Jess Shulman author page
2 puzzles by Jess Shulman
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 11 answer words debuted by Jess Shulman.
| B | A | C | K | S | T | A | G | S | P | E | A | T | ||
| O | B | O | E | I | O | N | I | C | O | U | C | H | ||
| N | U | D | G | E | N | U | D | G | E | T | R | E | E | |
| E | T | A | M | C | S | A | N | Y | B | O | D | Y | ||
| B | I | E | L | N | E | A | R | |||||||
| P | A | P | E | R | E | S | T | N | O | V | A | S | ||
| A | T | E | A | S | E | W | I | N | K | W | I | N | K | |
| T | R | O | T | P | E | A | C | E | N | O | T | I | ||
| H | I | N | T | H | I | N | T | T | O | I | L | E | D | |
| S | A | S | H | A | S | H | E | R | E | A | D | S | ||
| E | T | C | H | N | O | D | S | |||||||
| S | O | I | H | E | A | R | I | T | O | L | O | P | ||
| L | A | C | E | C | O | U | G | H | C | O | U | G | H | |
| I | K | E | A | H | U | G | M | E | L | A | R | D | ||
| P | S | S | T | E | D | G | A | R | D | U | E | S |
| C | F | O | S | P | A | M | B | O | S | O | M | |||
| U | R | D | U | U | R | S | A | I | N | T | R | O | ||
| R | A | I | N | B | R | E | L | S | R | E | E | C | E | |
| S | U | S | H | I | M | A | T | H | C | L | A | S | S | |
| E | D | T | S | H | I | N | A | H | E | M | ||||
| S | T | Y | X | E | M | B | G | O | E | D | ||||
| T | A | P | T | A | P | T | A | S | K | P | U | R | ||
| I | C | O | N | E | B | E | R | T | P | E | R | U | ||
| E | A | T | A | R | O | N | E | G | G | N | O | G | ||
| D | I | S | E | M | B | K | S | A | R | A | ||||
| M | I | N | I | L | O | K | I | U | S | C | ||||
| P | R | O | T | E | C | T | E | D | P | I | N | T | A | |
| S | I | K | H | S | R | A | I | S | E | T | H | E | B | |
| S | L | E | E | T | I | S | U | P | D | I | V | E | ||
| T | E | R | R | Y | O | H | M | Y | P | E | T |
★ The NYT has published hundreds of rebuses now, so you have to raise the bar to get an acceptance. That's precisely what Jess does today! Well, not exactly. It's more than a literal RAISED THE BAR, and it's one step above a BAR rebus. In fact, it's exactly one step up!
An example, to clarify: RAIN (BAR)RELS / (BAR)ISTA both contain the BAR rebus. But wait, there's more! Under RAIN (BAR)RELS lurks SUSHI. SUSHI is not a [Place to order sake and sashimi], but a SUSHI (BAR) is — the BAR is "raised" at the end of that entry.
I could use some sake now, for heaven's sake.
Even the RAISE THE (BAR) revealer gets into the game, crossing CA(BAR)ET, with DIVE (BAR) hiding underneath. Neat to get these triple-theme answer sets.
And I'd totally go to a place that's a cross between a CABARET and a DIVE BAR.
Pairs of crossing themers make filling a bear. Tucking a third themer in amps up the difficulty by much more than 50%, even if that third themer is short. Good thing that Jess had a ton of flexibility; able to test out many possibilities under DISEM(BAR)KED: TASK, MINI, DIVE, or even CASH, CLAM, CLIF, CROW, etc.
I would have loved for all the bars to make no sense with their clues, like SUSHI. A [Shabby establishment] is a DIVE, so I didn't notice anything odd. CROW clued as [Device for applying leverage] would have been a much more interesting needle-scratcher, for example.
Overall, I appreciate Jess's efforts to add a unique extra layer, greatly enjoying the delayed secondary a-ha of figuring out SUSHI + BAR. And I'll raise a glass to those hidden MINI and DIVE BARs, because I love having my spirits lifted.
So much for raising the bar.