New York Times, Thursday, May 3, 2018

I love rebus puzzles. Years ago, back when I was more of a casual crossword solver, I remember doing this alien abduction themed puzzle where several squares had "ET" in the shape of a flying saucer and then there was a bonus "COW" rebus square underneath it. It completely blew my mind.

I think about that puzzle a lot when I'm hitting a writer's block and want to feel bad about how much more creative and ambitious other constructors can be.

So I've been trying to come up with a good rebus theme for a while. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there weren't any car rebuses in the XWord Info database because it seemed like every "thing in a box" idea that came to me had already been done before.

Initially I was trying to do something with"boxcars" as the revealer but I found that the 11-letter "compact cars" made for a better grid layout, plus I think is a more fun answer.

Four cars rebusized today, with an apt COMPACT CARS revealer. FOR DUMMIES was fantastic, especially since I plunked in DUMMIES right away, and then was stymied by the crossing AF? pattern. Delightful a-ha there.

ROPE LADDER was another great rebus entry. That's the way to get some juice out of your themers!

Unfortunately, OPEL stuck out to me, as I see FORDs, KIAs, AUDIs all the time, but I've only seen an OPEL in crosswords — even back when I was traveling all over the world. I would have much-preferred GMC (EGG MCMUFFIN, YOUNG MC), or even VW (ROE V WADE, UV WAVES). Probably others, too.

No doubt the GMC option would have required longer themer rebus answers, but that would have been nice. I enjoy rebuses the most when they're part of snazzy, long phrases, especially when those phrases are longer than 15 letters — it's so infrequent that you see a 16+ letter crossword entry!

In the past, Will has told me that for rebus puzzles, the longest entries in the grid ought to contain rebuses, and I'm fully on board with that now. PLAUDITS and GAUDIEST are fine words, but they're so short that they pale in comparison to the catchy OPEN AND SHUT and DANCE AROUND.

It also doesn't seem right that the so-so LIMA OHIO is the same length as GAUDIEST / PLAUDITS, and SLOVAKIA.

Fantastic misdirect on the "Casey at the Bat" clue. I struggled mightily to recall who wrote that (Ernest Thayer). Turns out I skimmed the clue too quickly — it's the autobiography of Casey STENGEL. Clever!

[Cellular carrier?] for RNA also shined.

And I appreciated Emily's effort to include bonuses in the fill. DIRT CHEAP, MANDELA, OLD SAWS helped make up for some of the ALII, SEL, ALC kind of crossword glue.

Overall, a solid rebus concept. These days though, the body of rebus work is so large, that new ones have to shine nearly perfectly or innovate to stand out.