Puzzle #12 Wordplay: Three Word Ladders or News, Sports and Politics

This week I delved into the puzzle form of word ladders.  OK, that is a bit of a lie.  I was working on a word ladder for last week’s puzzle, could not finish constructing it, and then rushed to finish this puzzle.  Word ladders are puzzles where you go from one word to another by changing one letter of the starting word to form a new word and continue these changes until you reach the finishing word.  The letters are not allowed to be rearranged in any way.  For example you could change FIG to BAD with the following three step ladder:

FIG

BIG

BAG

BAD

I decided to try and change WOODY into ALLEN (for reasons that I will make clear in my Tuesday post (Yes, I will do I Tuesday post (Yes, I know I am using too many parentheses))).  Anyway, my failure to get from famous surname to famous last name made me take a step back and try to complete ANY word ladder.  Guess what?  I managed to get not one but three NYC themed word ladders completed, and I am presenting them right now.

The first word ladder tabloid themed featuring the arch rival Daily News and New York Post.  I found a way to turn the NEWS into the POST (without any even an editorial change) in the minimum four steps or letter changes.  Can you?  Oh, and by the way, not offend anyone, but look at the most read story on the Post’s homepage.  Stay classy Post readers, stay classy.

For the second word ladder we go to the baseball diamond.  The New York Yankees will be represented by second baseman Robinson Cano and the New York Mets are represented by left fielder Jeremy Reed.  Though I doubt he’d want to change places with him right now, I was able to change CANO into REED in six steps.  Can you do it, or better yet can you do it in less steps?

The last word ladder involves our former mayor and current mayor.  Very simply, I was able to turn RUDY into MIKE in five steps.  Can you?  Can you get it down to four?

Happy Puzzling!

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Tags: Jeremy Reed, Mike Bloomberg, New York City, New york Daily News, New York Post, Robinson Cano, Rudy Guiliani, Woody Allen, Word Ladders, Word Puzzles