German opera highlight / THU 5-12-22 / Fortune 500 company with heart in its logo / Diacritical mark resembling a dieresis / Tree under which Siddhartha attained enlightenment

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Well, I have now learned the difference between UMLAUT and dieresis, so that's something. Actually, I didn't just learn the difference—this is my first encounter with "dieresis" at all (that I can remember). I think of everything "over" a letter as a "diacritical mark" and if anyone has tried to press further information on my brain, my brain has apparently responded "nah, it's cool, we'll just leave it there." This puzzle was so easy that I no-looked UMLAUT ... which made understanding what the hell the theme was supposed to be something of a challenge. I eventually went looking for any revealer I might've missed, and there it was. I think the clue on UMLAUT is a convoluted jargony mess, but the concept here is very clever and neatly executed. Genuine aha when I saw that UMLAUT was the key to this otherwise mysterious "OO" puzzle. I guess the first and last "OO"s are UMLAUTs (appearing, as they do, in German words), whereas the middle two are diereses. The former changes pronunciation, the latter syllabic value or weight. It's slightly weird to have a theme centered around a diacritical mark, and then have one of the theme answers contain a different diacritical mark that doesn't get visually represented (the acute accent on the final "E" in NAIVETÉ), especially when that is the diacritical mark in NAIVETÉ more likely to actually get used (the dieresis over the "I" being largely ignored these days). But still, if we focus just on the double-Os in this theme: IT'S COOL.

I wish the solving experience had been more pleasant. ÜBERMENSCH is a highlight, as is SNARFDOWN, but this puzzle lost a lot of goodwill early with the wretched UNPC (1D: Not acceptable, in a way), which I can't believe hasn't been scrapped from all wordlists by now. "PC" has always been a reactionary concept weaponized against people who have wanted pretty modest things like You To Not Be Racist / Sexist / Homophobic. A way of legitimizing longstanding bigoted norms by blaming the target of bigotry for being offended. A dishonest, garbage concept from the get-go. The same people now using "woke" derisively (and haphazardly) were the ones blah blah blahing about PC this and PC that in the '90s. And that's the other wretched thing about UNPC (or NOTPC): it feels dated. Anyway, it's about as pleasant to encounter as SPOOR. Or NOOUTS / APBS / TSELIOT all in a row, or ADE APSO ISH D'OH clustered together, or ACTII OYE LOOIES ELMO MILA EMU AURAS NYE ARIE (!?) (52D: German opera highlight) ... again, some of this avalanche is fine, but there's just a lot. It's true that the theme is dense (pairs of stacked words rather than the usual freestanding words), but still, the fact is the only really fun part of this was the payoff: the revealer. Which is something. But it would be great if the trip were as enjoyable as the destination.

And ugh, I forgot to mention ONEEAR. I don't know which is worse, the way ONEEAR looks in the grid or the way people look when they wear the bluetooth headsets in question. But hey, look—all you people who got run over (i.e. Naticked) by BODHI last week (or whenever it was) got rewarded today, as your newfound, hard-won knowledge had occasion to be put to use. LOL at clue on HAMPSHIRE (8D: One of the "Five Colleges" of Massachusetts). There are roughly 13 million colleges in Massachusetts. Also, I've never heard of this so-called "Five Colleges," though I've heard of them all individually: Amherst, HAMPSHIRE, Mount Holyoke, Smith, UM-Amherst. Anyway, the real Five Colleges are the Claremont Colleges, and don't let anyone tell you any different.

See you tomorrow.