Element suggested phonetically by NOPQ STUV / MON 6-6-22 / Famed Roman censor / Indigenous people for whom a Great Lake is named / Juice brand with hyphenated name / Measuring instrument that may have a needle

Constructor: Michael Schlossberg

Relative difficulty: Easy side of normal

THEME:"HONEY, I'M HOME!" (63A: Cry after navigating the last parts of the answers to this puzzle's starred clues?) — last words of themers tell a story of a very specific kind of return home through a sequence of locations that form the path the returnee takes:

Theme answers:

• DELLA STREET (17A: *Secretary of Perry Mason)
• TWELVE STEPS (23A: *Alcoholics Anonymous program)
• STICK THE LANDING (39A: *Finish a gymnastics routine perfectly)
• BOY NEXT DOOR (52A: *Description of a wholesome, clean-cut guy)

Word of the Day: DELLA STREET (17A) —

Della Street is the fictional secretary of Perry Mason in the long-running series of novels, short stories, films, and radio and television programs featuring the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner. [...] In the first Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Velvet Claws, written in the early days of the Great Depression, Della Street is revealed to have come from a wealthy, or at least well-to-do, family that was wiped out by the stock market crash of 1929. Della was forced to get a job as a secretary. By the time of the TV series in the 1950s and 1960s, this would not have fitted well with the age of the characters as then portrayed. According to The Case of The Caretaker's Cat, she is about 15 years younger than Perry Mason. // Several instances of sexual tension are seen between Mason and Street in the Gardner novels, multiple glances, kisses, and so on, and several proposals of marriage, all of which Della turned down because, at the time, wives of professional men did not work. Thus, she could not have continued as his secretary (and effective partner) and she did not want to give up this aspect of her life. (wikipedia)

There's something creepily "wholesome" about this puzzle. Like ... I dunno, it wants me to think of a hygienic, sober mid-century nuclear family that watches DELLA STREET on the TV and hopes their daughter will grow up to that nice BOY NEXT DOOR and what not, but my brain really wants to fight this premise, so all I'm imagining is Perry Mason stumbling home drunk to an empty house, calling out "HONEY, I'M HOME" to Della, who is not there and will never be there because Perry has screwed up too many times, so now Della is off somewhere with the BOY NEXT DOOR and Perry's all alone, forever and ever. My version is dark, but I'll still take it over whatever central casting has imagined for us here. Seriously, though, the puzzle has an overall very old vibe, not just in the theme answers and theme concept, but in the quality of the fill as well (STENOS and IDES and VIDI and NENE and APSO and etc. etc.). Also, I don't think BOY NEXT DOOR repurposes the last word enough. That is, the other homecoming locations (STREET, STEPS, LANDING) are strongly reimagined by the theme answer phrases, whereas the BOY NEXT DOOR is just ... there ... next door ... watching you come home ... plotting god knows what, what's wrong with that kid anyway!? Anyway, that DOOR is just a DOOR on the STREET where you live; it hasn't been sufficiently un-DOORed by the theme answer.