You know how some puzzles just hit different today. This one did. The June 21 New York Times Strands (No. 840) wasn’t exactly a breeze. It tripped people up until the theme clicked. Then everything snapped into place.
If you’re stuck staring at that grid of letters, you’re not alone. Some answers are tough to unscramble. Let’s clear it up.
That’s included!
That is today’s theme.
Still scratching your head? Here’s a tighter clue: think about a bed, but also about what surrounds it. Or rather, what comes with it.
Unlocking the hints
Strands gives you in-game hints, but only if you do the legwork first. You need to find any valid words of four letters or longer. Find three. The game reveals a theme-related hint. Repeat until the puzzle solves itself.
I used these filler words to get started. You can find them in the grid easily:
- FAST
- HATE
- RENT
- LAST
You don’t have to use those. Just find anything. It doesn’t have to make sense together. Just needs to exist in the letters.
The answers
Once the hints start rolling, the actual themed words appear. There isn’t a fixed number of them. I used to think there were always eight. There aren’t. The board fills completely when you’ve got them all.
Here is the list for today. The non-spangram answers:
- BREAKFAST
- FRIDGE
- LAUNDRY
- SAFE
- INTERNET
The Spangram
And the big one. The word that spans from one edge to the other, usually at the bottom. It’s long. It ties the whole thing together.
HOTELAMENITIES
Start at the H. It’s the third letter down in the far-left column. Wind your way down and over from there. It’s a mouthful.
The worst of the bunch
Not all Strands puzzles are created equal. Some topics feel deliberately cruel. Two stand out to me.
Dated slang. Especially if you weren’t part of the specific decade. Finding PHAT in a grid of random letters? Torture.
Whale parts. Who memorized whale anatomy for fun? Marine biologists aside, BALEEN or RIGHT (as in whale) are brutal finds.
Sometimes the grid just doesn’t want you to win. You have to want it more.
Did you beat it without help?
