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September 20, 2026 
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In his print introduction for today’s puzzle, Will Shortz wrote: “Tracy Gray, of Hunt Valley, Md., owned and ran a lawn and landscaping business with her husband for more than 30 years. Now retired, she’s been playing a lot of Rummikub with friends. This is her 38th crossword (and 13th Sunday) for The Times. Tracy says, with a wink, ‘My goal was really to kick this puzzle’s theme up a notch.’” Read more in the Wordplay column.
Puzzles You May Have Missed
Crossplay Tip
Block bonus squares by playing next to them: When there’s a valuable bonus square available that you can’t score well with yourself, you may be tempted to make a low-scoring play, using that bonus square, just for defensive purposes. Consider instead searching for a nearby play that scores well without actually using the bonus square, but which still prevents your opponent from scoring well with it — or perhaps reaching it at all!
Connections Quandary
Here’s the hardest category from Monday, Sept 14. What connects these four things? See the answer in the P.S.
Strands
Last week’s hardest Strands puzzle was TOP SECRET, from Sunday, Sept. 13 — 84.13 percent of solvers were able to complete it.
Last week’s easiest Strands puzzle was OH MY GOSH!! from Monday, Sept. 14 — 92.19 percent of solvers were able to complete it.
Strands puzzles last week — from Sept. 11 to 17 — were a bit easier than those from the week before.
Wordle Weekly Recap
Hardest word: NIFTY, from Saturday, Sept. 12.
Average guesses: 4.33, with 17.91 percent of players solving in three or fewer.
Easiest word: RINSE, from Monday, Sept. 14.
Average guesses: 3.63, with 46.53 percent of players solving in three or fewer.
The Wordle answers last week — from Sept. 11 to 17 — were roughly equal in difficulty compared with those from the week before.
Spelling Bee Hive
Overall, the Spelling Bee hives last week — from Sept. 11 to 17 — were much easier than those from the week before. Of our subscribers who played last week, 48.61 percent hit Genius at least once.
Last week’s hardest puzzle: Wednesday, Sept. 16 had the hardest pangram, with only 26.97 percent of users finding it.
Wednesday’s pangram: PINEWOOD
Letter set: P D E I N O W
Relax With Us
Relaxation, for me, is mostly synonymous with solitude. If I’m “taking it easy” or “keeping it low key” on a given weekend, it means I’m sleeping in, keeping as far away from my phone as possible and probably staying within a square mile of my apartment.
These literal and figurative boundaries become powerfully defined on the first day of fall (or once it’s cool enough to sleep with the window open, whichever happens first). The combination of the breeze, a lower-hanging sun and the scent of drying leaves just makes everything romantic. It’s the kind of weather that makes you feel like you’re on the cover of that one Bob Dylan album as soon as you step outside. Nevermind that it was actually winter in that photo; I’m talking about a feeling here.
Aside from participating in the Bryant Park Crossword Tournament with a friend, this weekend is the first of many where I’ll be keeping it low key, and I invite you to do the same in the preholiday months ahead. Hanging out with friends is relaxing on occasion — there’s really nothing like a lazy day spent wandering, snacking and window shopping (or shopping-shopping) around town with a pal or two. But when a friend in one of my group chats (humble brag) recently pointed out that “Travel and vacation aren’t always the same thing,” I felt the truth of that in my gut. And I’m grateful that the season has finally arrived when weekends really feel like vacation.
How are we doing?
We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to crosswordeditors@nytimes.com.
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P.S. The answer to the Connections Quandary is that they are all “___GRASS.”
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