Beat Today's NYT 'Connections' With Hints And Answers For Saturday, May 24

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend!

I’m always looking to make the column the best it possibly can be. Feedback is always, always welcome and I’m always happy to switch things up to try and make this thing more useful (and fun!) for you all. I hope you don’t mind me roping you in as guinea pigs for changes I’m testing first here at Pastimes.

Starting today, I’m going to include an extra level of clues after the initial hints and revealing the titles of each groups. I’ll offer you one word from each group. Just to help you all out a little more.

I’m not 100% sure if it would be best to have these before or after revealing the groups. So, let’s test both! Please let me know what you think :)

Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to join us.

Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at Twitter much.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, May 24 are coming right up.

What Are Today’s Connections Hints?

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.

Today’s 16 words are...

• WALKER

• JET

• STROLLER

• JOGGER

• NET

• HOOKS

• RANGER

• MONITOR

• BUTLER

• MET

• BOTTLE

• SLACK

• GAY

• CAPRI

• JEAN

• BIB

The level one hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• Yellow group — accessories for youngsters

• Green group — overall, don’t be short with me

• Blue group — borough ballers might skate by

• Purple group — like Hurston, Morrison and Lorde

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help? 

Be warned: we’re really starting to get into spoiler territory.

We call these level two hints. Today’s Connections groups are...

• Yellow group — baby gear

• Green group — kinds of pants minus "S"

• Blue group — New York sports team members

• Purple group — black women authors

One Word For Each Connections Group

Okay, this is your last set of hints. Level three, with one word for each group.

Today’s Connections word hints are…

• Yellow group — BIB

• Green group — JOGGER

• Blue group — JET

• Purple group — HOOKS

What Are Today’s Connections Answers?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

• Yellow group — baby gear (BIB, BOTTLE, MONITOR, STROLLER)

• Green group — kinds of pants minus "S" (CAPRI, JEAN, JOGGER, SLACK)

• Blue group — New York sports team members (JET, MET, NET, RANGER)

• Purple group — black women authors (BUTLER, GAY, HOOKS, WALKER)

My streak hit all the eights, but no perfect game this time. Here's how I fared:

🟪🟨🟨🟨 
🟨🟨🟨🟨 
🟩🟩🟩🟩 
🟦🟦🟦🟦 
🟪🟪🟪🟪

I zipped through this one like no one's business. Well, save for an error right at the start. I thought WALKER went with BIB, BOTTLE and STROLLER rather than the more obvious MONITOR.

The greens were easy and then once I saw NET and JET next to each other, the blues were a piece of cake.

The purple connection was pretty clear to me too, once it was down to the last four words. HOOKS and GAY were the giveaways here. The authors are Octavia E. BUTLER, Roxane GAY, bell HOOKS and Alice WALKER.

I was going to say “five points to whoever gets the GIF reference” but it’s right there at the top of the image ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for hints and the solution for Sunday’s game if you need them.

P.S. Okay, I'm gonna bring you something a little different today. I can do that, because it's Saturday, and I'm writing for a much smaller audience than I do at Forbes.

Bear with me. This is certainly not going to be for everyone. This music is not even really my cup of tea. But it's FASCINATING all the same.

I had heard of the band Lorna Shore before they popped up in my YouTube recommendations. They're a deathcore band (basically, they play rather intense, brutal metal) with an interesting symphonic edge, based on what I've heard of them. They're a fairly big deal and they're playing an arena show near me.

This video of singer Will Ramos performing a version of one of their songs in a single take is really captivating. I have a deeper appreciation for the technicality behind these kinds of harsh vocals after watching this. Ramos exudes a compelling calmness here. He has a clear mastery of all of the screams, growls and other noises that, by all rights, should not be coming out of a human being's mouth.

I watched this with an open mind and came away truly very impressed. I wager many of you won't have experienced anything quite like this. (I promise I'll have a much more laidback recommendation for you tomorrow):

One place I had heard of the band and Ramos before was on The Charismatic Voice YouTube channel, where he often makes guest appearances. I haven't watched this in full yet, but it's a 90-minute analysis (including spectral analyses!) of a three-part ballad by Lorna Shore, featuring isolated vocals that the band provided:

I'm also interested in watching this long-form video in which Charismatic Voice creator and host (and opera singer and vocal coach) Elizabeth Zharoff and researchers looked into the science behind Ramos' vocal distortion abilities. It seems super interesting!

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!

On weekdays, you can find this column over at Forbes. Please follow my blog there for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot!

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