LAT Tue. 7/24 Ed Sessa

[magus]

Possible Title: Tutti-Frutti

Theme: first word of phases are fruits


Some Nits to Pick:
ESA [not English or used by English speakers]
GAI [not English or used by English speakers]
ACER [not a word but a brand name]

By the Way:
Given the pedestrian nature of this offering, I wonder why it was not possible to use only words used by speakers of the language.  Perhaps it is explained by having six theme entries.  But that doesn't explain the use of an unreal word.  And perhaps that is explained by not reading this space or by relying on what other crosswords accept.  (In all of this, I admit to being a tad iconoclastic.  ) 


RATING:    Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun

[worldofcrosswords]

magus,

do you object to ACER in particular because it's not a well-known brand name? How would MICROSOFT or IBM do?

I notice ACER turns up in the LAT 35 times according to the cruciverb database. Sometimes it's clued with the computer company, other times with a tennis reference.

Marya

[magus]

Marya, you may have missed the point.  I do not object to Acer if clued as a computer company.  As I've said before a number of times, the term is never used in tennis and appears only in Xwords, invented, I suspect, by constructors who don't know the game and accepted by editors who are similarly uninformed.  Not sure why it bothers me though; it's like "I could care less."   

[worldofcrosswords]

Ah, I didn't understand your earlier remark.

Actually "acer" is an English word:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/acer
But perhaps that meaning is too obscure for most.

Marya

[magus]

Aceris from the Latin and found in botany to describe the maple genus.  I don't think it's too remote for Xwords if clued with the word maple.

[worldofcrosswords]

That's good to know. I think you have pretty reasonable standards, although we tend to disagree on including foreign words (which I like, as long as they aren't too oddball).

Marya