IMPULSE CONTROL. I have difficulty with it in real life, and - it turns out - in crossword puzzles. I was almost fifteen minutes into this thing before I figured it out, but once I did, it was over quick.
The trick, as you probably also know, was to contain the EGO and the ID together in one square. I think it was the RUB[EGO]LDBERG / OPIO[ID] cross that finally did it for me. Before that I had guessed at a rebus in a single direction, but not different rebuses in different directions. Fun!
Lots of fun in the fill, too. I guessed SCHWA (Most common vowel sound in English) off the clue, but it took me quite a few crosses before SLALOM (Race that winds down in the winter?) schussed by. "Long line on a face" was an amusingly tricky clue for UNIBROW, and HOUSEBOAT (Accommodations that a bank might float a loan for?) was fun too. "Its home is on the range" (FRYINGPAN) was a good Non-QMC, and LISSOME (Agile and flexible) is a lovely word.
"Strike ... or something that can be batted" (LASH) seemed aaalmost right. Would "Strike (out) ..." have given too much away? I had "obits" at first for "Dead lines?" (ELEGY), "office dirt" before OFFIC[EGO]SSIP, and "yell" before YOWL (Caterwaul).
These "Natan Last and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class" puzzles are usually a lot of fun, and this was no exception. The end of my week of vacation is drawing closer, but the sadness about that is somewhat assuaged by the crosswords getting trickier and more fun. (My brother likes to voice support for "funner" as an acceptable comparative, and that last sentence would have been a perfect place to use it, but he's annoying me this morning, so I went with "more fun." :P)
I hope your day has started off well, that you enjoyed this crossword as much as I did, and that nothing is annoying you. It's a perfect day up here. I'm going to smile for a few minutes, and then look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
- Horace
Fun for me, especially since the NYT app didn't care if I had ID or EGO in the rebus squares. Terrific theme entries in themselves. Horace, think LASH as a verb meaning "strike with a whip."
ReplyDeleteWoof! This was a major challenge, but a fun one. I too did not think of putting both rebuses in until very late in the game. Impressive work!
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