No way that's purple: the NYT Connections thread

But Alba, that category was get excited, with “up”, so that seems like a spurious complaint

I made three awful mistakes in a row before going “I’m not awake, don’t do this right now”. I later solved it after having coffee but yeesh

Dan, what I meant was amp, hype, pump and maybe psych all worked as the category without the up, so having to think of the 'up' bit to get that fire also belonged, was tricky! Connections Bot says only 19% of players got it as the first category, which is pretty low for a yellow)

oic, carry on

didn’t we have types of shoes as a category relatively recently?

On August 19 last year

I'd clearly not learned then that sliders can be called slides, as the four shoes were CLOG, PUMP, WEDGE and SLIDE (with MARY JANE as red herring) https://connections.swellgarfo.com/nyt/69

Ooo I didnt know there was an archive for Connexions.

Today’s was fun

Hard! Count myself lucky for only making one mistake (LAD was a clever one)

I managed a perfect score, blue first

i screwed up today. got the disney dog one but not having heard of a sizzle reel screwed up my "reels"

only yellow correct today :( wasted some guesses on green that went wrong

Got it in perfect order today, no mistakes.

Was also a bit thrown by reels, though I insisted on trying to get that one early on, rather than moving on, thus mucking up my score a bit. Got dogs right off the bat.

I managed a perfect score, blue first

High five to another member of today's 96 club.

Oof. Today's (Thurs) purple might trip up some people. I didnt get it, it was just the only category left. Luckily the others were easy. Also lol at the initial placement or row 1.

OF row 1 that should say.

i got purple second, pretty good category imo

I got it perfect reverse rainbow: though Angers isn't a place I know and I didn't know the PBS category, green and yellow were quite easy and Angers was the only likely sounding place that remained so the whole thing only took me 4 mins I think

reverse rainbow too. didn't actually spot the parties - i'm hopeless at the ones where you have to add a word! but i had an inkling about frontline and masterpiece (just as 'some kind of american tv thing') and the other two were by far the most likely to fit.

didn't have a clue about the Blue group but got all of the others easily enough

It got a 5/5 rating on the Connections Bot calculus so ilx has overperformed today

I would have trouble trying to go for reverse rainbow because I can never really see what is meant to distinguish the three easy ones from each other (and I don’t remember the order of the colours). Purple are easy to spot because they tend to be of a few particular types but you could put the others in any order & I’d be like ok sure

Yeah I think it helps that it's the same setter each day as you have to kind of get inside her head. I do quite often get yellow and green in wrong order

I liked that the word choices today started with Champagne Super and Nova. Wonder if the setter is an Oasis fan?

Reunion was in there too

Probably a good way to kick things off for a puzzle-maker, take current headlines and search for double meanings.

i got the PBS one first, then green yellow purp

imo today's purple was the ideal version. some common words that could fit with other categories in the puzzle but also have non-obvious second meaning

I almost submitted the Oasis row as a guess because it made me laugh

Haha yeah thats what I was referring to further up. When I see something like that I have to immediately hit shuffle, otherwise it throws me off.

Nothing distinguishing the colours at all today, purple as straightforward as the rest

I found today very tricky and didn't see purple at all but I seem to be in a minority

No mistakes but took me while before I was confident of ignoring the steaks and I was worried that "way!" or "real!" somehow belonged with blue, so no reverse rainbow

I think a lot of people fell for that today (my gf and I both did)

The misdirections are the most fun things about this puzzle, there was a fake group recently of anagrams of crate. You have to give it the extra few seconds before jumping in

OK the choice of colours in today's was properly screwy. Purple genuinely the easiest and green was leftovers for me that I just could not see. I guess it didn't help that I'm not familiar with this sense of parcel

agree purple easiest today. i had blue as leftovers.

lol I got blue right away. Actually I thought today was pretty easy?

reverse rainbowed today for me

lol I got blue right away. Actually I thought today was pretty easy?

Connections mind meld, I had the same experience (even though purple was the last for me).

Because previous puzzles had categories of cartoon characters , I got that one first, even though it’s one of those things I rarely think about… like golf.

My first RR today!

Phew, today's was a struggle but limped home with one error to spare.

Today (Weds) had some sneaky sames. I also had to googlecheat one of the purple answers because I knew it was "derby" but whoever heard of a baseball derby not me thats who.

Today was certainly an FU to non-Americans. Managed to get it with only one mistake but a lot of guessing

busted. got the yellows and 'one away' for each of the others. never heard of a ??? broil, home run derby rings a bell now maybe. might have got the paint job if I'd been sharper but i don't feel too had as yes, this one was very american.

i got them all, no mistakes, but had to guess at some of them

Got it with one mistake — guessed roller derby instead of home run, which I’d never heard of.

I know Philly cheesesteak and Buffalo wings, but what cities have sprouts and broil?

Brussels and London

We definitely don't, though

xxGYBP

Ha I thought B was hilarious

I was all set to guess it as P before ELLE and VENO clicked into place

this one seems especially USAian with eight answers basically trademarks operating in the US market but how many other markets?

ngl it’s a game from the most prominent paper in the US, so sometimes complaints about it being biased toward the US feel a little weird.

I came across this podcast on youtube with Wyna Liu talking at least in part about connections. I've only heard the first ten minutes (and got distracted as I do with podcasts) but it seemed OK if anyone's interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgV1LVT6ZVw
I'm sure it's available wherever people get podcasts from

^ Thanks! Am listening now.

#1097 (FRI) YBGP -- Had to come back to the latter two categories, after confirming that Y & B weren't red herrings houuuuurs ago. Somewhat tricky presentation but not particularly esoteric in essence.

While I probably *would* prefer that it was, say, The Guardian, ripping off Only Connect for a daily puzzle, I really don't see many actual *complaints* about deep Americana beyond the comments on the NYT 'companion' pages. They go kerrazy over there! Doesn't seem harmful, however, to comment the degree of cultural- loadedness of certain categories. Regional differences are quite interesting in themselves.

XXP: Haha, Only Connect comes up in that podcast (slightly after the midpoint) and things get ever so slightly awkward.

Colors were absolutely ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ today

RR, fun one

RR but yeah, colors were entirely vibes and I'd probably get them in a different order if I played it again. The puzzles itself was pretty easy otherwise.

tbh i just went in reverse order of when i solved each category and it turned out to be RR

I had no idea of the colors, as borne out by my GPYB solve order

#1098 (SAT) BPGY -- quickest for a little while, though I couldn't really grasp B. Gambled on it being P, quite unsuccessfully.

RR though no way that's purple crossed my mind .

PYBG - how the hell tea service is yellow will forever confound me

PBYG— agreed

Bacon otm, I presume Wyna is ABC so she ought to be aware that tongs are the tools of the oppressor, we drink our tea bitter (except of course when it comes to boba tea).

#1099 (SUN) PBYG -- Not toooo vexing, kinda fun. Though careful deliberation over Y vs G didn't yield a happy ending!

RR, fun one, got taken in by a red herring or two but then reversed course

What NNN said. Y and G interchangeable imo

PxBYG. Purple leapt out first so I steamed in without doing my usual thing of trying to work it all out first but got a messed-up yellow as a result.

Another PBYG

PGBY, nearly taken in by the RH but because the groups all seemed pretty clear, aiming for RR actually saved me from making a mistake.