New York Times, Monday, May 22, 2023

Greetings from Vietnam! I started solving crosswords two years ago to improve my English and thought crossword construction would be the perfect way to take my hobby to the next level. As a non-native English speaker, getting my puzzle published really boosts my confidence in my English proficiency!

I first used AS YOU KNOW as the revealer but later scrapped it because I felt it was too simple, and the revealer would not apply to everyone as not everyone knows ADAM SAVAGE. After some more digging, I uncovered AS SEEN ON TV, which is much snazzier and makes the theme tighter.

I am not familiar with American pop culture, so to decide which A.S. is crossword-worthy, I used the number of Google search results and looked for past appearances in crosswords. Further crossword constraints led me to drop some notable A.S.s such as AMANDA SEYFRIED and ADAM SANDLER. However, in the end, I am pleased with the diverse final set of themers. Some other A.S.s like ANAKIN Skywalker and Anna SUI managed to sneak in!

A close friend of mine has a vast range of interests, although she loves the learning curve much more than the depth. Her husband calls her an ASNF (all start, no finish), pronounced: "ass-sniff." Her response is often NSFW. They're both All-Stars, even if he's sometimes Not Funny.

Initialisms are an incredibly tough sell these days since they've been done to death, so it takes something extraordinary to lift one out of the slush pile. AS SEEN ON TV is a great way to do this, parsing the phrase into A.S. (who's) SEEN ON TV. I love ANDY SAMBERG as Jake Peralta — he influenced our choice of name for our son, Jake! — and ADAM SAVAGE is an old-time favorite of mine. Mythbusters! A shame that he and Jamie Hyneman had bad blood.

I don't think of AMY SCHUMER (she's so talented on so many platforms) or AL SHARPTON as primarily TV personalities, not in the same way as I do the other two. They do appear on TV, though, so that works. In contrast, look at the tightness and sharp aha exhibited by DC COMICS — four famous comedians, all with the initials DC.

Great clue for SAUNA. Some newbs might not have seen the "-ers trick," so think of "sweaters" as in "people who sweat."

Fun debut; creative interpretation of a fantastic revealer phrase. I'm so impressed when a person whose first language is not English can compose such a high-quality product!