I found today's NYT Strands to be the easiest of the last few days. The "What's my line?" theme gave a great hint that gave me a good guideline to solve the whole grid with just one hint, and the Spangram cleared up all the doubts I had.

Today’s NYT Strands follow the standard rules: all letters in the puzzle are part of the solution, and can only be part of one word. There are seven words in total, including the Spangram, which runs horizontally or vertically across the board. The theme for today, May 2, is “What’s My Phrase?” This means that every word in the grid is somehow related to that phrase. I usually start by looking for the Spangram, which either clarifies the theme or offers unrelated words that I then swap out for a clue or two. Finding the Spangram usually makes it easier to tackle the rest of the puzzle and discover the remaining answers.

I tried to take the theme of today’s NYT Strands quite literally and tried to find words related to the geometric shape of a line, like “cross” or “straight,” to no avail. I decided to instead look for off-theme words like “stir” to unlock clues, which was a good move that changed my perspective on the puzzle.

It's a good idea to think about a specific kind of line, one that is lively and occurs in a pattern in nature.