Thursday September 13th 2018, NY Times Crossword

Time: 20:31
Average Thursday: 26:32
Best Thursday: 10:18

Rebus squares in crossword puzzles are squares that have more than one letter in them, usually according to some kind of theme that becomes apparent as you solve the puzzle. These were the toughest for me when I first started getting seriously into crossword puzzles a year ago, but once you've done enough crosswords, you really start to get a sense of when something is wrong. Also, Thursdays tend to features rebus squares or some other kind of trick, so you usually know when to expect it as well. This rebus theme might be as straightforward as they come, since the revealers of INBOX and OUTBOX tell you that the words "in" and "out" will appear in boxes. That is a clear revealer. The rebus squares are also relatively easy to find since they're placed in the long-ish answers. THE FOUNTA(IN) OF Y(OUT)H and FROTH(IN)G AT THE M(OUT)H are both nice centerpiece answers to illustrate the theme. 

I'm betting this puzzle will get some flak for being old-fashioned and dated in its references. I've never heard of Cliff Robertson or the film CHARLY, for which he apparently won an Oscar in the title role. While it's a bit odd to say an Oscar-winning film is obscure, well, go look at some of the other Oscar winners of 1968 and tell me how many you remember. That said, I'm sure that clue was automatic for many solvers, but for me it took every single cross. So it goes.

I maybe could also have used a bit more from the clue "Actor Mark" to get  Mark HARMON. I got the H-A and happily threw in HAmill, which seemed more than reasonable, especially with a nice Tatooine clue for SUNS right next to it! I guess Mark Harmon was in West Wing, JAG, and NCIS, so nope, I'm never getting that. At least Harmon is a recognizable last name. How about "Community" producer Dan HARMON? That would work for me, but maybe it would baffle someone else.

ARGOTS is a lovely word for a secret inside language, although I'm not crazy about the plural. YET I feel like I'm CARP(IN)G AB(OUT) this puzzle a bit too much, because I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I'll let someone else complain about the excess of three-letter words and abbreviations. AKC (American Kennel Club) was annoying. I bet those tight corners gave people some trouble, but I was fortunate to manage to get traction in each of them. I guess I might finally know my Roman Numerals well enough to get LXX right off the bat for "70, in old Rome." OLE for learning from crosswords!