Mecca's holy Kaaba / THU 10-5-17 / uplifting remake / Bygone fords / Fictional ship on five-year mission / Madly for 1952 campaign slogan

Constructor: Alan Arbesfeld

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: Uplifting remakes— movie titles have qualitative adjectives changed to be more positive:

Theme answers:

• "SPECIAL PEOPLE"(from "Ordinary People") (20A: Uplifting remake of a 1980 Donald Sutherland/Mary Tyler Moore film?)
• "THE KIDS ARE SUPER" (from "The Kids Are Alright") (26A: Uplifting remake of a 2010 Annette Bening/Julianne Moore film?)
• "AS GREAT AS IT GETS" (from "As Good As It Gets") (45A: Uplifting remake of a 1997 Jack Nicholson/Helen Hunt film?)
• "MY AWESOME LADY" (from "My Fair Lady") (51A: Uplifting remake of a 1964 Audrey Hepburn/Rex Harrison film?) 

Word of the Day: Kaaba (42A: Mecca's holy Kaaba, e.g.) (CUBE) —

The Ka'bah (Arabic: ٱلْكَعْبَة‎‎ al-kaʿbahIPA: [alˈkaʕba], "The Cube"), also referred as al-ka`bah al-musharrafah (The Holy Kaaba), is a building at the center of Islam's most sacred mosque, that is Al-Masjid Al-Ḥarām (Arabic: الـمَـسـجِـد الـحَـرَام‎‎, The Sacred Mosque), in Mecca, Hejaz, Saudi Arabia. It is the most sacred site in Islam. It is considered by Muslims to be the bayt Allāh, the "House of God", and has a similar role to the Tabernacle and Holy of Holies in Judaism. Wherever they are in the world, Muslims are expected to face the Kaaba when performing salat (prayer). From any point in the world, the direction facing the Kaaba is called the qibla. (wikipedia)

I don't understand how neither the constructor nor the editor can see what's wrong with the execution of this theme. It's too bad that the people involved didn't have the Merlesque patience to wait for the Perfect fourth themer to come along. Actually, I think "MY AWESOME LADY" is slightly wobbly, since "Fair" in the original title does not mean "so-so" (the way that "Ordinary" and "Alright" most definitely do in their titles). But the word "Fair" *can* mean "so-so," so let's allow it. But "AS GREAT AS IT GETS" is a face-flop failure. Not only does "Good" not not not mean "so-so," the original title, "As Good As It Gets," *already contains within it the concept of ideality, and thus greatness*. "AS GREAT AS IT GETS" doesn't change the meaning of the original title—it just sounds ****ing stupid. This puzzle has four tires but one is flat. Driving = hazardous, unpleasant.


I finished this one in four flat—pretty dang fast for me, for a Thursday. I know and have seen all the movies involved, so that helped. My biggest struggle was with CUBE, as I did not know what "Kaaba" was. And now I do. Hurray. (I hope this will do away with the idea that I "don't want to learn new things" or "only like answers from that are in my wheelhouse" ... but it won't). TRALA is gruesome and there are too many crosswordesey answers overall. I do like the clue on SEURAT, even if it is a little corny (perhaps because it is a little corny) (25D: Artist who went dotty?). When I finished the puzzle, I was quite prepared to be upset at 31D: Beats quickly, in a way (RACES) because I thought "racing has nothing to do with defeating anyone, per se!" But then I realized the clue was talking about the heart. And then I thought, "Oh, OK, that's fine. Nicely done." Did not like the ERA clue (47D: A good one is under 3.00, for short) because a. ERA is not the greatest stat for measuring pitcher quality, and b. an ERA under 3.00 is in fact *great* in today's game, especially for a starter. Only eight starters in all of baseball this year had ERAs under 3.00. Under *4.00* is better than average (i.e. good ... or at least fair).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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