A Plethora of Pairs

I was looking forward to a breezy-easy Monday puzzle to start the solving week -- couldn't do it on the commute to work (no seats), so saved it up for a little lunchtime entertainment ....

... and found myself filling in the prisoner-weapon-slang SHIV early on. Huh, thinks I, what has the world come to when "shiv" passes the breakfast (now lunch) test? But it was just a momentary pause. What's a poor constructor to do, anyway? The I was needed for the crossing DIXIECRAT (Strom Thurmond, not my fave politician by a shot of any length, but hey ...) and the V was necessary for a nice neutral Roman numeral crossing. Hardly a capital offense.

The theme played on the triply-homophonic meet/meat/mete -- that last one being "mete out justice," presumably what happened to the prisoner with the sharp implement -- easy-breezy enough. But now, what was this in the fill? Oh, please, a first name of World War II infamy indeed, one Adolf. (For the record, I don't like meeting Uganda's most infamous leader in crosswords either.) Oh, heck, I've gotten used to AMIN, surely I could forgive a passing ADOLF, yes?

Well, no. Sure, I like a bit of rule-busting in my puzzles. But, dang it, rules exist for reasons, and the busting of same should have their (better be darn good!) reasons, too. Now I was a bit grumpy.

But I didn't just fling the puzzle aside in a minor funky fit. I looked around for some love, and so I found some: TERNS PREENED in their separate entries in the upper right corner; the upper middle sported the homophonic pair of PAIN and PANES; a French friend AMI stood next to his PAL (for a game of HOPSCOTCH?) just to the right of the Lone Ranger's friend TONTO, while Sgt. Snorkel's 4-legged friend OTTO cavorted in the lower right corner, perhaps playing hide-and-seek with The Thin Man's doggie ASTA in the upper left. Even the 1-across entry, ACDC, could be thought of as a pair of these PAIRS entered in the puzzle, to say nothing of the MATES in the lower left.

Had I stumbled upon a hidden theme? (I noted also Mr. MOTO's appearance--wowsa, do people still remember him? Isn't he PASSE by now?)

But that's not all, folks.

The puzzle done, my lunch -- and indeed the workday -- over, relaxing in a seat on the subway home, I was finally paging through the paper when I came across a happy article headlined "A Good Day to Speak of Love, From a Rabbi Who Knows Hate and Forgiveness." Seems the Rabbi in question had suffered a number of run-ins with an unpleasant fellow who -- apparently, vehemently vocally -- wished the Rabbi nothing but ill. Who responded not in kind, but with kindness. With resulting remorse and complete turnaround of the fellow's unpleasantness.

Somehow ... the article seemed perfectly paired with the puzzle. Made my day. (9 letters; what are the odds I'll see that phrase in a puzzle sometime?)