I am a great admirer of Pam's many Sunday publications here, and I did blog a Friday of her creation way back on New Year's Day, 2016. This effort was cute, the three themers are all nice homonyms of AIR. They are consistent with all the homonyms the first word of each fill. They are 12, 15, and 12. They each are amusing repurposing of the "air" phrases. Another three theme fill after Monday, this week. The rest of the puzzle does not seem like a Friday, with very few long words outside of the theme. ARRESTED, PARAGONS, SIXPACKS, and TEAR INTO being the set. I await your comments.
The theme:
19A. What "You're not leaving me enough!" demonstrates?: HEIR PRESSURE (12). Part of my job has exposed me to all too many unfeeling avaricious progenies. The worst so far was the son who ran home to steal his father's coin collection so he would not have to share with his sister.
36A. Learning to live with your mistakes?: ERR (again) CONDITIONING (15). They say you can be conditioned to do anything.
52A. Malady caused by overexposure to a Brontë work?: EYRE SICKNESS. Jane returns; have we been overexposed? And there you have the theme.
The rest.
Across:
1. Shopping club: SAM'S. The club created by the Walmart people named for the founder.
5. Assist, in a way: ABET. (again) Abet is often heard in the legal sense of "aiding and abetting" a crime and often has a negative implication. Although this is the most common use, abet is also used in a positive sense and is a more sophisticated way of saying "help."
9. With 43-Across, shipshape: NEAT. 43A. See 9-Across: AS A PIN. Also fitting with our Monday pin setting discussion.
13. Settled: ALIT. Picture a butterfly.
14. __ parade: PRIDE. Well placed as this month is Pride month. The month of June was chosen for LGBT Pride Month to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. FIB 1.
15. Folksy Burl: IVES.
16. Pop opener: SODA. For you midwesterners Soda Pop.
17. Golfing nickname: ARNIE. 8D. Prepare to swing: TEE UP. Go, Boomer, Gary, and George.
18. Mariner org.: NASA. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
22. Saddlebag carrier: ASS.
23. __-been: HAS. never was. FIB 2.
24. __-Locka, Fla.: OPA. The area was originally named by the Native Americans “Opa-tisha-wocka-locka” meaning “a big island covered with many trees and swamps” but the name was quickly shortened to Opa-locka. It sounds like it was named by the Muppets. FIB 3.
25. Obstacle for salmon: DAM. Yes, this is tough when you are swimming upstream.
28. Rutgers' conference: BIG TEN. The famous midwest football conference and a New Jersey school.
30. Tundra neighbor: TAIGA. A Friday word: a swampy coniferous forest of high northern latitudes, especially that between the tundra and steppes of Siberia and North America. Dictionary.
32. Bit of intimacy in a crowd, briefly: PDA. Public Display of Affection.
34. J.R.R. Tolkien did some research for it: OED. Oxford English Dictionary.
35. Backup __: SINGER. A change from Isaac Bashevis. FIB 4.
39. Lock shops?: SALONS. Hah hah, locks of hair. Add an m and you have...
40. Chihuahua neighbor: Abbr.: TEXas. Has the state gone to the dogs?
41. Hill builder: ANT.
42. Ostentatious: SWANK. Hilary? She took three years off to care for her father who needed a lung transplant.
45. Artists Against Fracking co-founder: ONO. Artists Against Fracking is an association of artists initiated by Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Lennon, also including Mark Ruffalo, Robert de Niro, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, and Deepak Chopra
46. Pitcher feature: EAR. None bigger than Don Mossie's. For you Boomer and HG.
48. Cool relative: RAD. Already passé slang.
49. Bossy comeback: MOO. Cow humor.
55. Preacher's support: AMEN.
58. How much signing is done: IN INK. Also an integral part of my current work, but we use blue ink for a "wet" signature.
59. Coup d'__: ETAT. This is also like putsch: a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government. FIB 5.
60. Rocky __: ROAD. Ice cream. FIB 6.
61. Tars: SALTS. Both names for sailors.
62. Socially conscious: WOKE. Be alert to injustice in society, especially racism.
63. Dieter's count: FATS. Not calories?
64. This, in Toledo: ESTO. Lucina, how are you.
65. Do some parasailing, say: SOAR.
Down:
1. 2000s White House girl: SASHA. No politics, just a college kid.
2. Fleshy-leaved plants: ALOES.
3. Modest skirts: MIDIS.
4. Symbol for Macy's: STAR.
5. Checked: ARRESTED. We can debate this meaning?
6. Storage aids: BINS.
7. Tesla rival: EDISON. The SKINNY.
9. Important number in Sudoku grid construction: NINE. The key number, as our many Sudokuites would explain.
10. Actress Mendes: EVA.
11. DDE rival: AES. Adlai Ewing Stevenson II.
12. "3-1-1" enforcement gp.: TSA. Transportation Security Administration
14. Perfect models: PARAGONS.
20. 21st of 24: PHI. Greek letters.
21. There's often a colon in one: RATIO.
25. "Mangia!": DIG IN. Today's clecho with 57D. Mangia!": EAT. Usually heard as mangia, mangia! Italian home cooking can be some of the best meals you ever have whether they use sauce or gravy.
26. Deal maker: AGENT. Think actors and sports stars.
27. Helgenberger of "A Dog's Journey": MARG. China Beach and CSI
28. "Everything Tastes Better With __": Sara Perry cookbook: BACON. Does everyone agree? I do not eat bacon. FIB 7. She also has one about Garlic.
29. Fixes People, say: EDITS. The magazine, which you can tell by the capital P.
31. Former U.N. chief: ANNAN. KOFI from Ghana. An impressive man.
32. Shrimp kin: PRAWN.
33. 1964 Tony Randall title role: DR LAO. An odd movie.
35. Gym developments: SIX PACKS. I have one, but I keep it safe under a nice layer of adipose cells.
36. Exxon, formerly: ESSO. This is classic crosswordese.
37. Perfectly pitched: ON KEY.
43. Play areas: ARENAS.
44. Texter's "Beats me": IDK. I Don't Know.
47. Come to light: ARISE.
49. Empowerment hashtag: ME TOO. A movement.
50. Universal Studios Japan home: OSAKA. To compete with Disney Japan, I guess. USJ
51. Blender brand: OSTER. I like Oster toaster.52. Purposes: ENDS.
53. River sediment: SILT. A circular meaning as it is fine sand, clay, or other material carried by running water and deposited as a sediment, especially in a channel or harbor.
54. It breaks quickly nowadays: NEWS.
55. Bit of dogspeak: ARF.
56. Bygone New Zealand bird: MOA. There is no more Moa. A dinosaur descendant. And there is no Moa of me today, but thank you PAK and all who read. Lemonade out, the grid below.
