Trey Mendez author page
1 puzzle by Trey Mendez
with Jim Horne comments
From The First Class of Our Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Trey writes:
I am a New Yorker with a mailing address in California who currently lives in Zagreb, Croatia.
I grew up competing in a variety of sports (football, basketball, baseball, track, lacrosse and mountain-bike racing), and I'm a fan of games of all sorts. I also love language and primarily make my living through language (nonfiction writing, content marketing, hosting podcasts, voice-over work and occasionally self-publishing fiction). So crossword puzzles help me scratch that itch to both play a game and play with words. Constructing crossword puzzles really lets me play with words because of the cluing. When I write anything, I'm trying to engage the mind and sync up with the reader. I love the thought of truly affecting someone I've never met with my writing: It's like an immortality device. The relationship between the constructor and the solver may be the purest expression of the idea of building a bond between writer and reader that ever existed. That's what drives me to construct.
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I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia TECH, and a hell of an engineer ...
Jim here, sitting in for Jeff Chen, who is practicing his modern dance moves.
Interstate flying is back, baby! No masks required, but everyone is cranky, and your luggage will end up in Barcelona, so there are pros and cons.
Smooth sailing today, though, as airplane-related answers complete the flight plan from abbreviated state to state. I'm a sucker for novelty, and I've never seen a theme like this.
Original theme, and a new constructor. That's not a coincidence. Fresh blood bringing in new ideas is part of the plan. The Times made an interesting decision to open-source crossword creation. Every Wordplay post includes tips on "How to Make a Crossword Puzzle" and this encouraging note for the construction-curious: "The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online."
The NYT is literally diversifying its crosswords by bringing in new DNA. I have no special insight, but that has to make the editorial team's job harder. Not only will they be sifting through many more submissions, but crosswords from neophytes will likely need more polish to get up to NYT standards. They're betting they'll find puzzle gems and promising new voices somewhere in that haystack. It's a good bet.
That work is not just important, it's necessary to keep crosswords evolving in a changing world.