I nonetheless hear from readers who realized in regards to the Connections sport from this article and now play it day-after-day. Right now, I wish to let you know about The Occasions’s latest sport, referred to as Strands. It’s one other fast, entertaining strategy to train your mind.
Strands is a phrase search with a couple of twists. Every day, the puzzle has a theme, and your job is each to search out the one phrase that describes the theme in addition to a handful of examples. In at this time’s publication, I’ll stroll you thru a puzzle from this previous week — after which hyperlink to at this time’s, so you possibly can strive for your self.
A fortunate ‘vogue’
The primary twist is that Strands permits the letters in a phrase to journey in a number of instructions. The second letter could be above the primary letter, whereas the third letter may be at a diagonal from the second. For instance, take a look at the upper-left nook of the grid from Thursday, and you may see that T-H-I-S is a possible phrase. You start within the very nook, go throughout to the H, right down to the I and over to the S:
The second twist is that every puzzle begins with a short, and barely mysterious, description of the theme. The outline for the puzzle right here was “What’s the problem?”
You might be a greater puzzler than I’m, however I’m not often in a position to acknowledge the theme based mostly solely on the mysterious description. That’s OK, as a result of the third twist in Strands is that there’s a strategy to obtain hints. Should you spotlight any three phrases, even phrases that don’t have anything to do with this puzzle, Strands will then provide you with a touch.
On Thursday, for instance, I wasn’t certain what “What’s the problem?” meant, however I did discover the plain phrase on the highest line: “thigh.” As soon as I highlighted it, Strands advised me I used to be a 3rd of the way in which towards a touch. At this level, I received fortunate. The second phrase I seen was “vogue” — and it turned out to be one of many phrases that was a part of the answer. Strands highlighted it in blue in consequence.
The mix of “vogue” and “difficulty” gave me a very good sense of what the puzzle theme may be: the names of magazines. I went on the lookout for the names of different well-known magazines and located “individuals” (within the decrease proper) and “time” (within the higher left).
The ultimate twist with Strands is that the identify of the theme itself — “journal,” on this case — is within the puzzle, and it all the time stretches from the grid’s left column to its proper column, or vice versa. I discover that specializing in uncommon letters could be useful in Strands, and I used the z in “journal” to search out it.
I then targeted on the v and spent a minute or two understanding “seventeen.” The final phrase had me reminiscent of grade college: “highlights.” Right here’s the complete answer:
Right now’s puzzle
Now it’s your flip. Beneath is a picture of at this time’s puzzle. You may play it right here. I hope you get pleasure from your Sunday.
A programming word: I’m off this week, and my colleagues can be writing The Morning in my absence. I’ll be again in your inboxes on Tuesday, April 2.
THE LATEST NEWS
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THE SUNDAY DEBATE
Is Apple a monopoly?
No. If shoppers don’t need Apple’s merchandise, they might buy Android telephones, which make up the opposite half of the U.S. market. “Apple has been vastly profitable, however not universally so,” The Wall Road Journal’s editorial board writes.
Sure. The Division of Justice antitrust lawsuit targets an organization that has lengthy exploited each shoppers and employees. Apple alongside Google and its Android telephones have turn out to be “a duopoly that undermines the very rule of regulation,” Aidan Smith writes for Widespread Desires.
Heat hearts, chilly noses: Households affected by a mass taking pictures on the Covenant Faculty in Nashville have turned to canine for therapeutic.
Joan Jonas: The artist’s work shines at MoMA. See images of the present.
A Nice Learn: A Occasions correspondent despatched his 13-year-old to a college within the Australian wilderness the place college students don’t have entry to the web or telephones. Right here’s what his household realized.
Vows: An surprising DM helped result in love.
Lives Lived: David Harris was a former Air Power bomber pilot who grew to become the primary Black pilot employed by a serious industrial airline within the U.S. He died at 89.
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
I’ll be a part of a brand new Q. and A. franchise, The Interview, that’s launching in late April. Earlier than then I’m sharing a few of my favourite previous interviews. Right here’s one with the late economist Herman Daly, who lamented our never-ending pursuit of financial development.
Traditionally we expect that financial development results in greater requirements of residing, decrease demise charges and so forth. So don’t we now have an ethical obligation to pursue it?
In ecological economics, we’ve tried to make a distinction between improvement and development. When one thing grows, it will get larger bodily by accretion or assimilation of fabric. When one thing develops, it will get higher in a qualitative sense. It doesn’t must get larger.
However how would a rustic proceed to lift its lifestyle with out rising its G.D.P.?
It’s a false assumption to say that development is rising the usual of residing within the current world as a result of we measure development as development in G.D.P. If it goes up, does that imply we’re rising lifestyle? Should you subtract for the deaths and accidents attributable to chemical air pollution, wildfires and lots of different prices induced by extreme development, it’s not clear in any respect.
You’ve spent a lifetime arguing rationally on your concepts. However development remains to be king. Is that disappointing?
My obligation is to do one of the best I can and put out some concepts. Whether or not the seed that I plant goes to develop is lower than me. It’s simply as much as me to plant it and water it. However you’re asking about disappointment. I get lots of criticism within the sense of “I don’t like that; that’s unrealistic.” I don’t get criticism within the extra rational sense of “Your presuppositions are flawed” or “The logic which you motive from is flawed.” That could be a disappointment.
Learn extra of the interview right here.
BOOKS
Tom Hanks: The actor reviewed a kids’s novel a few typewriter. He’s a typewriter fanatic.
Faculty go to: A Bronx trainer wrote an impassioned electronic mail to the creator Tommy Orange. Orange dropped the whole lot to go to the scholars who impressed it.
Our editors’ picks: “Grief Is for Folks,” a memoir about shedding a good friend to suicide, and 7 different books.
Occasions greatest sellers: Marilynne Robinson received a Pulitzer in 2005 for her novel “Gilead.” Her newest guide, “Studying Genesis,” is a brand new addition to the hardcover nonfiction record.
THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …
Discover New York Metropolis’s cherry blossoms.
Make a very good photograph guide.
Backyard with these instruments.
Let us enable you to discover your subsequent novel.
THE WEEK AHEAD
What to Watch For
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Senegal’s presidential election begins at this time. (Learn in regards to the chaos surrounding the vote.)
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The deadline for Trump to publish a $454 million bond in New York is tomorrow, after he misplaced the civil fraud case towards him.
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The Supreme Court docket hears arguments Tuesday on the F.D.A.’s approval of mifepristone, a drug utilized in abortions within the U.S.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the impartial presidential candidate, is predicted to announce his vice-presidential choose on Tuesday.
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The Candy Sixteen spherical of the N.C.A.A. basketball event begins on Thursday for the lads’s subject, and Friday for the ladies’s.
Meal Plan
On this week’s 5 Weeknight Dishes publication, Emily Weinstein provides recipes so as to add to your spring cooking bucket record. One suggestion: The proper March meal of mushroom and ginger rice, which crosses the coziness of one-pot rice with brilliant ginger and plump mushrooms.