NYT Crossword, 0831

I got close again - missed three squares:

Colonial John = ALDEN (I figured it was Alden or Arden, and I guessed wrong!) crossed with
Stopping Place in a Carlo Levi title = EBOLI (Never even heard of Carlo Levi)

"_____ Mucho" (1944 #1 hit) = BESAME and
Maximum extent = HILT (a little misleading, since this is always a phrase: to the hilt) crossed with
Oscar winner Jannings and others = EMILS (First Oscar winner)

Other things I didn't know:

• Jobs for some underwriters, for short = IPOS (= initial public offerings - I'm not a big stock market fan)
• Humorist Sedaris = AMY (I have heard of her brother, David).
• Blasts from the past, briefly = NTESTS (Add this to A-Test or H-Test - why didn't they just come up with one standard designation?)
• "This Boy's Life" author Wolff = TOBIAS (Cool name.)
• "Pagliacci" clown = TONIO (Opera - it gets me every time.)
• Toastmaster General of old comedy = JESSEL (George Jessel did indeed declare himself Toastmaster General of the United States.)
• Hungarian playwright known for "Liliom" = MOLNAR (Ferenc Molnar wrote this basis for the muscial Carousel)
• Like a line, briefly = ONED (As in one dimensional - whose going to get that?)

One minor issue:
Home of the world's northernmost capital: abbr. = ICEL (Hokey. Is Icel. really an abbreviation for Iceland? I thought IS was the standard. You can't just abbreviate something wherever you want, especially crossing syllables. Although I guess people do that with Engl., but I still think that should be Eng.)