Did it bug you that this rebus was simple? Not me! Though I take pleasure in novel ideas that push boundaries, rebuses are already powerful sufficient for a lot of solvers. Provided that the NYT’s Sunday viewers is broad and assorted, leaving it as a normal rebus is sensible.
Though, having a SHOE smashing the ROACH would have been tremendous satisfying …
PYTHAGORE(AN T)HEOREM is a textbook instance of the way to pull off a rebus: the phrase spans throughout all phrases of the entry, and it is a superb phrase. Even the crossing reply reveals a few of this, with ANT crawling throughout LE(AN-T)O.
DESI(GNAT)ED DRIVER would normally get cited by Will Shortz since GNAT does not span the phrases — DRIVER does not do any thematic work. What are the options, although? SI(GN A T)REATY is technically higher, but it surely’s not essentially the most thrilling of phrases.
Typically it is higher to flout the rules so solvers may not STIFLE A YAWN.
Comparable case for IN LIKE (FLY)NN. That is such a colourful phrase that the foundations be damned.
JEF(F LY)NNE does object, although.
Does BEE bee-long? They’re so important in sustaining the stability of nature. My spouse would have most popular drawing consideration to a beheMOTH drawback in her walk-in closet, and my children would have stated dynaMITE! if their newest worry had been included.
It is typically frowned upon to have Throughout fill longer than themers — WATERMELON and SEMIWEEKLY overshadow CEL(TIC Okay)NOT. Exhausting to withstand the quaint PATOOTIE, although.
I appreciated that Laura greater than balanced out her to-be-stamped-out AGIN GLO glue with a lot pretty SPARE RIB LEGALESE DELI CASE and even DIATOMIC for us chem nerds.
A lot of building is all about trade-offs, and I like most of the ones Laura made immediately.