LA Times Crossword
June 15, 2017
Brian Thomas

The four collections of letters below follow a certain pattern and are related. Can you determine what's going on?

X I F
OST
URY

R I X
I S T
THY

TFO
YIN
NER

HOT
EY I
NEG

HINTS:
#1: The letters in each set are scrambled.
#2: The shape of each set is a clue.

The letters in each collection, unscrambled, spell out:

SIXTY-FOUR
THIRTY-SIX
FORTY-NINE
EIGHTY-ONE - - - 3 x 3 letters - - -Perfect squares