Max Carpenter author page
1 puzzle by Max Carpenter
with Jeff Chen comments
| Y | M | Y | M | I | M | T | O | O | T | I | P | ||||
| C | O | C | O | A | C | A | R | O | B | R | I | C | A | ||
| C | O | K | E | S | B | L | A | M | E | I | D | O | L | ||
| A | R | F | T | I | M | E | S | P | I | C | A | Y | N | E | |
| A | F | R | O | L | H | A | S | A | A | P | S | O | |||
| L | A | C | R | O | S | S | E | H | A | M | |||||
| A | L | T | O | N | A | S | N | E | S | T | L | E | |||
| Y | K | O | N | G | O | L | D | P | O | T | A | T | O | E | S |
| P | A | R | D | O | N | S | E | W | A | M | O | S | |||
| P | A | L | E | N | E | R | G | Y | S | E | |||||
| O | T | H | E | R | H | A | N | D | S | E | E | M | |||
| W | H | Y | Y | O | U | L | I | T | T | L | E | S | K | A | |
| L | O | D | E | N | A | C | R | E | D | R | O | I | D | ||
| E | R | R | S | C | L | E | A | N | Y | O | U | T | H | ||
| T | A | O | H | A | R | P | S | O | P | E | D |
WHY YOU LITTLE is a perfect rebus revealer. Not only is it a phrase evoking all sorts of vivid images (why is it that an adult choking a kid over and over is okay, BTW?), but rationalizes why Y and U should be shrunk and crammed into a single box.
It's a shame that WHY YOU LITTLE appeared so recently, though. This puzzle would have had a more powerful impact on this daily solver if more time had elapsed. Unfortunate.
ENERGY USE is the classic way that Will Shortz wants a rebus string to be included — broken across words of a phrase. In the past, Will has balked at entries like TIMES PICAYUNE, where the string is fully embedded in one word, and the other word does no "theme work." I do like the color of YUKON GOLD POTATOES — that's some brilliant marketing — but it's strange to experience a non-standard rebus inclusion like this. I'd have welcomed FAMILY UNIT, MILITARY UNIFORM, SAY UNCLE, HIGHLY UNLIKELY, or even QWERTYUIOP for its sheer audacity.
I liked YUM YUM better. Even though it doesn't break YU across words, it's fun to have the repeat. There's been plenty of precedent for that.
It was odd to get the YUM repeated in YUM YUM / TOM YUM SOUP. They aren't etymologically related, but everything about it screams inelegant. I'd never put TOM YUM SOUP and BUBBLE YUM together in a themeless, for example.
There were a few wonky points, like I'M TOO headlining as a partial, and some ESSE ICBM RIAA. Overall, though, the spot-on revealer helped to make up for some of the not-quite-right parts of this entertaining debut.