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NYT ‘Strands’ Hints and Answers for Saturday, December 28
The day has finally arrived to reveal the hints and answers for today’s NYT ‘Strands’ puzzle! If you’re anything like me, you’re probably eager to dive in and solve it. But before we get started, let me remind you that spoilers are ahead, so if you haven’t had a chance to attempt the puzzle yet, feel free to stop reading now.
Now that that’s out of the way, I’m excited to share the essential hints for today’s Strands puzzle with you. The official theme hint is “Just the essentials” – straightforward enough!
For those who need an extra push, there’s another hint waiting: “Oil have what you’re having.” It’s worth noting that this one might be a bit more cryptic than usual.
As you begin your search for the five theme words, including the spangram, keep in mind that the first two letters of each word can be found by ordering them from left to right and then top to bottom based on any letter appearing in the word for the first time. The provided sequence is: EU AR PA CE LA.
After some trial and error (and a couple of hints!), I managed to find my way through today’s puzzle. And now, it’s time to reveal the answers! But before we get there, one more thing – please be warned that spoilers lie ahead!
The spangram for today’s Strands is none other than AROMATHERAPY, which can be found on the grid as highlighted.
Once I finally got rolling, I discovered EUCALYPTUS and CEDARWOOD fairly quickly. However, I did require a hint to get started and another to uncover PATCHOULI first. In hindsight, it’s almost surprising that I didn’t catch the spangram earlier, but oh well! At least it was the fifth theme word I found.
For those who are following my work closely, please know that this puzzle will be covered in a later blog post, along with other Strands and Connections puzzles.
Source: www.forbes.com
