Filling grids becomes easier--you get to recognize which areas need to be tackled first and what words will fit. Coming up with new themes gets harder, since you feel like you've seen everything.

I've noticed that too, but it is just coincidence. I don't collaborate with other editors to plant common words. (Though maybe there's a super-meta contest idea in that...)

Obviously there's often something hidden in the Friday contest puzzles. Other than those, I've probably hidden messages in puzzles in the past, though nothing comes to mind.

Yes, lots of those words that appear so often they're hard to clue in fresh ways. But they do glue the rest of the puzzle together.

We have occasionally Friday metas from Patrick Berry and Peter Gordon. But since I need to test-solve every meta to gauge its solvability, I'm need to be picky about those I'll invite.

The only words I can't include are the really offensive ones, and anything longer than the grid will fit.

Will and I are friends. We worked together for years at Games Magazine, and I'm a judge every year at his crossword tournament.

I'm not too worried. I've been doing this for decades now, so if it goes away I'll be ready to retire. Though I hope it lasts another decade or two.

Yeah, no favorites. Too hard to come up with fresh clues for those folks.

I didn't have those ideas until I got to college, where I made a crossword for the daily student paper. Then I thought it would be great to make a living making puzzles, but I knew that wasn't realistic. Years later, I'm still surprised.

Hi, Maddie here from the WSJ interrupting for a minute. Here's a link to Rainbow Connection: https://www.wsj.com/puzzles/crossword/20180629/41573/index.html?mod=wsjreddit

One of my early favorites was "Play with matches" for TENNIS.

At some point, I just thought "I wonder if I could make a puzzle." So I did. (The early results were pretty bad.) Editing is a lot like constructing, asking "How could this puzzle or clue be better?"

Get a copy of Patrick Berry's Crossword Constructor’s Handbook from his website. And look for the Facebook groups for new constructors.

If I consider it crosswordese, I'd be happy to never see it again. My current top nonfavorite word is STYE.

I solve a few crosswords. I do Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest puzzles, and Peter Gordon's Fireball crosswords. I solve the Times puzzle sometimes, especially the unthemed Saturdays.

Many of them are. The key to making a good computer-generated crossword is to spend a lot of time tweaking the word list. And even after that, the computer can't write good, clever clues.

I'm not sure I have an absolute favorite. One of my favorite Friday contest puzzles was "Rainbow Connection." (I won't spoil it in case you can find it on the WSJ site.)

The first step is coming up with a theme, and finding theme answers of good lengths that balance each other. Then I place them in a grid, decide where black squares look promising, and then fill in the restof the words. Clues come last.

This particular story was yesterday's A-Hed, which is our daily quirky human interest story, but we have much more serious reporting on the broader topic as well if that's what you're looking for:

• New England Risks Winter Blackouts as Gas Supplies Tighten
• Heating New England’s Homes Will Be Expensive This Winter
• Prepare for Propane Sticker Shock (more commonly used for heating in rural areas)

Let me know if there's something else you'd like to see! I can poke around more for ya.

-mc

Oh no! Stay warm out there!

-mc

I'm not tough enough to stick it out tbh. I like to be cozy! More from the story:

>Donna Sanders, who made it to Dec. 7 last year without heat, is also still going strong in her third year of doing the challenge.
>
>The 67-year-old retiree from North Kingstown, R.I., lives in a newly built condo with neighbors and good insulation, which she says definitely helps. “There’s no stopping now,” she says. “I’m going to try and break my record. My family thinks I’m insane.”

Stay warm out there!

-mc

That's smart on the mold point. I tend to keep my house comfortable too because, well, I like to be comfortable.

-mc

‘To those who called me crazy—you’re right.’ Hi everyone, Maddie here from the WSJ. I thought you all would enjoy our fun story today about New Englanders trying to wait out the cold:

>Brian Chevalier was in bed at his Rhode Island home, worried his pipes might freeze and burst. He had on two pairs of socks, two hats, underwear, pajamas, jeans, two shirts, two vests, two hoodies and fingerless gloves so he could use his iPhone.
>
>It was Dec. 19 of last year. The outside temperature was expected to drop to 19 degrees. Finally, at 9 p.m., he caved: He turned on the heat.
>
>The date marked a new personal record for a chilling annual challenge—one he hopes to beat this year.
>
>Every year, Mr. Chevalier, 36, who works in digital marketing in the automotive industry, refrains for as long as he can from turning on his heat. Being thrifty, of course, factors in. Fuel is expensive this year and many people are cutting back. But beyond that, there is a flinty group that always tries to stare down thermostats come winter.
>
>Denying oneself decadent warmth for the noble suffering of being too cold is a proud tradition among austere New Englanders. “Are you a true New Englander? If your heat is already on, the answer is no,” the Boston Globe asked in a recent headline. “No heat before Halloween” could be a regional motto.
>
>On Mr. Chevalier’s Facebook and Twitter pages—Weather in RI—he has about 28,000 followers who are now cheering him on and sharing their own attempts to keep the heat off. There are humble brags of shivering through cold nights, shared survival tips and posted photos of thermostats boasting temperatures dipping into the 30s.
>
>This year’s challenge is particularly animated in part because of the soaring cost of energy bills. Heating oil, propane and electric rates have increased over the year, and are expected to continue edging up this winter.

Read the full story, free with email registration: https://www.wsj.com/articles/heat-temperature-heating-thermostat-new-england-11669650535?mod=wsjreddit