd those herds whom Tyranny makes tame,
Verse echoes not one beating of their hearts,
History is but the shadow of their shame,
Art veils her glass, or from the pageant starts
As to Oblivion their blind millions fleet,
Staining that Heaven with obscene imagery
Of their own likeness. What are numbers knit
By force or custom? Man who man would be,
Must rule the empire of himself; in it
Must be supreme, establishing his throne
On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy
Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.

Percy Bysshe Shelley