Deeply Puzzled

I intended to write a different post for my blog tonight. However, just after the little boys went to bed, my ES brought me an extra credit option for one of his classes. It was a page full of rebus puzzles (you know the puzzles where they write words or numbers in a square to represent a common phrase). Well, I tend to love these things.

There were 24 total puzzles on the page. ES had managed to figure out 12 (things like "Hot under the collar" and "Broken heart" and "One thing after another"). He was surprised at how quickly I solved several of them ("Hard up for cash," "the long and short of it," and "Looking out for number 1"). But, in the end, we were still stuck on three. Of course, my little competitive edge was whet and I was determined to figure the rest out.

So, I went on-line and searched for word puzzles (otherwise, I wouldn't have known these were called "rebus puzzles" - although they also went by other names like Brain Busters and Brain Bats). I have now looked at hundreds of these things. Many of them, I have seen before. I did find one that we were missing. It was:

END
^

Answer: The beginning of the end

Having looked at a good many of them, I also think I figured out the other one which had us stumped:

MORE
MORE
MORE

MORE
MORE
MORE

At first I thought this had something to do with there being six "more"s. But I'm guessing the answer is "Room for one more."

Now, I can't figure out the last one and couldn't find it on-line either. I even stumbled upon this interesting site, which I intend to visit when I have more time (I thought if I looked at popular phrases, it might come to me, but really finding the meanings behind some of these phrases would be far more fun than solving rebus puzzles).

So, my faithful readers, give this one a try:

NEA$R
N$EAR
NE$AR

It certainly stumped me. The first person to comment with the right answer (to be confirmed by my son's teacher, of course), will get a small prize from me! Woo-hoo, my second giveaway!