Enigmatic Variations No.984 – Practically Worthless by Lato

On a first reading, the preamble doesn’t give one a lot to go on:

“Though they’re far from alone, seven unclued answers according to two others (taken as a pair) 9, which might alternatively be considered something PRACTICALLY WORTHLESS.” What?

Still, it seems the clues are normal, so a start is made (for me, 19 down was the first to fall). The clues are to my liking (which might simply mean that they’re on the easy side), and the grid begins to fill. Still, though, no guesses as to the thematic material, at least until I have _EES, at which point I consider LEES (given that they’re ‘the worst part or parts’ and, therefore, worthless).

Thankfully, I am shortly afterwards saved by BIRDS falling into place, suggesting that the first word is much more likely to be BEES. A re-reading of the preamble and, possibly, some lucky guesswork, and I see that running down the middle we have EDUCATED FLEAS, one of the party who, we are told (by COLE PORTER) DO IT. The others are:

OYSTERS
LITHUANIANS
LETTS
FOLKS IN SIAM

I’m impressed that Lato managed to make the letters mentioned in the preamble the wonderfully (if, for me, retrospectively) thematic LDI – HEAR IT’S BLISS FOR COUPLE. (As Tramp points out, the LDI is, of course, ‘Let’s Do It’)

Sometimes the letters to be highlighted can take a while to find. In this case we are spared the hair-pulling, as CHARDROPITY appears with ease – a cryptic rendering of ‘doing it’: DROP (fall) in CHARITY (love).

And why ‘Practically Worthless’? Well, that’s a description of a DOIT. (Thanks to Tony for pointing out my neglect of this aspect)

A very, very lovely puzzle.

Notation
(xxx) = definition
{xxx} = (anagram/homophone/container/etc.) indicator
XXX* = anagram
< = reversal
xxx = unused letter(s)

Please post a comment if the explanations are not clear.