The twelve 15-letter answers (six Across and six Down) and the 44 three-letter ones both tie the record set by David Levinson Wilk back in 2009. In fact, the shapes of the two grids are identical.
Interestingly, there are two other NYT grids with the same 29 blocks, 72 words, 68 open squares, and an average word length of 5.44, and they're both by Paula Gamache. Her beautiful grids in 2010 and 2011 only have eight 15s but they're also evenly split four Across and four Down.
All four of these grids have the rare property of supersymmetry, that is, they are symmetric about horizontal, vertical, and diagonal axes
1 A | 2 S | 3 B | 4 I | 5 G | 6 H | 7 S | 8 T | 9 T | 10 O | 11 P | 12 U | 13 P |
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14 S | T | O | R | E | 15 O | O | H | 16 H | Y | E | N | A |
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17 H | A | S | A | N | 18 I | N | T | E | 19 R | E | S | T | I | N |
20 I | R | T | 21 E | L | K | 22 S | O | S | 23 R | O | D |
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24 P | R | O | 25 C | R | A | S | 26 T | I | N | A | 27 T | I | N | G |
28 N | E | A | 29 O | Z | S | 30 H | E | F | ||||||
31 G | 32 A | S | O | L | 33 I | N | E | S | 34 T | A | T | I | 35 O | 36 N |
37 M | A | T | 38 E | K | E | 39 T | A | R | 40 E | R | A |
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41 C | A | R | 42 E | L | E | S | 43 S | A | B | A | 44 N | D | O | N |
45 A | T | E | 46 H | I | T | 47 D | E | F | ||||||
48 R | 49 A | N | A | C | 50 L | O | S | E | 51 S | E | C | O | 52 N | 53 D |
54 E | N | G | 55 T | O | R | 56 M | A | S | 57 R | O | O |
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58 T | O | L | 59 E | R | A | N | 60 C | E | L | E | 61 V | E | L | S |
62 A | L | E | X | I | 63 A | R | N | 64 R | O | S | I | E |
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65 P | E | R | E | C | 66 T | O | T | 67 T | A | T | E | R |
Answer summary:
5 unique to this puzzle, 2 debuted here and reused later, 2 unique to Modern Era but used previously.
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