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Theme Idea

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Pat F:
I am a beginning constructor ( I haven't been able to construct a full puzzle yet) and I am playing around with a few theme ideas.  My favorite has to do with celebrities whose names fit into units of measure, the answers would be:

PAARSECS ( Jack Paar, former host of Tonight Show, plus parsecs, astronomical unit of distance)
LYTEYEAR ( MC Lyte, rap artist, plus lightyear)
KILLAHMETER ( Ghostface Killah, rap artist, plus kilometer)
KILOGRAHAM (Graham Nash, singer, plus kilogram)

Any thoughts/comments/ideas/advice regarding these clues would be infinitely helpful.  Also any advice for a beginning constructor would be great.

Thanks,
Pat

Cleveland A. McElfresh:
I'm sure others would be able to expound more...but I think the theme would be "compromised" in a way by KILLAHMETER. Maybe it's a matter of pronunciation and nitpicking but I'm wondering whether it'd actually be pronounced KILL-OH-METER, instead of KILL-AH-METER.

Other observations:
1. Don't know MC Lyte; which makes me believe it might be bordering the line on too esoteric. (for a crossword at least)
2. Inconsistencies in using the names with either the prefix or not. For example, you have PAARsecs, then kiloGRAHAM. That might not fly?
3. First three theme answers are distances, last one is a weight.

I'm sure Joe could expound more on all this, he gives the best advice.

Doorbell:
Also, the first three entries are based on last names, but the fourth uses a first name.  Inconsistencies in the theme are likely to cause rejection of a puzzle.  It would be okay if you had two last names and two first names; or (re db0255's point) two units of distance, two of weight; or all four entries using different measures.

But I think the theme is interesting, if you can find exactly the right four entries.

Pat F:
I thought these issues would come up.  I agree that MC Lyte is too obscure and I am going to scrap that answer, but I have though of a few replacements:

NAUTICALMILES (Nautical miles and Miles Davis)
SQUAREAKERS (Square acres and David Akers, football player)

Again, I am concerned about theme unity, as far as first name last name and distance versus wait measurements.

thanks,
Pat

Tom Baring:
SQUAREAKERS doesn't make sense.  An acre is already a unit of area.

What if you simply used names replaced by units?  Like GRAMNASH, DAVIDACRES, etc.?  I think for consistency you'd have to skip GREGORYPECK, because peck, the unit, is spelled the same as Peck, the name.  There must be some famous Foote out there.

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