Super 8 actress 2011 / MON 5-8-17 / Ancient land near Lydia / Pop singer Zayn formerly of One Direction

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Medium (for a Monday)

THEME: LGBTQ (55D: Modern movement initialism ... or a hint to the starts of 18-, 24-, 40-, 52- and 61-Across) — themers start with words that sound like those letters:

Theme answers:

• ELLE FANNING (18A: "Super 8" actress, 2011)
• "GEE, YA THINK?" (24A: "Thanks, Captain Obvious!")
• BEE BALM (40A: Flower that attracts pollinating insects)
• TEA KETTLES (52A: Whistlers in the kitchen)
• CUE THE MUSIC (61A: Order to get a soundtrack ready)

Word of the Day: ELLE FANNING  —

Mary Elle Fanning (born April 9, 1998) is an American actress. She is the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning. In 2011, Fanning starred in her breakout role as Alice Dainard in J. J. Abrams' sci-fi-drama, Super 8, for which she received a Spotlight Award at the Hollywood Film Festival,  and was cited as one of the film's best aspects by The Telegraph. // Fanning has received multiple nominations, including for a Saturn Award, a Young Artist Award, a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, a Teen Choice Award, a Scream Award, an MTV Movie Award. // She is mainly known for her starring roles in Phoebe in Wonderland, Somewhere, We Bought a Zoo, Ginger and Rosa, Maleficent, and The Neon Demon. (wikipedia)

• • •

Hey, this is a nice Monday. Simple concept, cool revealer, snappy fill. I know I say "puzzles should be modern" and "colloquialisms are cool" but man I nearly got ironically torn up those sentiments today because Every Single Place I stumbled / hesitated (and there were like half a dozen) involved colloquialisms or the names of young people I don't really know. Dakota Fanning, I know, but ELLE FANNING, not so much. And I guessed MALIK off the "M," on a prayer, based on a gut feeling of its being his name—I think he just goes by "Zayn" now so ... that was weird (36D: Pop singer Zayn formerly of One Direction). Also, those Giant open NE / SW corners were daunting! 9 / 9 / 7, on a Monday!? Pretty eye-popping. Luckily they were fairly easy, except ONION SOUP, which I found baffling, even after securing the ONION part ... I spaced on what "au gratin" meant, because I associate it exclusively with potatoes, so ... I couldn't see how ONIONs had any necessary connection to potatoes ... again, weird. But I powered through.


But I'm not kidding about the colloquialisms—they add spice, but they are often hard to get because the correlation between clue and answer often seems tenuous. Clue is just a parallel phrase with an allegedly similar sentiment, and as such doesn't point specifically / clearly to a right answer as readily as a lot of other clues do (esp. on a Monday). [Not hold back] is a fine clue for GO BIG, but I still needed almost every cross. I did, in fact, need every cross for "OH, FUN!" (8D: "That sounds good ... NOT!"), partially because of that early-'90s clue (?), partially because said clue is actually a very bad clue. "OH, FUN!" and "That sounds good" are both things you don't mean. Thus, they are parallel. The "... NOT!" bit just muddies the waters. There's no reason "OH, FUN!" has to be sarcastic. I get that it can be and often is ... but ... something about alleging sarcasm in a not-inherently-sarcastic phrase confused me for a bit. It's fine.


That's all.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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