See the 12 answer words debuted by Emet Ozar.
W | I | L | T | O | S | C | A | R | N | E | S | S | R | A | E | |||||
A | S | E | A | O | W | E | T | O | Y | U | C | C | A | B | E | L | L | |||
R | A | N | K | H | A | L | O | S | E | T | H | O | S | R | A | P | S | |||
M | O | D | E | M | P | E | N | C | I | L | M | O | U | S | T | A | C | H | E | |
A | H | E | M | B | O | O | T | L | E | E | R | R | I | T | A | |||||
O | P | H | E | L | I | A | F | E | S | S | E | D | Y | E | N | |||||
R | E | A | E | B | A | N | D | M | A | D | V | E | E | S | O | U | T | |||
S | E | N | D | T | E | A | S | E | T | B | A | S | S | T | U | B | A | |||
O | D | D | A | S | S | E | R | T | P | O | T | T | O | T | E | M | ||||
A | W | A | Y | P | O | E | T | R | Y | M | A | R | I | N | E | |||||
D | E | A | C | O | N | L | E | O | M | Y | E | O | O | N | M | E | D | S | ||
R | U | L | E | R | S | P | I | L | O | S | E | G | O | D | S | |||||
E | B | O | O | K | N | G | O | O | R | G | A | N | S | W | S | J | ||||
S | I | N | F | O | N | I | A | H | A | N | S | E | L | M | I | L | E | |||
S | E | E | S | F | I | T | L | O | N | M | A | Y | B | E | N | O | T | |||
P | A | L | P | E | S | T | L | E | S | T | R | A | N | G | E | |||||
K | C | A | R | T | A | G | T | E | A | M | S | D | E | L | I | |||||
B | E | E | D | T | H | E | Q | U | E | S | T | I | O | N | A | P | P | L | Y | |
L | E | D | E | D | R | U | M | S | E | L | B | O | W | R | E | I | E | |||
E | R | E | S | T | R | I | E | S | S | I | E | G | E | E | E | L | S | |||
U | S | D | V | A | N | S | T | A | R | O | T | P | R | O | M |
Easter eggs! Adventure was one of the first video games that captured my youthful attention. I spent dozens of hours locating Robinett's egg and eventually found it, boasting about my nerd cred to anyone too slow to run away. And when "Ready Player One" hit the shelves — with an audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"! — the fanboy SQUEE! shattered robotic armor all the way to Frobozz.
Rebus puzzles are common these days, although they're much more prevalent on Thursdays than Sundays. We did have another Sunday EGG hunt, but that was way back in 1977, and some factors helped elevate today's.
First and foremost, what a fantastic central entry, LEGGO MY EGGO. Not only does it neatly hide two eggs, but I have vivid memories of those commercials. Man, their marketing team did an amazing job! I still crave Eggo waffles to this day.
It's also cool that Emet didn't have the stand-alone word EGG in any themer. What fresh, evocative hiding places — PREGGERS, BOOTLEGGER, ARPEGGIO, and best of all, within longer phrases like REGGAE BAND.
Now, one entry BEGGED THE QUESTION, wtf are YEGGS? Let us pray to Crucivera, the god of crosswords, that we shall never need to discuss this piece of Maleskan crosswordese again.
I'd have loved to get a few EGGs broken across phrases, which Will Shortz usually requires. There aren't many possibilities, but a few like NUTMEG GRATER, GREG GUMBEL, and MEG GRIFFIN would have been fantastic.
Overall, though, a solid debut puzzle. It's not easy to create a Sunday 140-word grid, and it's even harder when you have so many EGGs to hide.