New York Times, Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Hi all! I'm Nina Sloan, and I'm thrilled to be making my New York Times debut! A quick intro: I'm 19 years old, I'm originally from New York City, and I'm currently a freshman at Dartmouth College. I've loved crosswords since I was a kid — –the result of many mornings spent peering over my dad's shoulder at the breakfast table as he solved the daily puzzle. With his encouragement, I first tried my hand at crossword construction, and I am so happy I took his advice.

Ironically, I came up with this theme idea while pursuing its opposite: candies that double as terms of endearment. To my surprise, the confectionary industry has far fewer TOOTSIE POPS than it does AIRHEADS or BUTTERFINGERS. Inapt marketing aside, my sweet tooth certainly got its fix while constructing this puzzle.

This puzzle was also among the first I constructed (way back in December 2019!), and it has taken on several iterations since then. When I first submitted this to the New York Times, it had four more black squares than now, which Joel Fagliano suggested I remove. This allowed me to fit in STALE AIR and ROAD RAGE, two of my favorite bits of fill in this puzzle. And, while "Automatic anger?" was the original clue for 5-down, "Fit on a hard drive?" was one of several much-appreciated clue improvements from the editorial team.

I hope you enjoy the puzzle and happy solving!

My house is full of candy stashes, filled with treats I take from my kids at night. What, why are you giving me the stink-eye? They don't remember it, I get my fix, and they're only vaguely petrified of the Candyman, who I blame for any disappearances they do notice.

Yes, I have started a psychiatry fund for both kids.

We just had a candy mash-up, but I enjoyed Nina's different take. I hadn't thought about how many candy brand names are insulting. DUMDUMS, sure, but BUTTERFINGERS, GOOBERS, AIRHEADS, SLO-POKES … Big Candy is not only poisoning us with sweetness, but insulting us? Why do we allow this?

What can I say? I want candy.

Curious themer layout. Will Shortz usually asks that no part of the grid have zero theme. Here, the first and last four rows contain zero theme material — that's more than half the puzzle.

It'd be more typical to start with AIRHEADS in row 3 and place GOOBERS in row 5 or 6, but that has drawbacks, too — an 8-letter themer in row 3 can lead to a huge swath of white space in the northeast corner that can be challenging to fill.

Funny to have JUUL in a candy-themed puzzle. Reminded me of the candy cigarettes I use to put behind my ear as a kid.

That would explain a lot.

The cluing was exceptional, so much great wordplay for an early-week puzzle. [Fit on a hard drive?] — fit = fit of anger — is so much fun. CANARY's clue might confuse some newer solvers but think about "of mine" as "inside a coal mine." Devilishly clever; hopefully, not much STALE AIR went over solvers' heads.

And a NEST being "sticky," as in "stick-y," is punnily groanworthy.

Well-executed debut, virtually no crossword glue, with some great bonuses in NATURIST, TAG TEAM, MOPTOP.

Kazuo Ishiguro (from 45 Down) won his Nobel prize after writing The Remains of the Day.

His latest novel, Klara and the Sun, seems completely different. It's set in the future, not the past. The first-person narrator isn't a BUTLER, it's an android of sorts. And yet the gradual revelation through subtext the reader understands even when the characters don't is in that familiar, brilliant Ishiguro style.