NYT ‘Strands’ Today: Hints, Spangram And Answers For Saturday, November 9th

Looking for Friday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:

ForbesNYT ‘Strands’ Hints, Spangram And Answers For Friday, November 8By Paul Tassi

I’m back! After a two week hiatus while my colleagues, Kris Holt and Paul Tassi, took over the Strands guides here at Forbes Games, I have returned! I’m happy to be back, especially as the days get colder and I’m more inclined than ever to hide out inside and play games—puzzle games, shooters, RPGs, whatever. Give me all the games and then give me about six more hours a day so I actually have time to play them. At least with Strands, it goes pretty quick. Today’s is a fun one, let’s solve it!

Strands is the newest game in the New York Times’ stable of puzzle games. It’s a fun twist on classic word search games. Every day we’re given a new theme and then tasked with uncovering all the words on the grid that fit that theme, including a spangram that spans two sides of the board. One of these words is the spangram which crosses from one side of the grid to another and reveals even more about the day’s theme.

Spoilers ahead.

Today’s Strands Hints

Today’s Theme: Generation jam.

Hint #1: The grunge era.

Hint #2: Musical acts.

To help you uncover all the words, I usually give the first two letters of every word, including the spangram. Today I’m going to use song titles instead.

• “Santeria”
• “Park Life”
• “Heart-Shaped Box”
• “Lateralus”
• “Champagne Supernova”
• “Cut Your Hair”

Remember, spoilers ahead!

What Are Today’s Strands Answers?

Today’s spangram is: NINETIESBANDS

Here’s the full list of words:

• SUBLIME
• BLUR
• NIRVANA
• TOOL
• OASIS
• PAVEMENT

Here’s the completed Strands grid:

Today’s Strands Breakdown

This was one of my very favorite Strands puzzles so far, but that’s because I grew up with all these bands back when music was awesome. I found SUBLIME almost instantly and then BLUR followed closely by NIRVANA. At this point I was mulling “Nineties Bands” as a possible hint for this guide—when I saw BANDS in the grid, and working backwards found the spangram. So much for that hint! The left half of the grid was tougher, but once I found OASIS and TOOL all I had was PAVEMENT, probably the band I’m least familiar with of the entire batch. I think ‘Generation jam’ is actually a lousy “theme” for today’s Strands, however. When I think “jam” I think of jam bands like The Grateful Dead, not Nirvana.

How did you do on your Strands today? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.

Be sure to check out my blog for my daily Wordle guides as well as all my other writing about TV shows, streaming guides, movie reviews, video game coverage and much more. Thanks for stopping by!