New York Times, Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Hello, NYT Crossworld! 'm a writer, a proud St. Louisan, and (as of May) a Tulane alum with majors in Theatre and Political Science. I made most of this puzzle backstage during last year's spring show (I hit my cues, I promise)!

This is a fairly new passion for me. Cracking Jim Peredo's January 2020 NYT crossword hooked me in as a newbie solver and sparked my interest in making a puzzle of my own. I thank him for taking the time to keep his ambitious grid clean. Any time I'm tempted to slack off in the fill today, I remind myself of the thrill I felt finishing his puzzle then.

I'm proud of my cleanliness under the rebus constraints, but I wish I'd been able to squeeze in stronger entries (pun intended). INH(AB)IT(AB)LE gave me the symmetry I needed, but it's no SANT(AB)(AB)Y.

Shout-outs to Phil (the perfect "gateway-drug" website for aspiring constructors) and XWord Info (an indispensable resource for me every step of the way). And thank you for checking out my eight-pack!

The most basic obligation for a rebus is that it must give some reason for the squish. AB CRUNCHES = crunch AB into a single square is perfect.

However, so many rebus concepts hit this basic threshold that it usually takes something above and beyond to make one stand out. Having two AB squares per themer — mirroring the pairs of ABs in one's core — does precisely that.

Tightness also helped make this concept stand out. You can enter *AB*AB* on our Finder page to see possibilities. There aren't many other great entries — BADA BING BADA BOOM, SANTA BABY, KAREEM ABDUL JABBAR, but not much else that's colorful. This makes it more interesting than if the rebus concept had been something like *ET*ET*, where there are hundreds of possibilities.

Superb gridwork, too. Most crosswords end up with a few dings, and it's even rarer for a debut to be spotless. Yes, some entries might be tougher for some — CBGB NYALA aren't as common as CHAI IDAHO, for example — but one could make a case that these, plus SABRA, NENE, SYSCO, are perfectly fine.

I would have liked more out of the Down rebus entries. There's nothing at all wrong with ARABS, ABHOR, ABBEY. However, having a pair of long Downs that went through AB rebus squares would have been next-level. Take out the black square between HIJAB and DAMUP and see what might be possible!

Newer constructors often propose rebus ideas to me. There's something about squishing multiple letters into a single square that appeals to people's creative side. Rebuses are high in supply and low in demand, so it takes a lot for a rebus concept to pass my bar. If Jared had approached me with this notion, it would have been a rare instance where I would have said yes.