Word Count: 75
Mean Word Length: 5.44
Happy Tuesday here at Trash Panda Puzzles! A question I was asked recently (and before for that matter) is what do the statistics in my crossword postings mean? Today, I'm going to explain what each one means. Title Inspiration: When naming my crosswords, I extract tidbits from the clues to create a typically silly title. A Twitch streamer once gave me grief for not naming my puzzles, so since crossword "57: On the Border," I have made sure that every puzzle receives a unique name.
Seed Words: When I construct freestyle/themeless crosswords, I almost always start with some pre-selected entries to kick off the grid-filling process. These entries may be things that pop into my head, something I read that catches my eye, or entries I manually select from my personal word list.
Personal Word List/Score: Speaking of my personal word list, that's where all the grid entries in this category come from. If you ever wonder why something niche is in my crossword, check here and see if it's something I used from my personal list. In terms of filling priority, I begin with my blacklist, which de-scores all the stuff I don't want in a grid. Then, I use my personal list to elevate various entries above a score of 50. Lastly, I have "Spread the Word(list)!" bringing in the rest of the words scored at 50.
Reappearing 4+ Letter Words: After making 145+ crosswords, the likelihood of a word being reused in the construction process has steadily increased over time. There are only 456,976 four-letter combinations assuming the English alphabet. Filtering out all the nonsense combinations and questionable words, that only leaves roughly 3,515 usable entries or an average of 24 words per crossword I've posted so far. That's a surprisingly small number all things considered.
Unique Words to Date: I maintain a massive spreadsheet containing the entry and clue for every crossword I've ever self-published or had published elsewhere. Each time I post a new crossword, I filter out all the duplicate word entries, and the spreadsheet totals up the number of unique words. Is this 100% accurate? Not really, because I don't distinguish between singular and plural words. However, it does provide a ballpark estimate.
Non-NYT Words: This is probably the easiest statistic to explain. At the time of posting a crossword, the entries listed here have never appeared in the New York Times crossword. Now that I've covered my statistic categories, here they are below!
Statistics
Title Inspiration: 2D, 26D
Seed Words: 21A, 43A
Personal Word List/Score: 21A, 34A, 55A, 55D
Reappearing 4+ Letter Words: 1A, 6D, 14D, 19A, 20A, 22D, 26D, 30D, 33D, 35D, 39A, 40A, 41D, 42A, 51D, 53A, 56D, 57D, 59D, 60D; (I think 20 words in this category is a new record)
Unique Words to Date: 5,924 (+49)
Non-NYT Words: 2D, 9D, 21A, 28D, 45A, 55A, 55D
If you enjoy, solve, stream, or find a typo in my crossword, please let me know!
Don't forget to love each other,
Jac
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