[magus]

Possible Title: Simply Electric

Good Ones:
Girl who says “Uncle”   NIECE
Theme: first words of phrases relating to electric current
Front page staple {and theme}   CURRENTEVENTS [too bad this good theme clue is wasted on a Monday shorn of cleverness]

Some Nits to Pick:
Fix, as worn brakes   REPAD [though it’s possible to add re- to most verbs, this one is not part of our idiom]

RATING:    Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun

[jeffchen]

Rats! One of these days I'll get a three-smiley rating from Magus.

Jeff

[magus]

Hi, Jeff---

The late (and great) constructor Dan Naddor told me that the editors asked him for Monday/Tuesday puzzles, which for the LAT means easy and devoid of cleverness and trickiness.  I'll bet your original submission was "shorn of cleverness."

Much as I hate to admit it, the editors are right in appealing to all levels of solvers.  There was a time two or so years ago that I stopped commenting on Monday and Tuesday, but my OC nature got the best of me.

I'm looking forward to your next one --- maybe one that appears late in the week.

Anthony

[jeffchen]

Anthony-

Thanks for the feedback. It's tough to make a Monday puzzle easy enough for the total beginner but interesting enough for the solvers' community. That's what Rich needs most of, so that's what I focus on. Alas, trickiness and cleverness make a puzzle too tough for most beginners.

Jeff