Ft Christmas Crossword

[Dominique_J]

"The solutions to the thirty clues that lack thematic definition form three fifths of a set verifiable in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable"

Please could somebody explain what the **** this means?
Thanks.

[AHearer]

Think of what there are 50 of, and look for the nicknames of 30 of them.

[Dominique_J]

Sorry if I'm being slow here - so the solutions to the thirty clues which LACK thematic definition ARE in fact 'themed' by virtue of being 30 of a set of 50 things found in Brewers?

[Dominique_J]

Thanks for your answer, AHearer. I see what the thirty are now.

[Paul_P]

The 30 out of 50 are nicknames of US States - a ridiculously obscure theme which nobody could hope to know all the answers to without recourse to Wikipedia.
I haven't yet worked out what 'thematic definition' the remaining 28 clues share, though.

[bibblebub]

don't think that the other clues have a theme - the way that i read the instructions is that those 30 clues are lacking definitions and that those definitions have a theme

[Paul_P]

If the answer to 26dn is the nickname of Hawaii then the clue should say 1980's pop-group and not 1990's.

[factor-fiction]

Aloha is the nickname but I don't know who the group can be (whether it be 80s or 90s)

[Mamyalynne]

A-ha - 1982 onwards.

[Dominique_J]

Having completed this, I now realise that whilst there are indeed 30 nicknames of US states some of them relate to the same state, so in fact I think only 24 of the 50 fifty states are represented - making the instructions given to solvers even more misleading!