New York Times, Thursday, March 24, 2022

My super smart and very punny grandfather, K.C. Angus, lived to 98 and did every NYT puzzle right up until the day he died in late 2019. I'd never even attempted the NYT until mid-2020; now I'm hooked, and I so wish I'd discovered it sooner so we could have shared it. He would have loved to see my debut in the Times today, even if he was mostly a Saturday guy — and was really not a fan of the rebus. :) This is for him.

I was thrilled to see two of my favourite clues make the cut (7-Down and 18-Down), and I'm grateful to the editing team for letting me reinstate my wee little bit of cluing CanCon (i.e., Canadian content) in 23-Across. Thanks to Robyn Weintraub for her mentorship (including gently but definitively steering me away from an early stab at a 21x version of this puzzle that had 148 entries...), and to puzzle pals Sara, Carly, Turbs, and Max for all of your testing, suggestions, and general awesomeness.

I've been a freelance editor since 2016, editing fiction/non-fiction for publishers and indie authors and doing a fair bit of corporate writing and editing — a beloved career I've finally landed on after an electrical engineering degree and seventeen years of various corporate jobs. For fun, I sing in a (very casual) folk/rock/country cover band, I play guitar and a bit of mandolin, and I like reading, hiking, fitness, and yoga. And crosswords! I live in Toronto with my husband, two teenage kids, a cat, and a dog.

P.S. For some bonus CanCon, and a great pick-me-up any time, look up Bhangra dancer (per my clue to 57-Across) Gurdeep Pandher in the Yukon. You won't regret it.

The NYT has published hundreds of rebuses now, so you have to raise the bar to get an acceptance. That's precisely what Jess does today! Well, not exactly. It's more than a literal RAISED THE BAR, and it's one step above a BAR rebus. In fact, it's exactly one step up!

An example, to clarify: RAIN (BAR)RELS / (BAR)ISTA both contain the BAR rebus. But wait, there's more! Under RAIN (BAR)RELS lurks SUSHI. SUSHI is not a [Place to order sake and sashimi], but a SUSHI (BAR) is — the BAR is "raised" at the end of that entry.

I could use some sake now, for heaven's sake.

Even the RAISE THE (BAR) revealer gets into the game, crossing CA(BAR)ET, with DIVE (BAR) hiding underneath. Neat to get these triple-theme answer sets.

And I'd totally go to a place that's a cross between a CABARET and a DIVE BAR.

Pairs of crossing themers make filling a bear. Tucking a third themer in amps up the difficulty by much more than 50%, even if that third themer is short. Good thing that Jess had a ton of flexibility; able to test out many possibilities under DISEM(BAR)KED: TASK, MINI, DIVE, or even CASH, CLAM, CLIF, CROW, etc.

I would have loved for all the bars to make no sense with their clues, like SUSHI. A [Shabby establishment] is a DIVE, so I didn't notice anything odd. CROW clued as [Device for applying leverage] would have been a much more interesting needle-scratcher, for example.

Overall, I appreciate Jess's efforts to add a unique extra layer, greatly enjoying the delayed secondary a-ha of figuring out SUSHI + BAR. And I'll raise a glass to those hidden MINI and DIVE BARs, because I love having my spirits lifted.

So much for raising the bar.