Stephen Hiltner author page
1 puzzle by Stephen Hiltner
with Jeff Chen comments
Stephen Hiltner is an editor, writer, and photographer. He works on the Travel desk at The New York Times, where he edits and contributes to the weekly World Through a Lens column. A graduate of the University of Oxford and the University of Virginia, he joined The Times in 2016 after editing for six years at The Paris Review.
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Won't you be my neighbor? STEVE URKEL, KIMMY GIBBLER, and WILSON WILSON say yes!
I was raised mainly by TV sitcoms, but I only knew Urkel, to whom I owe my debonair style. In his Stephan Urquelle form! Did I really have to specify that?!
Given that I'm using suspenders to hold up my sweatpants as I type this, maybe so.
Since I watched roughly thirty hours of TV a day as a kid, you might think it's odd that I skipped "Full House" and "Home Improvement." The former was too wholesome for me — give me Three's Company over three dads any day — while I never understood the appeal of a home improvement show, much less a show about a home improvement show.
Does it say something that Wikipedia only has a dedicated entry to URKEL, not the others? Maybe.
Four themers of 10 12 12 10 is nearly ideal for crossword gridding, setting up high expectations for ultra-cleanliness along with at least four great pieces of bonus fill. Reasonable debut effort, with EYESIGHT and COWGIRLS adding to the HOODOO, although you shouldn't need gluey bits like IES OUT IN out in a grid like this. It's better to have more than one entry leading into a subregion, too, so the solving flow to the SW / NE could have been better.
There's a neat idea here, with famous (to some) neighbors answering FRED ROGERS' tagline question. The exact presentation didn't resonate with me, though, since FRED ROGERS' clue didn't use "Won't you be my neighbor?" However, it was still fun to reminisce about my dad, Carl Winslow.
Oops. Did I do that?