New York Times, Friday, June 10, 2022

When I started work on this puzzle, I wanted to keep the word count low, place crossing stacks in the center, and maintain 90-degree rotational symmetry. As a newbie trying to break into the themeless rotation, I hoped that combination would set the puzzle apart. I tried various approaches that would also keep the block count low before finally trying the four six-block staircases that made it to the final version. You can't have it all!

This grid is the first time I've used staircases for themeless construction, and it felt like a cheat code. I imagine a statistician could do a deep-dive analysis of exactly how much the format aids in puzzle construction. On this one, at least, the staircases made all the difference in achieving rigid construction goals while keeping the fill (hopefully) lively and fresh.

The puzzle came in at 62 words, and my use of the staircases led me back to the XWord Info list of low-word-count puzzles to see how common the staircase approach has been for similar puzzles. Twenty-seven 62-worders appeared before Patrick Berry's November 21, 2008 puzzle became the first to use four staircase block sets (without any adjacent blocks). Since 2019, six of the ten (and now seven of the eleven) 62-worders have done so. A cool case study for evolving editorial and construction tastes.

Jim here, sitting in for Jeff Chen who is celebrating Día de los REYES (Three Kings' Day) six months late.

If you drive out to Belle Fourche, South Dakota this weekend (and why wouldn't you?) you'll encounter a cairn with a hand-written sign declaring it the Center of the Nation. That's not what 38-Down asks, though. It wants the "Home of the continental U.S.'s geographic center" where we must somehow believe that Alaska isn't part of a continent, so we push down to Lebanon, KANSAS, and that's our answer.

Part of the joy of crosswords is that you learn something new or, even better, dredge up some factoid you'd forgotten. Clues are different than school tests. You don't have to calculate the geographic center of mass, let alone show your work. You make educated guesses based on other information you collect — how many letters, what letters you already have with what level of confidence, etc. The clue could be "state somewhere in the middle of the U.S." or, since it's a Friday, "place somewhere in the middle" but that would deny you the joy of feeling smug next time a geographic center question comes up at Trivia Night.

The previous NYT crossword editor, Eugene Maleska, targeted solvers who had, what was known at the time as a "classical liberal education." You had to know your Byron, Shelley, and Keats, Norman Rockwell and the Norman Invasion of 1066, and world geography. You also had to know some French, the International Language of Diplomacy, in case you ever needed to negotiate a treaty or sentence a war criminal.

Modern puzzles like today's reflect modern America, relying more on Spanish language and Mexican culture. That makes it tougher for people like me who grew up in a country where French is an official language, but it's fairer for everyone else.