Solve the Sunday Crossword
There’s still time to fill out our brief survey and share your thoughts on the Gameplay newsletter. In his introduction to this puzzle, Will Shortz wrote: “Kim Alswager, of Saint Paul, Minn., is a choir director at St. Croix Preparatory Academy, in Stillwater. As a child she often lay in bed late at night solving all kinds of word puzzles. ‘In 2024 I was on a long flight. To pass the time, I randomly started drawing a crossword grid and tried filling it by hand. I had so much fun. Almost all of my free time is now dedicated to constructing.’ This is Kim’s New York Times debut.” For more on this puzzle, read the Wordplay column. Puzzles You May Have Missed
Crossplay Tip
Leave yourself a chance at a sweep in the endgame: If you make a play that uses exactly as many tiles as there are left in the bag, you earn not only the final move of the game, but also an opportunity to play a sweep with your replenished rack of seven tiles. If you instead make a play that uses more tiles than remain in the bag, your final rack will have fewer than seven tiles, and you’ll have lost your chance for a devastating final sweep.
Play Crossplay.
Connections QuandaryHere’s the hardest category from Monday, July 20. What connects these four things? See the answer in the P.S.
Solve today’s Connections puzzle.
StrandsLast week’s hardest Strands puzzle was BIG TALK, from Sunday, July 19 — 81.95 percent of solvers were able to complete it. Last week’s easiest Strands puzzle was WRITE THERE, from Tuesday, July 21 — 92.45 percent of solvers were able to complete it. Strands puzzles last week — from July 17 to 23 — were a little easier than those from the week before.
Solve today’s Strands puzzle.
Wordle Weekly RecapHardest word: SHILL, from Tuesday, July 21. Average guesses: 4.55, with 15.55 percent of players solving in three or fewer. Easiest word: CHURN, from Sunday, July 19. Average guesses: 3.71, with 44.13 percent of players solving in three or fewer. The Wordle answers last week — from July 17 to 23 — were much easier than those from the week before.
Solve today’s Wordle.
Spelling Bee HiveOverall, the Spelling Bee hives last week — from July 17 to 23 — were much harder than those from the week before. Of our subscribers who played last week, 38.83 percent hit Genius at least once. Last week’s hardest puzzle: Friday, July 17, had the hardest pangram, with only 30.24 percent of users finding it. Friday’s pangram: ALBUMEN Letter set: U A B E L M N
Solve today’s Spelling Bee.
Relax With Us
Don’t worry, I feel it too: There has been a collective sense of emptiness since the World Cup and Season 8 of “Love Island USA” ended. I spent virtually all of June up until last weekend tuning in to both — sandwiching the psychological onslaught of highly engineered reality TV between soccer games, where underdog teams were brutally defeated, one by one, every single night. To call the past few weeks a roller coaster of emotions is an understatement. As my cortisol levels gradually stabilize, I’ve come to realize how easy it is to attach ourselves to things of little to no consequence. But it’s even easier to put things into one of two buckets: “This matters,” or “it doesn’t.” It’s just a game: My favorite countries’ advancing to the knockout stage probably means very little against the relentless news cycle — but if I’m honest, I did end up a bit heartbroken, and more than once. It’s just a TV show: Two people I’ve never met struggling interpersonally for six weeks, in isolation, on camera might not affect me much either, but might make me brood and lament about how detached and antisocial dating culture has become. This is all to say that I’m really excited to touch grass again — or sand, in my case, with my first beach day of the summer happening this weekend — and I hope that you feel the same way.
How are we doing? We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Fill out our survey. Thanks for playing! Subscribe to New York Times Games. If you like this newsletter, you can tell your friends to sign up here. P.S. The answer to the Connections Quandary is that they all start with alcoholic beverages.
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