Roughly Speaking

It took me awhile to get the hang of this crossword. If you’re stuck, yes it’s a rebus puzzle. That means you might have to jam more than one letter into some of the squares. As always on Sundays, be sure to read the title.

If a grid has only a few rebus squares, it’s sometimes hard to get the trick. If there are many, then it can be difficult to get a foothold since so few of the answers are normal. This puzzle has many. Its count of 35 shatters the record for most rebus entries, which was just set in January (Across Lite, Solution, blog).

There are a few odd words but many terrific ones today, too. I love Margaret DUMONT, and it’s great to see her in the grid. COGITO ERGO SUM gets spelled out completely. Opera extras, sometimes affectionately known as “spear carriers” are more formally called SUPERNUMERARIES. A title that impressive means that they’re often unpaid, but it’s a fun gig if you can get it.

I have some constructor notes from Mr. Payne. If you missed my extended interview with him, you can read it here. Please be sure to check out his blog at www.tripleplaypuzzles.com.

Notes from Trip Payne

This puzzle was originally going to be a triple rebus with ER, UM, and UH. I knew that would require a lot of finessing — putting in every UH entry I could find, and deliberately limiting the ERs, to try to get them somewhat equal in numbers. That turned out to be pretty much impossible; in all of my initial attempts, even with every BAUHAUS and UHAUL I could come up with, I was still only getting a small number of UHs and far more UMs and ERs. I really didn’t want to dump the UH part, but for balance, it was really the only option.

The main challenge in making this puzzle was making sure that E-R didn’t appear in consecutive squares anywhere, since it had to appear as a rebus whenever it occurred.

For whatever reasons — space concerns, personal preferences, who knows — quite a few of the clues I was happiest about were changed. (For example, 25 Across was “Single digits?” and 6 Down was “Conclusion beginning.”) Just one of the perils of the business, I suppose!

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