The NYT picking the word or you guessing it? If the former, good point and I agree, and not just for right now. But I bet a lot of people guessed it today. I often get to a point where I'm happy to find any word that fits the remaining letters, if only as a further clue, and of course SLAIN was just about as clue-y as you could get. If I do Wordlebot today, it will sarcastically remark, "Oh, woo woo, there literally was no other possibility so HUGE congratulations, genius."