Today’s Strands is probably going to make you hungry for a summer treat, though no, it’s the opposite of cold.
How To Play Strands
The New York Times’ Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It’s in beta for now, which means it’ll only stick around if enough people play it every day.
There’s a new game of Strands to play every day. The game will present you with a six by eight grid of letters. The aim is to find a group of words that have something in common, and you’ll get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will remain highlighted in blue.
You’ll also need to find a special word called a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram links two opposite sides of the board. While the theme words will not be a proper name, the spangram can be a proper name. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.
Be warned: You’ll need to be on your toes.
“Some themes are fill-in-the-blank phrases. They may also be steps in a process, items that all belong to the same category, synonyms or homophones,” The New York Times notes. “Just as she varies the difficulty of Wordle puzzles within a week, [Wordle and Strands editor Tracy] Bennett plans to throw Strands solvers curveballs every once in a while.”
What Is Today’s Strands Hint?
Time to do the NYT hint and then my own hint after that:
Ketchup or mustard?
And mine is:
Good for the ball game
Today’s NYT Strands Opening Letters
Here are the first two letters of all the words if you don’t want the entire thing just yet.
What Are Today’s Strands Answers?
Now we begin the answer portion of the program which is the spangram and the full list of the other answers, the spangram is:
HOT DIGGITY DOG
Here it is on the page, and read on:
The answers are:
- BRAT
- FOOTLONG
- BANGER
- FRANKFURTER
- WEENIE
Well, at first I thought this was going to be anything you put ketchup or mustard on, including burgers and fries, but instead we have a whole bunch of different kinds of hot dogs, or at least different names for them. I’m not sure everyone knows “banger,” which is a UK sort of thing more than it is here. I also was looking for weiner not weenie, but I got there.
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