Today's NYT Strands hints and answer — solutions to game #590, October 14

Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? No shame in that, and you've come to the right place. Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #590, as well as the answers, should it come to that.
We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #590, so read on if you need a little help.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #590.
Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #590 is... "This & that".
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Two groups of unconnected objects."
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- DILL
- POUR
- BELTS
- NECK
- DOCKED
- LINER
- LEAN
Still struggling? The spangram touches two opposite sides of the board (but can start and end anywhere), and will give you a hint about the connection between the answers. Today, it starts with 'R' and ends with 'L'.
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Scroll down to find out what it is...
It's ROCKANDROLL.
Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #590?
Drumroll, please...
- JELLY
- STONE
- DINNER
- CRESCENT
- PEBBLE
- BOULDER
...and the spangram was ROCKANDROLL.
Strands #590
“This & that”
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Hi Strands fans. Maybe it's me being dumb, but for me, that might be the weakest puzzle to date.
It felt so tenuous, in fact, that I had to ask my partner at the end what on Earth the link was between the theme, the spangram and the answers, because it went straight over my head (she figured it out in the end, but it wasn't immediately obvious to her either).
If you're as lost as me, three of the answers are related to "rocks" and the other three go with "roll". Yeah.
I actually got started without a clue, finding JELLY on the left-hand side. At this point, I assumed that "This & that" would be one of those puzzles where you pair things together, so I wasted quite a lot of time looking for something related to peanut butter.
When that failed, I used a clue which revealed STONE. I was then able to get the spangram of ROCKANDROLL.
That still revealed nothing to me, and I used a second clue to reveal DINNER. While baffling, it did at least block off the corner where CRESCENT was hidden.
I still didn't know what was going on, so just looked for words vaguely related to rocks, finding PEBBLE and BOULDER at the top of the board to complete the puzzle. Not that much fun, but hopefully it'll be back to its best tomorrow.
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Strands answers for game #589.
- HAWK
- FINCH
- WARBLER
- THRUSH
- WREN
- GOOSE
- DUCK
...and the spangram was FALLMIGRATION.
Strands #589
“Bring binoculars”
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Hi Strands fans. The theme of "Bring binoculars" made me think of bird watching immediately, and even when I failed to see the word "bird" on the board, I wasn't dissuaded.
My stubbornness was rewarded when I found the word HAWK at the top of the board, with FINCH to its left. I was on the right lines, it was just that the spangram was apparently going to be a bit more tangential.
In the meantime, I continued to brainstorm for species of bird. I located WARBLER in the bottom-right corner, with THRUSH immediately above it.
Moving across the board, I found WREN on the right-hand side with GOOSE to its left. I could see most of the spangram now, but couldn't quite land it, so eliminated the final word first, finding DUCK at the bottom of the board.
All of this finally revealed the spangram: FALLMIGRATION.
Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. He also handles all the Wordle coverage on Tom's Guide and has been playing the addictive NYT game for the last several years in an effort to keep his streak forever intact.