New York Times, Wednesday, October 6, 2021

I live in Blue Bell, PA which prior to 1840 was called Pigeontown for the sky-darkening flocks of passenger pigeons that once alighted there. A species that numbered in the billions was hunted to extinction until the last one died in captivity in 1914. However, that historical fact has nothing to do with the genesis of this puzzle.

That would be the fact of being around pigeonholes every day of my 30-year career with the USPS, both at Fairmount Station, where the clerks sorted mail into them, and in the mailrooms of the high-rise apartment buildings I delivered to. It was during a fallow creative period in late 2019, that I finally saw the crossword potential of those ubiquitous little boxes.

Hope you found it to be a pleasant diversion, especially those solvers who've found themselves cooped up this past year.

It always throws me off to experience a rebus on a Wednesday. Sometimes it's obvious what's going on — today's was not. So tough to figure out not only where the rebus squares were located, but what was inside them. When I eventually figured out that I needed multiple letters for WHATS COOKING, I tried COOK as the rebus. Geezers as OLD COOKS, you ask? Sure, I like to cook!

Rebus revealers can provide such a sharp a-ha moment when they're indirect but still lead you to the right notion. My light bulb dinged as I went from wondering what PIGEONS had to do with COOKs, to realizing it was a sly way of getting at COO. Clever idea.

I'm not sure the HOLES part of PIGEONHOLES works as well as some rebus revealers, though. I usually think of crushed or box, which more directly gets as the notion. Since this is a Wednesday, how about circling the rebuses like in Amanda and Ross's puzzle, making the COOs more hole-y? Maybe even darken them!

It'd have been great to get COO broken across words of a phrase, but all I could find was CO-OWNER. I like Jules's selection of themers, evocative KEEP A COOL HEAD to WHATS COOKING to a COORS LIGHT. And heck yeah, ME WANT COOKIE! Almost could make this into a food/drink mini-theme. Just sayin', ME WANT COOKIE with ICE CREAM SCOOPER …

I appreciated Jules's effort to make all the rebus entries interesting, in both Across and Down. COCOONING and OIL TYCOON, that's great extra material. It did force some compromises, especially where themers met up. No surprise to see TERR near the crossing of OIL TYCOON and COORS LIGHT.

Overall, a fun multi-step process of rebus discovery, making me work for a payoff that was worth it. I found it tough for a Thursday experience, making it frustrating for a Wednesday, so all the ANON EDT ESSE LAI OTT WPA kind of glue bothered me more than it should have. Curious choice to not run this on a Thursday.

ADDED NOTE: Jules writes, "Pigeonholes are boxes like crossword squares. Your hole-y critique was wholly misplaced." Excellent correction and love the groany puns!