Constructor: John Guzzetta
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (2:50)
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THEME: HAS IT BOTH WAYS (55A: Comes out ahead in either case ... as exemplified by 19-, 29-, 36- and 44-Across?) — theme answers have "IT" running "BOTH WAYS," i.e. they contain the letter string "ITTI" (mirrored "IT"s):
Theme answers:
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Yeah, you know what, this actually works. I'm slightly distracted by the four answers that have "IT" just the one way (WIT TIM KEITH ELITE), but that's just because I have ridiculously high elegance standards (i.e. in this puzzle I want "IT" and "TI" to appear *exclusively* in the themers ... just seems ideal, somehow). But I really like that these answers don't just have "IT" both ways, but have "IT" palindromically, split (!) across two words each time. Also, the DETROIT TIGERS are my team, which has been a miserable experience for the better part of the last decade, thanks for asking, but still I enjoyed seeing them here. Wish the clue had somehow been more Tigers-specific, but I'll take what I can get. Anyway, themewise, I thought this was a very clever revealer, and the execution of the theme was very tight. No iffy or ragged answers, and a real "nailed-it" (!!) consistency across the board.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (2:50)
Theme answers:
- DETROIT TIGERS (19A: Major-league team from the Motor City)
- SIT TIGHT (29A: "Hold your horses!")
- SPLIT TICKET (36A: Ballot for candidates of more than one party)
- WAIT TIME (44A: Number of minutes on hold before getting a customer representative)
The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country, consisting of gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes earned by foreign residents, minus income earned in the domestic economy by nonresidents (Todaro & Smith, 2011: 44).Comparing GNI to GDP shows the degree to which a nation's GDP represents domestic or international activity. GNI has gradually replaced GNP in international statistics. While being conceptually identical, it is calculated differently. GNI is the basis of calculation of the largest part of contributions to the budget of the European Union. In February 2017, Ireland's GDP became so distorted from the base erosion and profit shifting ("BEPS") tax planning tools of U.S. multinationals, that the Central Bank of Ireland replaced Irish GDP with a new metric, Irish Modified GNI*. In 2017, Irish GDP was 162% of Irish Modified GNI*. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)
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[wait ... Lou ... Lou Piniella??]
So according to wikipedia, GNP is a dated term. It's GNI now (so, crossword constructors—go nuts!). I am dinging the puzzle for this error (that is, for not cluing GNP as erstwhile). But I didn't know. I didn't know about the terminology change. Never heard of GNI. In fact, I clearly don't know the difference between GNP and GDP, which is the answer that I wrote into the grid at first. But even if GNP were a current term, I still think you yank it from that corner. GNP / NEV isn't doing you any favors. There are cleaner ways to go. Other things that slowed me down a bit: ODELL (because I really really misunderstood "Pro Bowler") (20D: Three-time Pro Bowler ___ Beckham Jr.); SETTE (because Italian numbers, blargh; I went with the wrong language: SIETE) (29D: Italian for "seven"); TEASE (because I didn't catch the "trailers" part of the clue and instead read [What good movies do]) (45D: What good movie trailers do); and SASSON (because I just forgot my '80s jeans brands ... I remember Gloria Vanderbilt and Chemin de Fer being big-deal girl jeans ... but SASSON, I forgot) (50D: Jeans brand popular in the 1980s). Otherwise, a pretty typically easy Monday puzzle, this was.