Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Nina Sloan

Constructor: Nina Sloan

Relative difficulty: Easyish

THEME: Candy names that can also be insults

Theme answers:

GOOBERS (23A: Candy with an insulting name #1)
AIRHEADS (29A: Candy with an insulting name #2)
BUTTERFINGERS (33A: Candy with an insulting name #3)
SLO POKES (40A: Candy with an insulting name #4)
DUM-DUMS (48A: Candy with an insulting name #5)

Word of the Day: PATINA (41D: Green layer on the Statue of Liberty) —

1a: a usually green film formed naturally on copper and bronze by long exposure or artificially (as by acids) and often valued aesthetically for its color
b: a surface appearance of something grown beautiful especially with age or use the beautiful patina of this antique table
2: an appearance or aura that is derived from association, habit, or established character the criminal has acquired a patina of respectability by his friendship with well-known businessmen
3: a superficial covering or exterior The toast was spread with a patina of butter. (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Wish this one had a better hook. A revealer that made it interesting or something. Just having the clues be a list like this is pretty blah, and there's nothing really to "get" in the end, or ever. You're just going to discover some candy names. Maybe you try to anticipate what they might be ("NERDS!" somehow did not show up). I don't know. Has anyone called anyone "goober" since the '80s? Last time I remember BUTTERFINGERS as an insult was in the old ads for the game "Operation," you know... the one where you "operate" on a "patient" by trying to extract various things from his body while trying not to touch the electrified edges of the board with your forceps? Do I have that right? I don't know that I ever played, but it's an iconic game. Anyway, in one of the TV ads, somebody slips and touches the edge and it maybe sets off an alarm or makes the body's nose light up (again, I don't remember), and one of the asshole-ier kids taunts the bad fake surgeon with "BUTTERFINGERS!" Weirdly, BUTTERFINGERS is singular (in insult form), and you can actually exclaim it as an insult. Not so all the others, though I guess if you were insulting a group all at once, you could shout "AIRHEADS!" Anyway, it's a list of candy names. That is all. No idea what SLO POKES are, to be honest. Just looked it up and still have no idea. Never seen this candy in my life, despite its dating to the '20s (1920s) and appearing on sites with names like OldTimeCandy dot com. What even is this candy??:

I'm also not entirely sure what AIRHEADS are, but I have definitely seen them in the candy aisle, so they weren't hard to get today.

Weird grid construction, in that all of the candies are crammed into a relatively narrow band of space toward the middle of the grid: five candies in seven rows. Maybe if you'd spread them out the grid could've breathed a little better. Been a little less segmented and choppy. Or maybe you could've worked a couple more candies in (actually, scrap that latter bit, I never said that—theme-packing hurts grids and never ends well). The fill is reasonably clean overall except for a few things like the playground retort, OLAF apostrophe S, UPENN (it's just PENN). Besides that, a lot of repeaters, sure, but most of them are innocuous. Not innocuous: JUUL. What are you doing there, shilling for a vaping co.!? It's safer than smoking but still not safe, bad for your heart and lungs, addictive, etc. Ugh. This is a reminder that not all "fresh" fill is "good." See also the crappy white-right U.S. senator in yesterday's puzzle with the A+ rating from the NRA (among other crappy distinctions). I guess you can shout "First!" when you put him in your grid, but ... is this the "fresh" fill you want to be celebrating? Please consider these things.

Fantastic, world-class clue on ROAD RAGE (5D: Fit on a hard drive?). Me: "What? What? [gets some more crosses] ... What? Wha—oh! Oh, wow, yes. OK." Clue on CANARY isn't half-bad either (39A: Little bird of mine?).

Fun fact: a NATURIST is a nudist. That is the primary definition. It's true. Look (though fair warning, you will see naked people). Yes, other definitions involving studying or appreciating "nature" are also attested, but that is not what anyone is going to think of when they see the word NATURIST. Now, I'm sure many NATURISTs do, in fact, enjoy a good walk in the woods from time to time (35D: Person who appreciates a walk in the woods, say). But it's clear that the clue wants you to think the word means simply "fan of nature," and, well, no, not really. Naked fans of nature, possibly, yes.