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If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for October 13 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for October 13 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Time to get cozy

These words look great with pumpkin spice lattes.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

Warm autumn clothes and accessories.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Fallfashion.

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for October 13

• Scarf

• Cardigan

• Flannel

• Fallfashion

• Sweater

• Fleece

• Vest

SEE ALSO: Hurdle hints and answers for October 13 SEE ALSO: Mini crossword answers for October 13

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

This year's harsh string of layoffs continues with Boeing being the latest company to announce cuts to its workforce.

The airplane manufacturing company will lay off 10 percent of its workforce — roughly 17,000 jobs. Job cuts will include executives, middle management, and employees.

SEE ALSO: NASA thinks it found a moon light-years away spewing gas

The decision was announced to employees in a message from President and CEO Kelly Ortberg who took over just two months ago. He wrote that in order to restore the company "tough decisions" and "structural changes" needed to be made to "stay competitive." Ortberg also announced Boeing will delay the release of its new plane the 777X to 2026 and will stop building the 767 Freighter after fulfilling orders.

According to the Associated Press, Boeing has lost $25 billion since the start of 2019.

Perhaps coincidentally, the layoffs have happened as some 33,000 union machinists have gone on strike — bringing Boeing's airplane production of some of its best-selling planes to a halt. The company, however, continues to build 787s at a non-union plant. The strike is a huge hit to Boeing's earnings as it receives money for the planes when they are delivered to customers. The striking workers seek an increase in wages that matches the increase in cost of living.

Thus, Boeing's disatourous year continues. In January, it came under fire after Alaska Airlines had to ground 737 Max 9 planes after the door plug blew off midair. Then in July, Boeing pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to defraud the government after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people. The company also lost millions of dollars due to the issues with Starliner — notably stranding two astronauts on the ISS until Feb. 2025.

Do the voices in the "in da clerb, we all fam" soundbite circulating on TikTok sound vaguely familiar? Do they perhaps bring you back to a time of bandage dresses and mustache prints before weed was legal in New York City? That's because they are the voices of Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer on their hit show Broad City.

SEE ALSO: Charli XCX's 'Brat and it's completely different but also still brat' is here and hype lives on

Broad City's last episode may have aired in 2019, but if TikTok is any indication Jacobson and Glazer's absurdist, stoner humor still resonates. In the clip that now soundtracks over 70,000 videos, Abbi asks, "Do you know them?" and Ilana responds, "No, but in da clerb, we all fam." Abbi doesn't understand and Ilana repeats it before saying, "In da club, we are all family, are you racist?"

Everyone from Charli XCX and Troye Sivan to Sabrina Carpenter has lip-synched to the video, often with a caption detailing a misunderstanding or situation where "we all fam." For example, Charli XCX and Sivan's video reads, "re: the twinks in the crowd at Sweat" about their joint tour. Carpenter's said, "My 30-year-old fans trying to talk to my 12-year-old fans."

The sound wasn't uploaded to TikTok with the visual of Abbi and Ilana making its origin hard to pin down for many. But the scene has been beloved among Broad City fans. A YouTube video of it posted 8 years ago has over 80,000 views. The comments section is riddled with years-old messages like, "This still makes me laugh out loud" and "I think about this scene a lot."

Some fans are frustrated with the dialogue being seen as TikTok slang. One X user wrote, "They're calling these Broad City lines 'Tiktok speak' in the quotes guys this is a nightmare. My culture is not a costume. Halloween is coming up, be conscious, listen and learn."

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The trend became further decontextualized when it morphed into a meme on X. Users are captioning a wide variety of photos of groups of people with, "in da clerb, we all fam." Films like Bottoms and Bodies, Bodies, Bodies have gotten the "in da clerb, we all fam" treatment as well as shows like Succession and The Sex Lives of College Girls. The phrase is also being used to caption symbols of fandom. One clever post references Chappell Roan's reading, "in the pink pony clerb, we all fam."

Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted

So, for now, "in da clerb, we all fam" is the turn of phrase du jour — until a new soundbite is pulled out of obscurity and forced into our cultural consciousness.

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

October Prime Day: Here's the latest news on the deals

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Saturday, October 12, 2024:

AcrossHad sore muscles

• The answer is Ached.

Rolled pastry that's German for "whirlpool"

• The answer is Strudel.

Setting for the 2014 film "Selma"

• The answer is Alabama.

Jurisprudence

• The answer is Law.

Word, in French

• The answer is Mot.

Last day for a scheduled session, say

• The answer is End Date.

Speak with pauses

• The answer is Stammer.

Woodcutting tools with arched blades

• The answer is Adzes.

Prime Day deals you can shop right now

• Apple AirPods Pro 2 ANC Earbuds With USB-C Charging Case — $189.99 (List Price $249.00)

• Apple iPad 10.2" 64GB Wi-Fi Tablet (2021 Release) — $199.00 (List Price $329.00)

• TP-Link Tapo C120 2K QHD Security Camera — $24.99 (List Price $39.99)

• 65" Hisense U6 Series 4K Mini-LED ULED Smart TV (2024 Model) — $597.99 (List Price $799.99)

• Bose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds (Black) — $229.00 (List Price $299.00)

• Geekom A8 Ryzen 9 2TB SSD 32GB RAM Mini Desktop — $721.00 (List Price $849.00)

• Fire TV Stick 4K Max Streaming Player With Remote (2023 Model) — $39.99 (List Price $59.99)

DownHome of the Braves

• The answer is Atlanta.

Crustacean in Cajun cuisine

• The answer is Crawdad.

What 1-Down is, for Delta Airlines

• The answer is Hub.

Soybeans served in the pod

• The answer is Edamame.

Lowers in rank

• The answer is Demotes.

Retail activity

• The answer is Sales.

"Not now!"

• The answer is Later.

Area between North and South Korea, for short

• The answer is DMZ.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Mini Crossword.

Apple is preparing to turn its AirPods Pro 2 into easy-to-use aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.

Scientists have never actually seen a moon orbiting a planet other than the ones in this solar system. An exomoon, a companion to an exoplanet, likely would be too tiny and far away for telescopes to resolve. 

But a new NASA study may have found a clue that one is orbiting a planet some 635 light-years from Earth. The inference comes from a vast sodium cloud spotted in space. Whatever is causing it produces about 220,000 pounds of sodium per second. 

The research suggests a rocky moon circling exoplanet WASP-49 b, a Saturn-sized gas giant discovered in 2017, is the source. That could mean the distant world is accompanied by a moon like Jupiter's Io — a highly volcanic place, blasting out its own massive cloud of gasses 1,000 times wider than Jupiter.

"The evidence is very compelling that something other than the planet and star are producing this cloud," said Rosaly Lopes, a planetary geologist who co-authored the study, in a statement. "Detecting an exomoon would be quite extraordinary, and because of Io, we know that a volcanic exomoon is possible."

SEE ALSO: Webb telescope finds first clear evidence of a 'steam world' An exomoon could be the source of a bewildering sodium cloud found around an exoplanet. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech illustration

This is not the first time astronomers have suspected an exomoon was lurking in their data. There have been exomoon candidates discovered in the past, though confirming their existence is much more difficult. Scientists such as Apurva Oza, once a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, are interested in finding unconventional ways to detect them for what they could represent: Moons throughout the galaxy could also potentially offer habitable conditions for life, even if their host planets don't. 

That's why Oza wanted to return to studying WASP-49 b to further investigate the source of its bewildering cloud. Researchers used a ground-based telescope to observe the silhouettes of the cloud and the exoplanet as they passed in front of the host star. 

At one point, they noticed that the cloud was moving faster than WASP-49 b and away from Earth. If the cloud were coming from the exoplanet, they figured they would have seen it moving toward Earth. The observation led them to conclude that the cloud was coming from a separate source, according to the paper recently published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Exoplanet WASP-49 b could have an exomoon similar to Jupiter's Io, a highly volcanic world pumping gasses into space. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech illustration

"We think this is a really critical piece of evidence," said Oza, a staff scientist at Caltech and the lead author, in a statement. "The cloud is moving in the opposite direction that physics tells us it should be going if it were part of the planet’s atmosphere."

The team's research provided other clues that an exomoon was making the cloud. Both the planet and the star are mostly made of the lightest elements, hydrogen and helium, with hardly any sodium. Seemingly neither has enough to be responsible for the cloud. Scientists also used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to see that the cloud hovers high above the exoplanet's atmosphere — just like the cloud Io envelops around Jupiter. 

Next the team developed computer models to see if an exomoon could be the cloud's catalyst. Their simulations found that a moon with a snug eight-hour orbit around the planet could explain the cloud's motion — the way it seemed to sometimes drift in front of the planet and how it didn't appear to be tied to any particular region of the alien world. 

Jupiter's moon Io, seen in multiple views above, is the most volcanically active world in our solar system. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS

Scientists can't say anything definitive about the exomoon because it's just a candidate. But here's what astronomers know about Io, the third-largest Jovian moon out of 95. Io is the most volcanic world in the solar system. Astronomers believe hundreds of volcanoes spew fountains that reach dozens of miles high.

Jupiter's gravity squeezes Io's core as the moon moves closer, then slackens as it moves farther away. This swelling and contracting causes Io's interior to heat up, triggering tidal volcanism. 

Scientists will need to continue observing this cloud to confirm its behavior, so the team is likely a long way from knowing with certainty if they have proof of an exomoon. Still, the results are thrilling for Oza, who believes looking for gas clouds — perhaps an order of magnitude larger than their source — could be an indirect method of finding habitable moons in other star systems.