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April 26, 2026 
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In her column for today’s puzzle, Caitlin Lovinger wrote: “I was smitten by the fill in today’s puzzle; it provides a good challenge that slowed my solve down and helped me better absorb the theme, which is also outstanding. The puzzle is cute on the surface, but there’s a complexity that takes it to another level.”
Puzzles You May Have Missed
Crossplay Tip
Use the S’s and blanks wisely: The S and blank are the two most valuable tiles in the game, due to their abilities to flexibly increase the scoring possibilities when paired with any other six random tiles. As a rule of thumb, sacrificing five or fewer points to retain the S, or 10 or fewer points to retain the blank is usually worth it. This value only increases when there are fewer S’s and blanks remaining in the game. If you have the last one of these in a game, see if you can set up the tile in question in a way that is exclusively accessible to you.
Connections Quandary
Here’s the hardest category from Sunday, April 19. What connects these four things? See the answer in the P.S.
Strands
Last week’s hardest Strands puzzle was RISKY BUSINESS, from Tuesday, April 21 — 78.58 percent of solvers were able to complete it.
Last week’s easiest Strands puzzle was PROVINCES OF THE PANTHEON, from Thursday, April 23 — 90.93 percent of solvers were able to complete it.
Strands puzzles last week — from April 17 to 23 — were a little bit harder than those from the week before.
Wordle Weekly Recap
Hardest word: WEAVE, from Monday, April 20.
Average guesses: 4.68, with 11.51 percent of players solving in three or fewer.
Easiest word: TOADY, from Saturday, April 18.
Average guesses: 3.91, with 33.95 percent of players solving in three or fewer.
The Wordle answers last week — from April 17 to 23 — were much easier than those from the week before.
Spelling Bee Hive
Overall, the Spelling Bee hives last week — from April 17 to 23 — were significantly harder than those from the week before. Of our subscribers who played last week, 33.74 percent hit Genius at least once.
Last week’s hardest puzzle: Friday, April 17 had the hardest pangram, with only 20.43 percent of users finding it.
Friday’s pangram: MIDBRAIN
Letter set: R A B D I M N
Relax With Us
While I’m generally trying to spend less time looking at a screen lately, the weather has been kind of crummy this week and I’ve given into the temptation a bit. Some enriching TV or a high-quality movie is OK once in a while, I think. One of my favorite recent rediscoveries has been the British quiz show “University Challenge,” which is, in essence, a very difficult trivia contest. Amol Rajan, the show’s host, reads out questions and students from two teams of four players answer them. For me, one of life’s greatest pleasures is shouting the wrong answer at the television with complete confidence that I’m correct, and few things satisfy that urge quite as well. Of course, when I actually shout the right answer, it’s even better.
How are we doing?
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P.S. The answer to the Connections Quandary is that they are all words that can come before “Monday.”
