Spiky fruits with a noxious odor / WED 7-12-23 / Subject of the 2008 documentary The Black Candle / Scary roller coaster twists / Structure historically found by a river / Deflect as an insult or a sword

Constructor: Brooke Husic and Brian Thomas

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Days of the week — days of the week are represented by their three-letter abbrs., which appear, in order, at the beginning of seven theme answers:

Theme answers:

• SUNNI (1A: About 85%-90% of Muslims, globally [1st of 7])
• MONTALBAN (17A: Hollywood's Ricardo or Paolo [2nd of 7])
• TU ES BELLE (26A: French for "You are beautiful!" [3rd of 7])
• "WE DID IT!" (37A: "Yippee for us!" [4th of 7])
• THUMB WARS (48A: Digital confrontations? [5th of 7])
• FRIAR TUCK (58A: One of Robin Hood's Merry Men [6th of 7])
• SATAN (69A: One with horns [7th of 7])

Word of the Day: Paolo MONTALBAN (17A) —

Paolo Montalban (born May 21, 1973) is a Filipino-American actor and singer best known for his performance in the 1997 Disney television film, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella as Prince Christopher, opposite Brandy as Cinderella. He reprised that role in a stage version of the musical with Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler as Cinderella and Eartha Kitt as the Fairy Godmother. [...] Montalban was named one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People of 1998. (wikipedia)

• • •

I feel certain I've seen this theme before, or something like it, but the grid is so sparkling and shimmery that I didn't have a chance to care. By the time I realized what the theme answers were doing, the grid had already sold me. I didn't really care what the "7" stuff was supposed to be about because I was just enjoying the ride. Which brings me to what is perhaps a point I should stress more often—the higher the overall quality of the fill, the less the exact nature of the theme even matters. I was like "okay, cool, a really bouncy mid-week themeless, let's go!" But then of course there was a theme, and the theme was a big part of *why* the grid was so good. That is, it's the themers that gave the grid many of its most interesting answers. SUNNI and SATAN are throwaways (though I like that they're both ... religious ... in their ways ... and that SATAN's just chilling at the very bottom, where he's probably most comfortable). But all the midweek stuff really lights up. TU ES BELLE is probably the biggest reach—you don't usually get foreign phrases of that length in a grid, so it seems like it could really trip up non-French speakers—and yet it's also the most inventive themer of the lot. Also, what the hell else are you gonna use for your TUE- answer? The only other things I can think of are also French phrases. "WE DID IT!" is a great, exultant little way to hide "WED.," and it makes a nice grid centerpiece. THUMB WARS made me laugh (haven't thought of those in years), and the clue on that one was especially nice (48A: Digital confrontations?) (your thumb is the "digit" in question, though you probably know that by now). And I learned a new MONTALBAN! Paolo was totally unfamiliar to me. But Ricardo! A mainstay of my childhood, both for his role as Mr. Roarke on "Fantasy Island," and for his earthy, sensual pitches for Chrysler. The phrase "rich Corinthian leather" is iconic. Look at him stroke that passenger seat! Purr about leather to me again, Ricardo! 

But the themers were only part of what gave the puzzle bounce. HANDHELD CASHBOX HELIXES DURIANS DATA DUMP NOURISH KWANZAA ... so many solid 7+-letter answers. Plus an all-star cast. Nicole KIDMAN! NATASHA Bedingfield! RUPAUL! The theme concept really doesn't seem like much, but the solving experience was overwhelmingly positive. Undesirable fill is rare, and spread out. All that in an easy mid-week package. Safe to say I ADMIRED this one.

No real trouble spots today. I can read French and I knew Ricardo MONTALBÁN, so I had a bit of an advantage with the themers, and all the puzzle's proper noun answers were well known to me, including Jacqueline du Pré, whose performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto comes up in a memorable scene in last year's Tár. Strangely, the part of the puzzle that gave me the most trouble was -ING (40A: English suffix equivalent to Spanish's -ando and -iendo). I had the IN- (!?!) and thought "well it's an 'O' or an 'A'"—clearly I was humming long so well that I wasn't thinking clearly. I was also having trouble coming up with the "G" cross (from SAGAS (31D: Major ordeals)—I think of SAGAS as stories, but they're stories full of challenges and troubles, which is how we get to the "ordeals" sense of the word, I guess). The other weird one-letter sticking point came when I had BO- for 27D: Stick for a 15-Across player and I hadn't solved 15-Across yet (CELLO)—I could not get BO- to be a "stick," largely because I assumed the "player" in question would be a sports player of some kind. I wanted BAT and ... well, nothing else. But getting that "W" for BOW didn't take long. This puzzle was closer to "Easy" than "Easy-Medium" for me, but I wanted to allow for the possibility that some of this fill might prove flummoxing to some solvers—the French and the DURIANS and the MONTALBANs, etc. Today I learned that Ricardo MONTALBÁN spells his name with the accent on the final "A," while Paolo ... doesn't. I also just discovered Madeline Montalban, and, well, I'm intrigued:

Madeline Montalban (born Madeline Sylvia Royals; 8 January 1910 – 11 January 1982) was an English astrologer and ceremonial magician. She co-founded the esoteric organisation known as the Order of the Morning Star (OMS), through which she propagated her own form of Luciferianism. (wikipedia)

Before I fall down a mid-century English occultist rabbit hole, I'm going to sign off. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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