On a November Saturday, a TechRadar columnist sat down with the day's NYT Strands puzzle, game #986, and found that the cheerful label 'preschool fun' hid a stubborn challenge. Like many small daily rituals, the puzzle asked a grown person to remember a game of childhood, and the columnist, having forgotten the rules of that childhood, needed one nudge to finish. The answers, all ways of moving, trace back to the playground memory of Follow the Leader, a reminder that adult play often returns us to lessons we outgrew long ago.
NYT Strands Today (Game #986): Hints, Theme and Answers for November 14
SKIP and JUMP pointed to playgrounds, then GALLOP threw it all off
Mark
Why does a puzzle hint column deserve a close read?
Mimi
Because this one shows how a theme can mislead you. "Preschool fun" sounds like cartoon characters, and the columnist went there first.
Mark
What cleared it up?
Mimi
The words. SKIP, JUMP, SPIN, GALLOP, WALK, TIPTOE. They're all movements, and the spangram, FOLLOWTHELEADER, ties them together.
Luke
Worth saying that "hard" is one person's rating. The columnist used one hint, which is a single data point, not a measure of how everyone found it.
Mark
And the claim that it's the longest spangram in months?
Mimi
The columnist's claim. It has 15 letters, and that part is stated plainly.
Luke
Right, but the "months" comparison isn't backed by any list in the piece. I'd treat it as the columnist's impression.
Mark
Does the board layout tell us anything?
Mimi
Only that the spangram runs from the left side, fifth row, to the right side, eighth row, so it crosses the whole grid.
Luke
The column also doesn't say what the hint was or when it was used, so how close the columnist came to solving it unaided is unknown.
Mimi
Fair. What we do know is that yesterday's puzzle, ROTTENLUCK, matched Friday the 13th.
Le Pouls
- The columnist's first guess, toddler TV characters, collapsed almost at once, leaving the board unexplained.
- GALLOP scattered the playground theory that SKIP and JUMP had seemed to confirm.
- A 15-letter spangram, FOLLOWTHELEADER, cut across the full grid and reframed every word beneath it.
- The reviewer rated the puzzle hard, spent a single hint to break through, and closed the column with a forgiving laugh.
On a November Saturday, a TechRadar columnist sat down with the day's NYT Strands puzzle, game #986, and found that the cheerful label 'preschool fun' hid a stubborn challenge. Like many small daily rituals, the puzzle asked a grown person to remember a game of childhood, and the columnist, having forgotten the rules of that childhood, needed one nudge to finish. The answers, all ways of moving, trace back to the playground memory of Follow the Leader, a reminder that adult play often returns us to lessons we outgrew long ago.
The theme for Saturday's NYT Strands, game #986, was "preschool fun," and the TechRadar columnist who solved it found the label more misleading than helpful. The puzzle rated hard, and it took one hint to finish.
The first guess was that the board hid toddler TV characters, but that idea faded quickly. SKIP and JUMP suggested playground games, until GALLOP broke that reading apart.
The full answers were SKIP, JUMP, SPIN, GALLOP, WALK and TIPTOE, all ways of moving. They hung from the spangram FOLLOWTHELEADER, a 15-letter phrase the columnist called the longest in months, running from the left side of the board to the right.
The columnist's verdict was good-humored. Follow the Leader is something most people stop playing around age five, so forgetting it seemed forgivable, and spending a hint was a fair price for finishing.
Yesterday's game #985 had been themed around bad luck, with the spangram ROTTENLUCK, and it landed on Friday the 13th. Game #987 arrives tomorrow with a new theme.
The theme for Saturday's NYT Strands, game #986, was "preschool fun," and the puzzle that followed gave the TechRadar columnist who solved it more trouble than the label suggested. The columnist rated it hard and needed one hint to finish.
The columnist's first guess was that the board hid toddler-friendly TV characters. That idea didn't last. Finding SKIP and JUMP pointed toward playground games in general, but the next word, GALLOP, threw that reading off again.
The full answer set is SKIP, JUMP, SPIN, GALLOP, WALK and TIPTOE. All six are ways of moving, and they hang from the spangram, FOLLOWTHELEADER. It runs to 15 letters, which the columnist called the longest spangram in months. It starts on the left side of the board in the fifth row and ends on the right side in the eighth, so it crosses the whole grid.
For players who wanted a nudge without the answers, the column listed six clue words that unlock the in-game hint system when played: SPOT, SPILL, STEP, PEST, FOIL and WALL. None of them are theme answers.
The columnist's verdict on the miss was good-humored. Follow the Leader is a game most people stop playing around age five, the columnist wrote, so forgiving the memory lapse seemed fair, as did spending a hint to get over the line.
Friday's puzzle, game #985, was themed around bad luck. Its answers were FLOOR, SALT, MIRROR, BROKEN, SPILLED and THIRTEENTH, with the spangram ROTTENLUCK. The date, Friday the 13th, fit the theme.
TechRadar describes Strands as no longer new: it follows Wordle and Connections, has been running for about a year, and is now an established part of the NYT Games lineup, playable on desktop or mobile. The outlet also publishes a how-to-play guide with solving tips, and companion hint pages for Connections, Quordle and Wordle. Game #987 will arrive tomorrow with a new theme and a new spangram to find.
Citations marquantes
The columnist rated the puzzle hard, used one hint, and called FOLLOWTHELEADER the longest spangram in months.— TechRadar Strands columnist
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