Jim Hilger author page

Happy 4th of July to everyone. Perhaps you'll find a few sparklers in my Jimmy the 14th puzzle? (Jeff: it's Jim Hilger's 14th NYT puzzle — happy Bastille Day coming up in 10 days!)

This crossword's theme required a little bit of elbow grease for me to come up with a symmetric set of answers. I originally included a theme revealer, which I think was FORWARDED LETTER. It was suggested that we go without the 15-long central revealer, on the second try.

The second submitted puzzle version dropped the revealer, but had wordier theme clues, using a "...with a little recycling?" ending, instead of the "...concisely?" one chosen by the editors. Since this ended up being a Thursday puzzle, I can appreciate the use of a slightly more cryptic and "concise" wording for the theme clues. I suspect it may require a little bit more elbow grease, to solve.

My favorite surviving original clue: "No longer either hot or cool?", for PASSE.

Hopeveryonenjoys!

This crossword was submitted earlier this year, so it is fairly fresh in my mind. My biggest concern had been whether it could be painlessly implemented using the submitted solution, which had four blank squares, one at every "break" point. I see that an instructional note was used, to deal with this.

The final version's grid fill is slightly different in the NW corner than what I had conjured up (IKON changed to IHOP, ASKIN changed to ASHEN). The grid turned out fairly Scrabbly, but that's not something I ever especially shoot for. I do, however, enjoy making unusual puzzles, with weirdish theme slants and at least a few oddball words. (Hi, all you SHAVETAIL H-HINGEs!) Not surprisingly, all my puzzles have landed on a Wednesday or Thursday, so far. (Or in the "too darn weird for us" reject pile, of course.)

I always include a title on my submitted puzzles, and I dubbed this one "Divide and Conquer". Hopefully, solvers will be able to do just that — and have lots of fun in the process.

This crossword was assembled during the fall of 2012. Although several of the edited clues now look unfamiliar, I'm still almost positive that I was the guilty party. I was going for a gradual reveal of an unknown answer, somewhat similar to the feel of playing Hangman. Having WORD GAME as the circled unknown answer — with the added feature that it be the sole, communal clue for all the puzzle's theme answers — seemed like a nice, mischievous twist.

I have always loved playing word games with family and friends. I've had three particular game favorites over the years, one being "PROBE", from Parker Brothers. It's a card-based diversion similar to Hangman, and appears in this puzzle as a theme answer. The other two? Well, put it this way: if you are willing to play a little of my second favorite word game (6 letters), the third's name (11 letters) can be unearthed within this puzzle grid.

There are seven theme answers bouncing around in here, plus the WORD GAME reveal, which was intentionally positioned to not share any letters with the themers. This means that the theme material tends to ooze into about every nook and cranny of the grid. All that oozing can sometimes have an effect on a puzzle's word fill quality. Hopefully this, my ninth NY Times outing, has a minimal number of fill "HAEC-cups".

Come to think of it, a crossword puzzle is quite a bit like a word game, too. So, thanks to everyone who chose to play this game with me. As always, it's been a lot of fun.

My other two favorite word games? Boggle and Bananagrams.