No way that's purple: the NYT Connections thread

I'm not really complaining about the US-centricism btw - let the New York Times be the New York Times. But it does add another dimension to the puzzle!

very US-centric words today. So as US-based player I found this one very easy.

I remember giving up completely on Connections when it turned out that every other clue was "jelly roller" or "nose bagger" or some impenetrable US slang. As you point out it's the New York Times, written in New York for a US audience. But if it was a British thing, would literally every single clue - literally every single clue - be "jolly ha'pence" or "knobbly nappers" or "hampstead hatrack"? No.

Which really raises two possibilities. The first is that the United States has much more slang, and it's more ever-present, than the rest of the English-speaking world, which is nonsense because the country is only two hundred years old. The second is that the writers are only familiar with US slang, except that as far as I know the puzzles are AI-generated, and presumably their dataset includes far more slang-light content than slang-heavy.

The third is that the NYT believes that the US audience wants to read about itself 24/7, and would get nervous and scared if it wasn't bombarded with its own culture all the time. Except that I've always had the impression that in the United States, New York - and by extension the NYT - is perceived as a separate entity, a kind of controlling alien parasite, an ingratiating imitation of the United States, as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers - so why bother? It's as if the NYT is trying to pretend to be a regular guy, but in a really obvious way, "hello fellow kids". And that's what angers me. My own mind! It angers me.

You son of a... I have never in my LIFE heard of one of the terms in the purple category today.

I never made the connection between Brussels the city and Brussels the sprout! Feeling dense.

Still never heard of a London Boil, tho.

orbit, was it soap box?

Haha yes ___ sprouts threw me too because I was thinking "what city is called Bean?" and felt like an idiot when I worked it out.

it was London BROIL iirc, which is even worse as no British person uses the word "broil" and in fact some people even have a deep-seated hatred towards it

got today's ok but it needed a bit of thinking

Quite a Finbarr Saunders set of words today

Even though I got it in 4, I thought today was pretty tricky because 75% of the words seemed particularly vague.

I found the double entendres very distracting, yes. And otherwise vague.

I guess I dont need to spoiler 25th's anymore but I only knew "london broil" thanks to the Simpsons. (PVMIC)

I only know it from Cabin Boy.

A nicely challenging reverse rainbow on what Connections says is my 100th puzzle. Not sure if I lost earlier ones from my phone or whether NYT didn't collect the data before that. 96/100 completed, 74 with no mistakes.

https://i.imgur.com/HaCu1Dt.jpeg

Is there a technique for solving these or do people just let the words settle in their mind until possible answers jump out?

The more challenging versions of these give me that the same panic/anxiety of turning over an exam paper to begin and not being able to answer a single question. The pleasure of these is very much in having completed them.

Just the former, really – I enjoy the first few seconds of letting the words swim before my eyes and see if anything pops out. Usually something does quite quickly and when it doesn't yes a bit of mild panic can set in. My only technique, really, is to not steam in – I take a screenshot of the (shuffled) board on my phone then use the Photos app to mark coloured lines through possible sets, some of which usually overlap, then when I'm confident enough I've got a solution I make my guesses for real. My brain isn't good enough to keep all the things in my head without doing that. Sometimes I can't even see three of the categories so I have to just make a start with the one I'm most confident of.

Just the latter, rather.

I don’t plan too carefully because (as with Wordle), I enjoy messing up and getting out of a fix. That said I totally failed today.

They launched the beta of a sports edition... https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/connections-sports-edition

Lol the time limit is going to drive people away, wonder if they might consider removing that ever.

Not time limit, it's a visible clock.

Oof I failed that miserably

reverse rainbow. never heard of sham

It’s a decorative pillow case that often matches the bedspread

Me neither. I guess because bedding is one of those things people don't talk about a lot, you don't realise how different it can need in different cultures. It wasn't till I lived in the US for a while that I became aware of "comforters" and how they are sort of like duvets but not really as you don't put a cover on them. Actual duvets were quite hard to find! But no, never came across snugs but got today's)

Can be, not can need

Today’s was straightforward enough I tried for reverse rainbow but had no sense of which colors should be which.

I fell for the Golden Girls misdirect

^^^ lol I hadn’t even noticed that!

I noticed it but blanch was spelled incorrectly so I ignored it

Suspect you used the wrong tags there lol.

Oh goddammit

It's OK, it got fixed

Tricky one today. For the longest time purple confused me, even after I finished the puzzle: I was like, but Kyoto ISN'T a capital OR a homophone for keto!

Yeah that was a bit ridiculous

orbit, was it soap box?
― Blitz Primary (tipsy mothra), Thursday, September 26, 2024 1:23 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol is that a dig at how often I'm up on my soap box on the internet? Jk also I made and raced a lot of soap box derby cars as a kid in a church youth group who had a gearhead/engineer as a dad. No, I was stymied by HOME RUN DERBY.

You guys know that city is not the homophone for that clue, right?

Alba posting their results has made me take this a little more seriously (not that I'm competitive or anything!). I'm more inclined to walk away/give myself a chance to think. No more jumping in when I get frustrated.

It's Quito, right?

my stats are better

Photos or it didn't happen.

https://i.imgur.com/afST7fX.jpg

I'm not proud of it, but I just said 'phwoar' out loud in my kitchen.

Chinaski: yes I assume so :)

Wins ftw

Damn, I forgot aboutQuito

So wins must have missed a day or else would have a streak of 104. I only have 103 listed but am sure I've not missed one since the very early days of the puzzle. Maybe I played it on a different browser one day

Funny timing with today's purple (which I got first, but after a mistake): I'm pretty sure I've never used a dishwasher before, but since reading that it's better than handwashing in terms of water/energy/cleanliness, I've been cleaning it and getting it fixed.

fun puzzles last couple of days

I honestly couldn't tell which groups would be which colors today.

I just realized yesterday I was confusing blue and green in the complexity progression, mostly because I got a reverse rainbow and was like “wait no, blue and green are reversed…? oh lol at me”

Today was bollocks, friends. Still none the wiser, tbh.