Ethan Zou author page
1 puzzle by Ethan Zou
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 4 answer words debuted by Ethan Zou.
| T | I | D | A | L | I | D | O | S | B | R | A | T | ||
| A | B | O | V | E | H | E | H | E | R | O | T | I | ||
| F | E | R | E | O | R | O | C | H | E | I | G | O | R | |
| T | I | M | P | U | P | A | E | B | E | E | M | E | ||
| A | S | I | A | M | F | L | Y | O | F | F | ||||
| C | R | I | B | L | O | O | S | E | N | S | ||||
| H | A | W | E | D | L | A | Y | U | P | D | A | T | ||
| A | L | E | T | B | O | X | E | R | F | E | R | Y | ||
| R | U | E | M | O | O | L | A | F | I | E | C | E | ||
| E | M | O | B | A | N | D | H | A | I | R | ||||
| V | A | C | A | Y | S | M | E | S | A | S | ||||
| A | V | E | S | E | N | O | O | B | S | P | A | Z | ||
| M | O | H | S | B | O | R | D | E | T | E | R | I | E | |
| F | R | E | E | U | S | E | D | A | M | I | N | O | ||
| M | E | E | T | T | E | S | S | S | A | L | T | S |
★ Regular readers might be surprised that I picked today's as the POW! Not only is this rebus-weary solver wary of the genre, but having one on a Wednesday, when no one expects it?
That's NEITHER HERE NOR THERE. I had so much fun solving this one that I declare WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER.
I found today's solve so entertaining that I spent an hour figuring out why:
- Great starter rebus. Right from the get-go, something was up. It's easy to pick out the common letters E and R, so along with the straightforward theme clues, things like ROGER FEDERER came easily.
- Snazzy phrases. I recently got hooked onto a YouTube embiggenator show, after being rapt at the creation of the world's largest FERRERO ROCHER. Maybe nauseating, but also drool-worthy.
- Solid rebus rationale. BOX ER = shove ER into a box. Yup.
- OH HELL YEAH, those bonuses!
- Themeless-level wordplay in the clues. This bball superfan loved describing a LAY-UP as an "underhanded move."
I have reservations about any sort of rebus on a Wednesday. I hear a lot of grumbling from rebus haters who say that what they like about crosswords is the simplicity of putting a single letter in a box, and I sympathize. However, rules getting broken is the price of creativity, and that's something to which any art form ought to aspire.
I'm not wild about featuring boxing, given the severity of the head injuries and even deaths. That said though, there was so much to enjoy here that it made it easy to throw in the towel of my hesitations. Knockout POW! debut.