Parthenon dedicatee / TUE 4-21-20 / Big French daily / Ottawa chief who shares his name with automobile / Someone hell-bent on writing

Constructor: Andrew Kingsley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (4:14, an average-ish *Wednesday* time for me)

THEME: FRUIT TOPPING (26D: Dessert add-on ... or what the answer to each starred clue has)— hidden (sound-wise) at the "top" (i.e. beginning) of each themer (all of them Downs) is a fruit:

Theme answers:

• PEARLY WHITES (3D: *Teeth, slangily)
• FIGHTER JETS (30D: *Air Force aircraft)
• PLUMAGE (7D: *Peacock's pride)
• LE MONDE (46D: *Big French daily)
• QUINCENERA (9D: *Rite of passage celebrating a 15th birthday)

Word of the Day: PONTIAC (40A: Ottawa chief who shares his name with an automobile) —

Pontiac or Obwandiyag (c. 1714/20 – April 20, 1769) was an Odawa war chief known for his role in the war named for him, from 1763 to 1766 leading Native Americans in a struggle against British military occupation of the Great Lakes region. It followed the British victory in the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years' War. Pontiac's importance in the war that bears his name has been debated. Nineteenth-century accounts portrayed him as the mastermind and leader of the revolt, but some subsequent scholars argued that his role had been exaggerated. Historians today generally view him as an important local leader who influenced a wider movement that he did not command.

The war began in May 1763 when Pontiac and 300 followers attempted to take Fort Detroitby surprise. His plan foiled, Pontiac laid siege to the fort, where he was eventually joined by more than 900 warriors from a half-dozen tribes. Meanwhile, messengers spread the word of Pontiac's actions, and the war expanded far beyond Detroit. In July 1763, Pontiac defeated a British detachment at the Battle of Bloody Run, but he was unable to capture the fort. In October, he lifted the siege and withdrew to the Illinois Country. Pontiac's actions contributed to the British Crown's issuance of the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited British settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains to preserve an area for Native Americans. (wikipedia)

Never ever got a rhythm with this one. Never built of steam. Maybe it's the high-word-count choppiness of the grid (it really is more pockmarked than usual—this has to do with the placement, not with the total number, of black squares). Maybe it was the cluing, which seemed straightforward but also routinely slightly ambiguous. Maybe it's the slightly oversized grid (15x16). And maybe it's because I was trying to solve quickly at 4:45 a.m. Anyway, I "struggled" (I can't bring myself to use that word here without quotation marks, since I was only about 45 seconds off my average, but 45 seconds is a Lot on Tuesday). The upside, though, is that I liked the puzzle. It is good. I wish it had appeared on Wednesday, but you can't have everything you want. I struggled not because the grid was filled with awkward or obscure garbage, or the clues were bad, but because ... well, I just did. So even though I don't particularly enjoy the feeling of struggling (however slightly) on a Tuesday, I was still able to appreciate this puzzle when I was done. And I had no idea what the theme was until I was done. I guess if I were going very slowly and deliberately and really looking at the asterisked clues as I went along, then I might've noticed, but nope, I hit the revealer and then had a pretty genuine aha moment. It was maybe slightly under an aha. But it was at least a curious and pleasantly surprised "oh." The theme is good because it's simple and consistent and yet still inventive-seeming. If any of those fruits had actually sounded like fruits *in their respective answers*, the whole thing would've been a bust. But every one gets the re-pronunciation treatment, hurrah. Specifically, the vowel sound changes each time. Good. And since the themers themselves are interesting answers, you've got about as polished a Tuesday effort as you're gonna get. Better than Monday, shoulda been a Wednesday, but I'll take it on a Tuesday.


So many things I just couldn't get quickly. Like TAPES (1A: Some preserved conversations). Seems straightforward, but in the digital age, this could've been anything. Nothing seemed obvious. Parsing TAPSON took time, as did BESURE (short two-worders can really throw me). HORMONE needed crosses (21D: Subject of interest to an endocrinologist). ALE comes in a bottle but is not itself a "bottle" :( so that clue was weird to me (15D: Bottle that might be labeled "XXX") (and ... really? outside of cartoons you see that "labeling"? and even in cartoons, it's usually moonshine, not ALE) (when I google [xxx on bottle], I get moonshine rum vodka ... spirits) (anyway, moving on). Not at all sure how to spell CURLICUES (thought maybe there was a "Q" in there or that there was some whimsical spelling that put the first part as "CURLY"). I wrote in EBBTIDE before LOWTIDE (those are the same, right?) (36D: Prime time for beachcombing). Could not see SUPPLE easily from its (oddly wordy) clue (49D: Capable of being folded without creasing or breaking). Had COG for CAM (62D: Engine part) and CAN and then JAR for EAR (65D: Makeshift pencil holder). Quotation-holding words are never ever easy for me to get, so ANGER took work (72A: "He that is slow to ___ is better than the mighty": Proverbs). ROTATE would've been easier with a spin-clue, but we get 53D: Take turns. SPOT could've been ESPY (58A: Catch sight of). SYNC and "connect" feel like very different words to me (28D: Connect, as a smartphone to a computer). Needed several crosses to see PONTIAC. I wasn't even sure of the FRUIT part of FRUIT TOPPING for a while (came at it from below). This was more machete-hacking than solving. But I got by.


I know it's too much to expect Ñs to have Ñ crosses, but I really notice the Ñ/N clash every time now. But at least when you leave the tilde off the (second) "N" in QUINCEANERA, you ... well, you aren't faced with an AÑO/ANO situation. That is, omitting the tilde doesn't get you a different Spanish word with a *completely* different meaning.

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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