Sean Yamada-Hunter author page
1 puzzle by Sean Yamada-Hunter
with Constructor comments
| A | S | H | A | B | S | B | U | M | D | E | A | L | ||
| S | I | A | N | Y | U | E | S | S | E | N | C | E | ||
| A | P | B | D | O | N | T | Y | O | U | F | R | E | T | |
| H | O | A | G | Y | R | H | O | I | D | S | ||||
| I | N | N | I | E | I | A | N | F | A | Q | ||||
| E | F | T | S | T | D | E | L | U | D | E | ||||
| E | A | R | T | H | E | S | O | B | L | E | A | T | ||
| S | C | O | R | E | M | A | N | F | I | N | S | |||
| P | A | P | E | R | O | B | E | Z | I | G | G | Y | ||
| N | I | E | C | E | V | I | S | A | X | L | ||||
| P | E | W | E | G | G | N | E | E | D | S | ||||
| A | S | P | I | E | M | I | R | I | D | S | A | Y | ||
| T | H | E | P | A | L | E | F | A | C | E | I | N | K | |
| A | I | R | T | R | A | N | S | O | S | A | D | E | ||
| B | A | S | S | E | T | T | P | O | T | S | Y | S |
I am so excited to be making my New York Times debut! I'm currently a postdoc at Stanford studying ways to improve cancer immunotherapy. I got into solving crossword puzzles during college inspired by my dad, who has been a daily solver of the Times crossword since well before I was born. I took up construction during the pandemic as a new hobby to pass the time between long spells of Animal Crossing.
I was tickled by the idea of a "BIG IF" revealer based around grid art that literally spelled out a huge IF. In laying out the grid, I knew I wanted to keep all other black squares away from the central IF, which led to a lot of open space and long down answers. I went through many grid iterations to make the long downs pop while minimizing the crosswordese in the three letter answers (especially the central slot between the I and F). I hope solvers get a kick out of thinking 19-Down when they first open the puzzle!
Thanks to the editing team for their feedback! I had originally submitted the puzzle to run as a themeless, but the editing team thought it could work better as an "introductory themeless" run on a Wednesday. I liked the idea, and hope the puzzle helps newer solvers take the plunge into Friday and Saturday puzzles!
P.S. I'm starting up a crossword blog where I'll be uploading new puzzles weekly!