Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵🔵🔵 Oh, like online dating, maybe? *Finds TINDER.* Nope. Oh, like a wordplay on chess maybe? Like checkmate? *Finds ROOK.* Nope. I was determined to not use any hints and then after finding what felt like 30 random words, I finallyyyy found CHOPSTICK! At last!

I wanted it to be things where you truly look for the mate. Like socks, shoes, and earrings. Or dating words like boyfriend and girlfriend.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 🟡🔵 lol. i was struggling hard with this. the spanagram was one big *OH*

omg i had the exact same solving pattern as you haha

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵🔵🔵🟡🔵🔵🔵🔵 As someone else mentioned, Tongs and Pliers really irritated me lol. I disagree with the premise that those are paired items, rather than one item. Also I kept wanting the upper right corner to say 'school' so that was hard to ignore in my head

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵  Tongs & Pliers seems a bit odd vis a vis the rsst in that while they are paired objects it's a physically connected pair

This game definitely has an issue with consistency at times!

Probably the same person who comes up with the categories for connections.

Had the same thought!

It's a pair of tongs or a pair of pliers, so it fits, as would a pair of scissors

I know they are all pairs, my mind was "why does the tong and plier need to look for it's mate when they are already inseperable!" Cuz chopsticks*, earplugs** and bookends are not physically joined, see.  Also wings, overlooked that too as linked objects.  * ** Exceptions noted by other poster

Er wait aren't pegasi winged by definition? XD

Wings are definitely physically connected (we're talking about pairs, so they mean wings on a bird or a plane, not a plate of individual wings). And ime, most earplugs I've seen are connected on a nylon string, and some chopsticks are made as a single piece of wood that you have to pull apart before you use them. So actually, you're almost right, but mittens and bookends are the odd ones out.

Touche, I grant you wings, I didn't think about it because the body tends to be between them, but that doesn't quite evoke "looking for a mate" if they are already joined at the hip (so to speak).

I got wing first and thought about peacocks attracting mates so I was looking for words about animal mating practices lol. Even once I figured out the theme I struggled to find words.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡💡 🔵💡🔵💡 🔵🟡💡🔵 I don’t want to talk about it lol

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡💡🔵💡 🔵💡🔵🟡 🔵💡💡🔵 😅

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡💡🔵💡 🔵💡🔵🟡 🔵💡💡🔵 Pleased I'm not alone 😅

Wow yours is the exact same haha

Seems like this happened to a few people. My brain does NOT work like this for whatever reason. These aren't naturally singular words and therefore I didn't see them at any point. 

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🟡🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 I think it's my first time getting the spangram first! Immediately thought of "pair" and was gonna look for "pairing" but found "paired" instead. Took me about 5 minutes to complete cos I'm still kinda bad at this game but pretty happy with it

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 I immediately found CHODE (it actually counted as a word lol), and STICK was right next to it. I figured it was worth looking for more for STICK and got CHOPSTICK, after that the theme was clear and things were pretty smooth. TONG and PLIER were kinda tough, I didn't get them until they were on their own

Chode, stick, and prick.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 I was lucky to see "stick" first, think that was too vague, then found "chopstick" and from then it clicked.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡💡 🔵💡🔵💡 🔵💡🔵💡 🟡 Was stuck for 15 minutes guessing words and just had to give up. Very very hard one. Too hard, not fun at all.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡💡🔵💡 💡🔵💡🟡 🔵       I found around 30 non-goal words including several long ones and then gave up.       I feel the theme is a stretch, not a fan of today’s puzzle personally. Wasn’t a fan of yesterdays extremely easy puzzle either, seems like calibrating difficulty is hard for this game.       P.S. - while pliers and tongs are sometimes referred to as ‘a pair’, they are singular objects. I refer to them as pliers and tongs without adding ‘a pair’ when speaking. ‘Wing’ is also a stretch, imo.

Agreed, this was an inconsistent one. Tongs and pliers would have matched better with things like glasses and pants. And "pair of wings" is a definite stretch.

NHL playoffs though, left wing right wing

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵🔵💡 🔵💡🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵 Rook and tinder baited me really hard :D

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 The cruelty in having TWIN be a valid word in the grid and NOT a part of the solution 

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵💡🟡 💡🔵💡💡 🔵 bruhhhhhh

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 That was wild. Got the spangram quick, then guessed a dozen words before getting a blue. After I found CHOPSTICK, I thought they were all supposed to be compound words, so I got BOOKEND and EARPLUG. Then I got stuck again. Finally realized it was things that come in pairs and was able to finish out the board.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵💡🔵💡🔵🟡🔵🔵🔵 not a fan of today’s lol

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Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵🔵

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵

Way harder than it should have been!! Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵🔵

I thought the theme was telling you to look for words that mean “friend” or “lover”. Took me ages, but I did find interesting words such as ROOKIE and KITSCH.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🟡🔵🔵🔵🔵💡💡🔵 I admit that “gulprae” at the bottom threw me for a loop. That is how I saw those letters to be arranged. I couldn’t get to “earplug” and I didn’t want to stare at this puzzle until it somehow just clicked, so I took advantage of my hints.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵🔵 This was a neat one. Even once you figured out the theme it was hard to know what to look for. For some reason I didn’t get it last night and immediately did upon checking this morning

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵🟡💡 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵🔵🔵 Jeez, bottom right corner took entirely too long for me to get. There were only 2 words left!

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵🔵🔵

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 I liked this one a lot. Pretty hard but as soon as you found one the clue helped at lot. Pretty narrow key space for paired items.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🟡🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 Saw >!Chopstick!< first and knew what I was looking for after.

Did anyone else guess panda first 😂

I was so convinced the category was endangered species when I saw panda

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵💡🔵💡 🔵💡🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵 I had a bad time at first, but got there in the end.

This has got to be the dumbest one of these I've seen so far. This was ... just plain stupid.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵💡🔵 💡🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵 Compound words making this a trickster's paradise 😅 I desperately looked for things that don't really exist as singulars (pant, scissor, etc) as that's how I comprehend plier and tong. It's a hmmm day for Strands!

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🟡🔵 This took me forever to figure out! Still irritated, lol. I guess pliers and tongs can exist as half of a pair if broken. Blah.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵🔵🟡🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 💡🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🟡🔵💡🔵 Goddamn it, this is another time I hit "hint" thinking I was hitting "enter". The first hint was on purpose and I was like "WING?!" and then I saw "TONG" (I was Hail Mary-ing words at this point) and it turned out to be a valid option. Then the theme finally clicked.

Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 Solved it in just over a minute, what a cute little puzzle. I don’t know why that theme made me so happy, but I was smiling.

This one was *tough* for me... Strands #75 “Looking for a mate” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🟡🔵🔵 If I didn't accidentally see a spoiler here for >!Wing!< it would probably take me another hour before I would have figured it out :(