Having trouble with the NYT Strand puzzle? Today's puzzle theme, “Parks”, may have you guessing at first, but it gets easier once you see the answer on the board.

Below are the clues and answers for Strands #136. We will start with the hints and then lead you to the full solution for Strands #136.

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strands #136.

The official theme for NYT Strands #136 is... “Park Place.”

And here's an unofficial hint from me: “Kid Friendly Zone.”

If you're still not sure, here are a few useful words that give valuable hint tokens:

Still having trouble? Spangram gives us a hint on conjunctions. Today it starts with “P” and ends with “D.”

Scroll down to see what it is.

PLAYGROUND.

Now, what's the answer to today's strand?

Drumroll, please.

... Spangram was PLAYGROUND.

Strands #136

“Park place”

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Hello Strands fans! Today's puzzle is easy once you have the subject down, but I started with the theme of “parks”. In a park, there are benches, right? Sure enough, in the upper left corner, there it is.

It was only when I looked at SEESAW on the other side that I realized this was not about parks in general, but about playgrounds; I stopped connecting SLIDE to the bottom of BENCHES and looked for the spangram: PLAYGROUND, spelled from top to bottom on the board.

With the board neatly split in two, things were easier: the “C,” “L,” and “I” were in a row thanks to being sandwiched between SEESAW and the spangram, so I spelled CLIMBER accordingly. All that remained was the SANDBOX on the right side of the board.

Turning to the left, only one word still remained: SWINGS, which I connected, completing the puzzle quite efficiently.

Are you reading this late in the day? The full article on Strand's solution to yesterday's game #135 can be found here.