Crossword terms question

[bex77]

Question for any of you crossword geeks:

Rex Parker writes a blog about the NY Times (don't click if seeing today's answers would ruin your day)
http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/

Talking about today's puzzle, he says:
"Does Not look like a (mere) 74-worder. Fill seems overwhelmingly short (mostly 4s and 5s). But there are four cheater squares (NW/SE and N/S), and then a couple of long answers paralleling theme answers in the NE and SW, so I guess that explains how the grid can look and feel 76/78 but really be 74. That distinction may seem minor, but it's not. 78s are easy to construct/fill, 76s a bit tougher, 74s tougher still. You'll rarely see themed puzzles at 72, and almost never lower."

What counts as a "word?" There are 69 across clues, 63 down clues...35 black squares...I can't figure out what he means by "74-worder."

Help!

Comments

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

A word is an entry in the grid, which may be more than one word. For example the answer to 1 across counts as a single word, even though it's actually two words. Constructors often use the word "light" rather than "word," to avoid this confusion.

There are 74 clues, and 74 lights in this puzzle. There are not 69 across clues. Yes, the first across clue is numbered 1, and the last across clue is numbered 69, but not all the numbers in between have across clues - there's no 2 across, 3 across, 4 across, 6 across, etc. There are in fact 37 across clues, and 37 down clues (this is a coincidence, usually the number of across clues & down clues are different).

Usually the highest clue number is pretty close to the total number of clues, because most numbers clue EITHER an across answer or a down answer.In this puzzle only 5 numbers (1, 5, 9, 26, and 53) clue both an across and a down.

[bex77]

Thank you ever so much! This makes sense now. Your middle paragraph made it much clearer.

This had my office mates and I all stumped. I work in an open office with 3 or 4 other people, and we try to solve the NYTimes puzzle together every day. I am relatively new to all this, but have worked my way up to the point where I can make it through Monday and Tuesday puzzles most weeks, and get some of the Wednesday puzzles! I am slowly learning all the jargon.