Constructor: Freddie Cheng
Relative difficulty: Medium
![]()
THEME: statistics :/ ... but that's just two answers; overall, there's no theme
Word of the Day: MUSETTE (36D: Small knapsack) —
![]()
A throwback grid—throwback to the time when 15-stacks were de rigueur. I don't know if there's a way to track this, but it feels like you used to see stacks like this all the time in the '00s, but during the '10s they diminished significantly in favor of grids that were less show-offy, more pleasing to solve. Not that a 15-stack grid can't be pleasant to solve. Today's is pleasant enough. I mean that back in the day it was seen as a kind of flex: watch me stack three and even four 15s! Or else watch me drive my word count way way down, or use hardly any black squares, etc. The constructors who did these kinds of technical stunts were invariably men, and many of the grids were impressive, but they often yielded less-than-entertaining results from a solver's (this solver's) perspective, mostly because the demands on fill quality were just too high. Construction software has enabled constructors to fill formerly tough-to-fill grids more and more cleanly, so for the most part stunt puzzles like this no longer have fill that seems tortured. It's weird that I've been doing puzzles long enough that INTIMATE APPAREL feels like OREO to me when I see it in a 15-stack context; that is, I've seen it used many, many times in a 15-stack (not just in the NYTXW). It's a series of letters that must be very useful / versatile in a stacking situation. See also SCARLET TANAGERS and A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE (which for a time were used often enough in 15 stacks to become a kind of joke). With stacks, it frequently feels like at least one element of the stack is a dull and/or awkward answer that's just kind of helping hold the better answers up. But today's answers are all solid enough. No real stars, but no real clunkers either. If you're into PASCAL'S TRIANGLE, well, there you go, that's your star, right up top. That answer doesn't mean much to me, just as the paired statistics answers didn't mean much to me, but not all puzzles are made just for me, alas. The stack parts of this grid are both the most solid and easiest parts of the grid. It's in the connective tissue that I had all my troubles.
![]()
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: MUSETTE (36D: Small knapsack) —
noun
1: a bellows-blown bagpipe popular in France in the 17th and 18th centuries2: a small knapsackalso : a similar bag with one shoulder strap— called also musette bag (merriam-webster.com) (emph. mine)
• • •
First trouble was SSN / ANOSMIA. You'd think in COVID times I would've become intimate with the term for [Loss of smell], but the "SM" part felt very wrong, which made me doubt SSN (18A: Certain acct. info), mostly because "Certain" (?) made me feel like there was something specific intended. I think of SSN as a general ID you might need in any number of situations. I rarely think of Social Security as an "account," though of course it is. This is all to say I seriously thought I might have an error at SSN / ANOSMIA, but I couldn't fathom what it could be, so I moved on. Didn't know either stats answer, and while FAT TAIL might seem to be the harder of the two, today, for me, it was not. I didn't know SACHA but it was the best guess I had, and it turned out to be right. I didn't know WILLA, but the WIL- part seemed probable. And somehow I was able to make the words FAT TAIL out of the crosses I had in place. It was slightly harder rounding the corner into the SE, since TAKE A --- could've been CAB *or* BUS, and WILLA could've been WILMA (as far as I knew). But getting into the bottom of the grid from the center proved remarkably easy, so I was able to polish those 15s off and come at TAKE A CAB from underneath. My last stand was semi-fatal. I am routinely stunned by the dumb ways in which I can screw things up. Today's major screw-up was so small I didn't notice it. Here's my grid with just two squares remaining:
The clue on that highlighted answer is 34A: One way to manage expectations, and I was baffled. Worried. No idea about the stat answer, no idea about the knapsack, not able to make a word out of AI--OW. Then the crossword muscles kicked in, I realized the answer was not one word but two words, and bam, AIM LOW! Done! ... wait ... not done? Not correct? See, this is what happens when you give up on an answer as a total unknown—if I'd just looked at the stats clue again, I would've seen it called for a *plural*, which would've meant (probably) a terminal "S," which would've obliterated LEFT, which ... why did I write in LEFT!?!?! (44A: Taking off). It works great for [Taken off] ("having taken off ... having left ..." yep, those swap out!), but for [Taking off], actually, no, LEFT is bad. I don't feel bad about not knowing MUSETTE (what the actual hell??? Unless it fills out the lyric "jouez aux bois, resonnez ___!" I have No Idea what a MUSETTE is. Never heard of it. But I should've gotten LESS. And I should've gotten DECILES. Oh well, congrats to the stats folks. Hope you enjoyed this one. I also enjoyed it, mostly, but probably less than you.
Explainers:
- 27A: Pings, maybe (IMS) — you "ping" someone when you send them an internet message
- 8D: Hymns of thanksgiving (TE DEUMS) — notably not capital-T "Thanksgiving"; TE DEUMS are Latin Christian hymns, short for the opening words (or "incipit"), Te Deum laudamus ("We praise thee, O God"). More here.
- 10D: Shuffles and such (IPODS) — there used to be such a thing as an iPod Shuffle
- 50D: Jewelry store? (SAFE) — just ... where you might "store" your "jewelry"
- 53D: Canine protection org. (ADA)— American Dental Association (so tooth canines, not dog canines)