StrandsNYTLooking for Thursdays Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:After yesterdays tuna-based puzzle, it seems that the New York Times wants us to go a bit easier on us today with a simpler puzzle with less specific knowledge required.How To Play StrandsThe New York Times Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. Its in beta for now, which means itll only stick around if enough people play it every day.Theres 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 youll get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will remain highlighted in blue.Youll 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.Every letter is used once in one of the theme words and spangram. You can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally, and its possible to switch directions in the middle of a word. If youre playing on a touchscreen, double tap the last letter to submit your guess.MORE FOR YOUIf you find three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the theme, youll unlock the Hint button. Clicking this will highlight the letters that make up one of the theme words.Be warned: Youll need to be on your toes. Sometimes youll need to fill the missing word(s) in a phrase. On other days, the game may revolve around synonyms or homophones. The difficulty will vary from day to day, and the puzzle creators will try to surprise you sometimes.What Is Todays Strands Hint?Here is the NYT hint followed by one of my own. The official hint is:Theyre inseparable And my hint is:PairsWhat Are Todays Strands Answers?Spoilers begin as I will first list the spangram, then the full roster of answers after. The spangram is:TOGETHERAnd that is found on the board here:StrandsNYTAnd the answer list:MILKCEREALSOAPWATERRHYTHMBLUESARTSCRAFTSStrandsNYTSo, as you can see, this was not exactly the trickiest puzzle in the world, and if you got one word, chances are you probably knew the other to hunt down pretty quick. You will also notice that each pair of words is separated by the spangram with the first word on top and the second on the bottom. Clever set up for a puzzle, even if it was not especially hard.Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.