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ForbesNYT “Strands” Tips, Spangram and Answers for Monday, October 14thFrom Paul Tassi

Welcome to the Strands on Tuesday, where we may set a record if I calculate today's puzzle correctly.

How to play Strands

The New York Times Strands puzzle is a nod to the classic word search. It's currently in beta, meaning it won't last unless enough people play it every day.

Every day there is a new game of Strands to play. The game presents you with a letter grid of six by eight letters. The goal is to find a group of words that have something in common and give you a clue as to what the topic is. When you find a topic word, it remains highlighted in blue.

You also need to find a special word called Spangram. This will tell you what the words have in common. The spangram connects two opposite sides of the board. While the topic words are not proper names, the spangram can be a proper noun. When you find the Spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.

Be warned: you must be on your guard.

“Some topics are fill-in-the-blank texts. They can also be steps in a process, elements that all belong to the same category, synonyms, or homophones,” notes the New York Times. “Just as she varies the difficulty of Wordle puzzles over the course of a week, (Wordle and Strands editor Tracy), Bennett plans to throw curveballs to Strands solvers from time to time.”

What is today's Strands clue?

We'll start with the NYT note and then I'll do one of my own to help you out. The NYT note reads:

Beast mode

And mine is:

No training

This might help you get started.

What are today's Strands answers?

It's time to move on to the actual answers, starting with what I think is the longest actual Spangram I've ever seen. It is:

CREATURE FEATURE

And it says here on the board:

And the rest of the answers are:

• HAIR
• HORN
• FEATHER
• SCALE
• WING
• TAIL
• SLEEVE

Okay, most of them are pretty good, but I mean, we all have hair, right? I guess FUR would have been too short. But yeah, I think CREATURE FEATURE is possibly the longest Spangram we've ever had, as it's 15 letters alone and takes up a large part of the puzzle. I found “creature” early on, but I couldn’t understand the rest until I realized with fewer letters that it was an appropriate rhyming word. Pretty good that they made it fit.

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