Today’s New York Times crossword may not be a big deal except to crossword aficionados like me:

The reason it’s a big deal is because it breaks the record for the lowest number of black squares used in a regular 15×15 grid. The puzzle, by Kevin G. Der, a Stanford Ph.D. student, contains just 18 black squares. I thought there was something unusual about it when I first looked at it last night, so I counted.

The previous record of 19 squares was set by prolific crossword constructor Manny Nosowsky on March 11, 2005.

Here’s more about today’s crossword.

And here are pictures of the 100 NYT puzzles with the fewest numbers of squares. (It contains the answers, including today’s, so be careful if you plan to do today’s crossword and haven’t done it yet.)

Oh, and when I got excited about this last night, Matt rolled his eyes at me.