In today's puzzle, four Across answers had the letter O twice in succession and both Os were entered rebus-style in a single square, forming a visual umlaut or dieresis over the appropriate letter in the answer below. So we had
[OO]PS
U BERMENSCH
and
SP[OO]R
NAIVETE
It looked better in the app, but you get the idea. :)
At first I thought today's theme was a bit of a sn[oo]ze, but that was before Horace pointed out the double O rebii forming the umlaut or dieresis in key spots. Then I thought it was gr[oo]vy. You might wonder how I missed that feature myself. I blame it on t[oo] much b[oo]ze from yesterday's h[oo]pla.
There was a lot of particularly [aa]pt clueing today including "Changes to survive" (ADAPTS), "Produce, as an egg" (LAY), "Bit of smoke" (WISP), "Tributes containing insults" (ROASTS), "Confers holy orders on" (ORDAINS), and "Kind of globe" was everybody's favorite: SNOW.
And, as if that wasn't enough, there were some clever d[oo]zies as well: "Second" for AIDE, "Brown, for one" (IVY), "Lab coat" for FUR, and my favorite, "Where one might sit for a spell?" (BEE) - ha!
Also, how about "Uneaten part" for RIND while also "Relish" for ZEST? K[oo]ky!
I had a spot of trouble with "Like many Bluetooth headsets" (ONEEAR) because A. I didn't know there were one-ear headsets, and 12ii. so many vowels in a row had me worried, but eventually I got everything in the right place.
"Greet with derision" (B[OO]AT) made my puzzle sense ITCH a little, as did "German opera highlight" (ARIE), but nothing to cause a CREDITSLIP for this constructor. :)
~Frannie.
As a rule, I'm really not a "cool, I learned something" solver, but hey for this one? Cool. I learned some things. Like what a dieresis is. Looks just like an UMLAUT to me, but...also I learned that certain words -- like SPOOR and NAIVETE are spelled with those diacritical marks. Finally -- and I should hang my head in shame for this -- I had No Idea that HAMPSHIRE College is "One of the `Five Colleges' of Massachusetts."
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