NYT Crossword Answers for April 23, 2024

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

TUESDAY PUZZLE — It’s been over 75 years since the first New York Times Crossword, and language has significantly evolved. And yet there has been little change in much of the field’s crosswordese — i.e. vowel-heavy words that frequently appear in crosswords, but hardly ever apply in everyday speech.

We are still just as likely as ever, for example, to encounter H.G. Wells’s “Eloi,” from a novel he wrote in 1895. And though the era of the Oldsmobile has ended, puzzles have yet to stop featuring its final model, the “Alero.” I occasionally explain such terms in Tricky Clues, especially if I’ve just learned them, but improving one’s solving skills is largely a matter of learning these well-worn words by rote.

That’s why I have to hand it to Judy Bowers, the constructor of today’s crossword. In this, her New York Times debut, she has managed to do something remarkable with a different constraint — without sacrificing flashes of relevance.

Today’s Theme

Read carefully, because the revealer at 54-Down describes just about every part of the crossword in its hint to unlocking today’s theme. We have to identify the “Number of letters in every word of the answers to the starred clues.” Simply put, we’re looking for a number — and since “Plethora” (57A) solves to a fairly straightforward SLEW, we can assume via crossings that it’s the number TWO.

Maybe the above number was all you needed for your “aha!” moment. But if you’re like me, you needed more information. And while “Follow our lead!” (32A) is a straightforward DO AS WE DO, other expressions in the theme aren’t so common and may require more crossings to solve: 37-Across, for example, solves to HI MA, I’M UP (its clue being “Morning, mother!”).