Solution: Toilette water - NYT Crossword

You might not have noticed this, but people tend to have what I can only call “quirks” about their puzzle solving. For example, the political columnist and author Matt Bai — my former colleague and an otherwise nice, well-balanced man — becomes curiously outraged by any entry that requires him to know the basics of another language. For some reason, French receives the majority of his ire. He has written strongly worded emails to both me and the crossword editor Will Shortz in protest, which is how Mr. Bai and I actually met. He also regularly tweets at me to let me know when we have let him down.