New York Times, Thursday, June 18, 2020

This was a very fun puzzle to construct; making the crosses in the traffic jam mesh was interesting. Peter Gordon's rainbow puzzle had a similar challenge, but Peter had a much tougher job, as he was dealing with a forced arrangement and more rebus squares. Elizabeth Gorski also dealt with those restrictions in her New Year's Eve 2002 puzzle and her poker-themed puzzle from 2005, among others. So my restrictions weren't too tight, but they were a fun challenge. (Also, I like the bonus of SEMI and TRUCK going across two squares, as if one SEMI TRUCK was taking up two spaces.)

I'm very happy with the result, but as usual, I think this puzzle could be improved. I could have done more with the outside themers than simple traffic-adjacent answers; maybe CAR squares winding through the grid and ending at the BOTTLENECK would be fun. Additionally, lengthening the rebus crosses to words like [CAR]OLE KING and WEATHER [VAN]E would be more fun; these crosses are clean, but the center is structurally tough to crack into. I clued the crosses easily in my submission to counter that, but it looks like they've been clued harder in the edit (no complaints, though; I love harder clues).

Hope everyone enjoys the puzzle! Also, as always, the Crossword Discord Server is open for anyone to join and chat about puzzle-solving and construction; hope to see some new people there!

Day 4 of the CUJO (Cracking Up Jim Horne with Overthinking) show!

Jim: The theme works.

Jeff: Yes, fun concept, all those vehicles piled up in a row. But ...

Jim: (unable to decide between eye-rolling and laughter)

Jeff: Hey, VAN. Why don't you do the run for the ROSES, skipping the line completely? Maybe it's too much of a LOTTO to weave in and out of the single letters? There's lots of space in the adjacent "lanes."

Jim: (turning red, either from the strain of holding back cackles, or infuriation)

Jeff: I enjoyed the BOTTLENECK themer, and if the grid had more resembled that — a BOTTLENECK of black squares forcing vehicles into a single lane with no other way out — that would have been fantastic. Squeeze both of those T-shaped black square chunks toward the middle and it's much harder to escape.

Jim: Hold on, let me write this down for posterity. You want rebus letters to weave in and out of single letters ...

Even though Ricky didn't quite convert(ible) the concept into a spot-on visual, I appreciated the excellent gridwork in the middle. It's a tough task to integrate five adjacent multi-letter blocks, and the result is so smooth. So apt to end the string with a meta reBUS, too!

I'm curious how many solvers are going to balk at KUBO. Based on his previous puzzles, I get a sense that KUBO is an expression of Ricky's personal interests. I don't know how many solvers will be equally interested and might have a tough time with the name, so I'd leave those types of flourishes out.

Although the visual didn't work as strongly as it could have, and the themers on the sides felt superfluous, the execution around the middle impressed me enough that I still enjoyed the solve.