NYT Crossword Answers for April 22, 2024

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

MONDAY PUZZLE — Lewis Carroll is said to have popularized the word ladder puzzle, in which the solver is tasked with transforming a four-letter word into another by changing its letters one at a time. The number of “rungs” on the ladder depends entirely on the two words selected. The game has also had other names, including “doublets” and “word-links.” I might have called it “The quip of Theseus.” (Sorry).

An impressive word ladder appears in today’s crossword, which was constructed by David Kahn. Traveling from one end of the puzzle to the other reveals a meaningful message. Mr. Kahn, it should be noted, is nearing the top of another ladder, as he inches toward his 200th puzzle for The New York Times. Phew. What’s my excuse?

Today’s Theme

The eight-step ladder in Mr. Kahn’s puzzle begins with a “Nonrenewable energy source”: COAL (1A). From there, we travel through a couple of unremarkable words in the theme set — COOL (21A) and WOOL (30A) — and pause briefly on two energy sources, WOOD (35A) and FOOD (39A). The production of each of these, we learn, contributes to a certain “symptom of climate change” at 36-Across. This entry may be obvious to most solvers since the term is often used interchangeably in discussions about climate change: GLOBAL WARMING.

But Mr. Kahn isn’t finished. After trading FOOD’s letters to get FOND (42A) and then FIND (52A), we land on a final “Renewable energy source” that completes the ladder: WIND. And I got that renewable energy source knocked right out of me as I felt the significance of the completed theme.

It also seems apt to have “Goes extinct” (49A) as a clue in today’s puzzle after a Sunday crossword by John Rippe and Jeff Chen that tackled this very subject, and which Caitlin Lovinger cited as the first instance in recent memory of being so “emotionally moved by a theme.”