David Maymudes author page
1 puzzle by David Maymudes
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 8 answer words debuted by David Maymudes.
| D | E | S | P | A | I | R | D | R | J | S | E | P | T | O | R | M | E | |||
| E | N | C | A | R | T | A | Y | O | O | T | R | I | O | N | E | I | L | |||
| E | G | O | T | R | I | P | S | K | Y | R | I | N | G | C | Y | C | L | E | ||
| R | E | P | R | E | S | S | Y | O | U | R | L | U | C | K | H | M | O | N | G | |
| L | E | I | A | H | E | N | I | O | C | I | S | E | V | E | Y | |||||
| O | R | I | E | L | S | D | A | K | S | E | A | L | E | |||||||
| E | M | I | T | R | E | L | A | T | E | T | O | T | H | E | P | A | R | T | Y | |
| V | I | D | A | S | T | A | L | K | H | U | H | D | O | U | G | I | E | |||
| E | X | A | C | T | S | T | A | I | N | T | E | A | L | R | I | L | E | |||
| T | O | P | I | T | E | M | U | N | I | T | A | R | D | S | ||||||
| A | I | R | R | E | S | E | N | T | P | A | C | K | I | N | G | L | A | H | ||
| T | H | E | L | O | R | A | X | S | A | R | A | G | I | S | ||||||
| P | A | C | E | F | L | E | D | L | I | M | O | S | F | E | L | I | X | |||
| A | V | E | N | G | E | C | E | O | M | E | R | I | T | C | O | N | E | |||
| R | E | S | T | O | C | K | S | A | N | D | B | O | N | D | S | O | W | N | S | |
| S | O | R | T | A | T | Y | R | A | I | C | A | H | N | |||||||
| I | M | P | G | O | T | H | O | Y | S | T | A | E | D | A | M | |||||
| N | O | O | S | E | R | E | T | U | R | N | T | H | E | T | A | B | L | E | S | |
| S | N | O | W | S | K | I | E | R | U | I | E | S | I | D | E | O | N | E | ||
| U | G | L | I | I | N | L | A | N | N | E | A | R | T | S | A | L | E | |||
| M | O | S | T | R | A | S | P | S | O | L | R | O | O | T | F | O | R |
My first attempt at a Sunday puzzle was a RE- addition! Jill and I were in Guatemala, and I had my nose buried in our English to Spanish dictionary — the R section of the English side. There are so many RE- words that simply mean "do X again" that it took forever to find anything of interest. The themers were so memorable that I can't bring a single one to mind. Not a surprise that Will politey said that there was a RE-mote chance he'd take it.
About five years ago, Sam Donaldson asked me to work with him on a Sunday puzzle — a RE- addition! I've worked on a couple more over the years, too. I've found that they largely live or die by their humor — it's easy to make RE- phrases; not so easy to make them interesting.
Sophia and David did well overall. Someone yelling REPRESS YOUR LUCK! at the craps table is funny. RELATE TO THE PARTY brings up the Democratic presidential candidates opening mouths and inserting feet. Oh, Joe Biden, maybe do less talking and more quiet nodding.
There wasn't one themer that I wanted to post to Insta (if I had an Insta, or knew the terminology for posting to Insta), but there wasn't any one that made roll my eyes. That's a success.
I'd have liked more bonuses and less glue in the grid, though. There's no doubt that a Sunday 140-word puzzle is daunting, and especially so when it's your first puzzle (welcome to the club, David!). The reason Rich over at the LAT puts a hard cap of four partials in a Sunday puzzle is that they come across as inelegant. To have IN LA, OR ME, A LOAF, I HAVE, ON YOU can leave a feeling of lack of polish.
There's nothing wrong with the grid skeleton. It's more a matter of when you come into a situation where you need something like A LOAF to finish a corner; it's better to suck it up and iterate.
It's a fine theme for newer Sunday solvers. Easy enough to figure out and worth a laugh or two.