NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Saturday, July 27 (game #146)

Today's Strands caused me huge problems, but I don't know whether I'd describe it as difficult. For some people it's probably easy, for others nearly impossible. Try it and see – and read on if you find you need some hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today , NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #146) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Bedtime story

NYT Strands today (game #146) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• MUTE
• SHUT
• SHUN
• SHUNT
• DOCK
• SHOT

NYT Strands today (game #146) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Lunar lullaby

NYT Strands today (game #146) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

• First: left, 6th row

• Last: right, 4th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #146) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #146, are…

• CLOCKS
• NOBODY
• SOCKS
• MITTENS
• MUSH
• KITTENS
• SPANGRAM: GOODNIGHTMOON

• My rating: Baffled
• My score: 2 hints

I had exactly 0% idea of what was going on here until after I'd completed the game, at which point I googled GOODNIGHTMOON, the spangram, and learned in was a children's book from 1947. Right. Well, it's not one I'd ever heard of, and it seems an utterly bizarre choice to build a Strands puzzle around, unless it's way better known in the US, where the NYT is based, than it is in the UK. Or maybe it's just me? But I have kids, I read them hundreds of books when they were young, and I never came across this one.

Anyway, all of that made it something of a struggle to solve. I got most of the way through it purely by guessing random words, but couldn't work out the spangram. I could see that GOODNIGHT fit, and given the theme clue figured that might be part of it, but nothing I tried worked. Eventually I had to use hints to get the final two words (MUSH and KITTENS), at which point I found the spangram by default.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday 26 July, game #145)

• TRACK
• SWIMMING
• KARATE
• GOLF
• EQUESTRIAN
• ARCHERY
• SPANGRAM: OLYMPICS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to h ow to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.