Today’s NYT Strand’s tips, answers and help for December 15 #287

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Beaches is a funny one today. I don’t know about you, but 2024 has been a great year for stargazing for me. We flew to Cleveland to watch the total solar eclipse from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where they played Black Hole Sun, Ain’t No Sunshine and Here Comes the Sun as the sun slipped away and then came back. And the Northern Lights have appeared – faintly – where I live in Seattle. If stargazing is your favorite activity, you might just be able to handle today’s Strands puzzle, but read on for tips and answers.

I also go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, and Mini Crossword answers, visit CNET’s NYT puzzle page.

Read more: NEW Connections Round 1: These are the 5 hardest puzzles so far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Dagens Strand’s theme is: Moonlight

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Made from green cheese.

Clues to unlock hints in the game

Your goal is to find hidden words that match the theme of the puzzle. If you get stuck, find the words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get these tips, but any word with four or more letters that you find will work:

• GLUERS, GLUERS, BEST, BEST, AWARDS, DECREASING, PULL, REST, RIP, RESTS, GLUE, BLUE, CREST, PATE, PATES

Answers to today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that are related to the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that extends from one side of the puzzle to the other. Once you get them all (I originally thought there were always eight, but learned the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the non-spangram responses:

• FULL, DECREASING, GROWING, GIBBOUS, QUARTER, CRESCENT

Dagens Strand’s spangram

Dagens Strand’s spangram is LUNAR PHASE. To find it, start with L, which is five letters down the leftmost column, and scroll across.