Constructor: Jacob Stulberg
Relative difficulty: Medium (actually Easy-Medium, but a couple of those themers seem like they might give people trouble)
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THEME: FORSAKE (37A: Abandon ... or two words often seen next to the starts of 17-, 27-, 47- and 60-Across) — first words of themers can all fit into the blank space in "FOR ___ SAKE!"
Theme answers:
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This played like an easy themeless, in that it had some cool longer answers and I, uh, saw no theme at all. I blew right through FORSAKE ... I could see that its clue was trying to tell me something about the theme, but it didn't seem worth slowing down to sort it all out. The themer clues were clearly just going to be straightforward, so whatever the trick or gimmick was, it wasn't necessary to my finishing the puzzle. So I read [Abandon], got FORSAKE, moved along. After I was done, I came back and figured out what was going on and, sure, that seems like a fine idea for a theme. Quirky, slightly profane ... I like it. The non-theme fill isn't particularly showy, but it's largely clean, and the themers are really original and interesting. I had no idea "PETE'S DRAGON" was remade in 2016. The version I know came out in the late '70s. I guess with advances in animation, it seemed ripe for remaking, but looking at the obviously impressive and undoubtedly expensive dragon from the 2016 version ... I dunno. I have a soft spot for the 2D animation and general late '70s wackiness of the original. I mean, come on: "Helen Reddy, in her first movie musical!" And she's dressed as the Gorton's Fisherman. What's not to love?
As for "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE," talk about Up My Alley. I am almost finished cataloguing my entire vintage paperback collection (my big summer project). This meant organizing the books in physical space, according to publisher, and building a master database. Erskine Caldwell was a major author in mid-century paperback publishing—smutty (or, uh, "earthy," I guess you'd call it) but vaguely literary enough that highbrows wouldn't be too embarrassed to buy it. Anyway, it hit some kind of sweet spot because his books went through printing after printing after printing in the '40s and '50s. I must have a dozen or more Caldwells in my collection, and probably at least three different versions of "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE" alone. It strikes me, though, that Caldwell's fame fell off fast and hard after the '50s, as tastes changed and more sexually explicit fare became more mainstream. His once-controversial stuff probably quickly came to seem tame and quaint. Anyway, if you're under 60, it seems at least a little likely that you've never even heard of "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE." I can't remember the last time I saw it mentioned ... anywhere ... ever. But in my little niche world of paperback collecting—legendary.
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I was very slow to start this, with first three Acrosses being "dunno""got it!" and "wrong!" (BLT instead of PBJ) (11A: Popular sandwich, for short). First three clues I looked at in NW drew blanks. No idea on JOIST or JAPE or OPEN at first glances. Really left me spinning around—of course there are a bunch of gimmes up there, too, but somehow I saw them late and generally felt like I had to Work to get that corner. But once I did that, and then eventually fixed my BLT error, things evened out, and once I hit the middle of the grid, I really took off. Fast-Monday speed for the latter half of the solve ("GOD'S LITTLE ACRE" and "HEAVEN'S GATE" both being very very well known titles to me). Someday I will remember ALEK Wek. She is crosswordese that I keep letting slide out of my head. Weird to me that she's totally acceptable as a four-letter answer and yet WEK has never ever been in the NYTXW (11 ALEKs, 9 of them Wek ... and yet no WEK in the grid, ever ... curious!).
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium (actually Easy-Medium, but a couple of those themers seem like they might give people trouble)
Theme answers:
- "PETE'S DRAGON" (17A: 2016 live-action Disney film with an animated title character)
- CHRIST'S COLLEGE (27A: Where John Milton and John Oliver studied at Cambridge)
- "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE" (47A: 1933 Erskine Caldwell novel about a wealth-obsessed farm family)
- "HEAVEN'S GATE" (60A: Notorious cinematic flop of 1980)
Alek Wek (born 16 April 1977) is a South Sudanese-British model and designer who began her fashion career at the age of 18 in 1995. She has been hailed for her influence on the perception of beauty in the fashion industry. She is from the Dinka ethnic group in South Sudan but fled to Britain in 1991 to escape the civil war in Sudan. In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. (wikipedia)
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As for "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE," talk about Up My Alley. I am almost finished cataloguing my entire vintage paperback collection (my big summer project). This meant organizing the books in physical space, according to publisher, and building a master database. Erskine Caldwell was a major author in mid-century paperback publishing—smutty (or, uh, "earthy," I guess you'd call it) but vaguely literary enough that highbrows wouldn't be too embarrassed to buy it. Anyway, it hit some kind of sweet spot because his books went through printing after printing after printing in the '40s and '50s. I must have a dozen or more Caldwells in my collection, and probably at least three different versions of "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE" alone. It strikes me, though, that Caldwell's fame fell off fast and hard after the '50s, as tastes changed and more sexually explicit fare became more mainstream. His once-controversial stuff probably quickly came to seem tame and quaint. Anyway, if you're under 60, it seems at least a little likely that you've never even heard of "GOD'S LITTLE ACRE." I can't remember the last time I saw it mentioned ... anywhere ... ever. But in my little niche world of paperback collecting—legendary.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]