Constructor: Emily Carroll
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (4:46, but just woke up and brain is moving like molasses)
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THEME: FRUITLESS (35A: Unproductive ... or, literally, a hint to the answers to this puzzle's starred clues) — phrases where first word is a fruit and second word means "departs," so that each phrase can be read as if it pertained to a "fruit" that goes away, leaving you FRUITLESS:
Theme answers:
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Sleepy morning solve, and was quite worried right up front that I wasn't going to get anywhere today. Brain: "Well, it's Wednesday, and you're stuck ... I guess we had a good run. Let's stop and go drink coffee." But I persisted, and that NW corner finally crumbled, and none of the rest of the grid was that hard, except maybe the FRAT ROW / TEENIE / INES area, which I fumbled around in for a bit. As I was solving, I had no idea what was going on, theme-wise. I could tell fruits were involved. I hit FRUITLESS and though "uh ... don't get *that* but alright ..." Then finished and thought "I have no idea how FRUITLESS makes sense. I think there's a slight design / execution problem here. The first issue is that the first themer one is likely to encounter (and for me, the first and second themers I encountered) were broken. Split. Divided. Making it look like something had been broken off the end of a fruit. BANANA ... SPLITS really looks like the theme has something to do with the answer "splitting" in two. So I thought the FRUITLESSness had to do with the themer division. Then I noticed those two that *aren't* divided, and I was back to non-understanding. Then I got it. The other problem is "literally a hint" doesn't quite help enough with clarifying what's going on. Here's a somewhat better suggestion, I think:
The reason I think the revealer clue needs to be a tad more specific is that ORANGE PEELS really doesn't work nearly as well as the others. "Leaves" and "splits" are right on the money, "drops" is in the ballpark, but "peels" is lost somewhere uptown. If "peel" can mean "depart" all on its own, then it's not a usage I've heard. Bail, bounce, jet, scoot ... but peel off? peel out?" It's harder to lawyer that one into alignment. I think the concept here is really nice, actually, and am surprised you can get even *three* themers to behave this way. But the execution here is somewhat clunky / messy.
Five things:
Constructor count: Men: 26.5 / Women: 3.5
*a phrase you might use in conversation but that doesn't seem strong enough to be a stand-alone answer
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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (4:46, but just woke up and brain is moving like molasses)
Theme answers:
- GRAPE LEAVES (18A: *They get stuffed at Greek restaurants)
- BANANA / SPLITS (23A: *With 50-Across, classic ice cream treats)
- LEMON / DROPS (30A: *With 44-Across, sour candies)
- ORANGE PEELS (55A: *Garnishes for old-fashioneds)
La Plata (Spanish pronunciation: [la ˈplata]) is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the 2001 census [INDEC], it has a population of 765,378 and its metropolitan area has 899,523 inhabitants.La Plata was planned and developed to serve as the provincial capital after the city of Buenos Aires was federalized in 1880. It was officially founded by Governor Dardo Rocha on 19 November 1882. Its construction is fully documented in photographs by Tomás Bradley Sutton. La Plata was briefly known as Ciudad Eva Perón (Eva Perón City) between 1952 and 1955. (wikipedia)
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| You wouldn't have brackets in the actual clue, but you get the idea |
Five things:
- 27A: Something divided in W.W. II (ATOM) — hard and gruesome. Again, that corner ... KIN for FAM (21D: Relatives, casually), MRI or CAT (scan?) for TAT (32A: Body image). ACROBAT clued toughly. OLD FOES??? (20A: Enemies from way back) Glad I eventually escaped that wasp's nest
- 34D: Emulated Pinocchio (TELLS A LIE) — this is the OLD FOES of the southern half of the grid. Actually, this is just green paint* (the verb-phrase version of which I always think of as "eats a sandwich").
- 48A: Wedding gown designer Di Santo (INES)— Can't find anything about her that isn't promotional copy. No wikipedia page, somehow??? Anyway, apparently she designs wedding gowns.
- 8D: South American corn cakes (AREPAS) — so good! I only learned what these were in the past few years. Had them first, weirdly (?), in Minneapolis. There's a guy who makes them at our local farmers market every weekend now. Mwah!
- 9D: Air race marker (PYLON) — I couldn't describe an "air race" to you if I tried. Also, I read this as "Air Race maker" and thought I was looking for some brand of model airplane.
Constructor count: Men: 26.5 / Women: 3.5
*a phrase you might use in conversation but that doesn't seem strong enough to be a stand-alone answer
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]