  SN 1996cr, located in the Circinus Galaxy (3.7 Mpc, z ~ 0.001) was
non-detected in X-rays at ~ 1000 days yet brightened to ~ 4 x 10^{39} erg/s
(0.5-8 keV) after 10 years (Bauer et al. 2008). A 1-D hydrodynamic model of the
ejecta-CSM interaction produces good agreement with the measured X-ray light
curves and spectra at multiple epochs. We conclude that the progenitor of SN
1996cr could have been a massive star, M > 30 M_solar, which went from an RSG
to a brief W-R phase before exploding within its ~ 0.04 pc wind-blown shell
(Dwarkadas et al. 2010). Further analysis of the deep Chandra HETG observations
allows line-shape fitting of a handful of bright Si and Fe lines in the
spectrum. The line shapes are well fit by axisymmetric emission models with an
axis orientation ~ 55 degrees to our line-of-sight. In the deep 2009 epoch the
higher ionization Fe XXVI emission is constrained to high lattitudes: the
Occam-est way to get the Fe H-like emission coming from high latitude/polar
regions is to have more CSM at/around the poles than at mid and lower
lattitudes, along with a symmetric ejecta explosion/distribution. Similar
CSM/ejecta characterization may be possible for other SNe and, with
higher-throughput X-ray observations, for gamma-ray burst remnants as well.
