Nina Sloan author page
1 puzzle by Nina Sloan
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 2 answer words debuted by Nina Sloan.
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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.