Looking for Friday's Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:
Hey, folks! Welcome to the weekend.
Some years ago, I took a woodworking course after it was given to me as a gift. I've always liked the idea of building things with my hands. The feeling of tactility was appealing.
I enjoyed the two-day class and was very proud that I managed to make a simple, sturdy footstool. Still, I found it hard going. I don't really have the precision required for shop work, but I tried my hardest. The stool is definitely not perfect.
Most importantly, the class helped me understand myself better. I'm definitely more of an abstract thinker than a logical one. I can see that in my work every day, which requires me to pull nuggets of information from various sources (and my memory) together to craft coherent news stories and, well, these daily intros.
Undertaking new experiences is important. It helps us better understand what we like and what we're suited to, and gives us a stronger sense of self. It helps us grow.
Before we begin, I've set up a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. We have a great little community over there and we chat about more than NYT games. Everyone who has joined has been lovely and supportive of each other. It's a fun hangout spot.
It's also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.
You're presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.
There's only one solution for each puzzle, and you'll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.
Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you're incorrect, you'll lose a life. If you're close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you're one word away from getting it right, but you'll still need to figure out which one to swap.
If you make four mistakes, it's game over. Let's make sure that doesn't happen with the help of some hints, and, if you're really struggling, today's Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it's easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.
If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication's Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.
Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints for each grid via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.
Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today's Connections groups, I'll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.
No perfect game, but that's my fourth win in a row. Here's how I fared:
🟨🟪🟨🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
I have to admit, I struggled a bit with this one! My first instinct was that there would either be a group of Irish-related things or luck-related things. So I went with my gut on the former and a guess of SHAMROCK, RHINESTONE (for Irish dancing, perhaps?), HORSESHOE and FIDDLER. No dice there.
My other idea was on the money. That got me the yellows.
I was completely stuck at that point, though. I suspected there was some kind of literary reference I wasn't quite seeing.
After hitting the shuffle button a few times, things started coming together. I saw RHINESTONE and DRUGSTORE together and had an "a-ha!" moment to get the purples.
"Rhinestone Cowboy" is a great Glen Campbell song, while "Space Cowboy" could reference either the Jamiroquai track or one by Kacey Musgraves (though there are a bunch of other songs with the same name!). Drugstore Cowboy is a Gus Van Sant movie from the '80s and Midnight Cowboy is a John Schlesinger film from 1969 that stars Dustin Hoffman.
PHANTOM and FIDDLER then made the blues somewhat clear. I wasn't completely sure that MERRILY belonged with those and SUNSET, but as I looked at the remaining words, it was clear that they formed the greens based on how they're constructed.
By the way, those Broadway musicals are FIDDLER on the Roof, MERRILY We Roll Along, PHANTOM of the Opera and SUNSET Boulevard.
A bit of a toughie to start off this new month, but I prefer Connections that way.
That's all there is to it for today's Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Sunday's game if you need them.
P.S. I adore Jamiroquai so this is as good an opportunity as any to inject some of their flavor of funk into the column. Since "Space Cowboy" was referenced, let's go with that:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!