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