NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, August 23

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend!

When I was but a young lad, there was a BBC show I loved very much called Bugs. It was a high-tech action espionage drama that was a bit of a precursor to 24.

I must have been looking for a way to denote myself as part of the fandom (a thing I didn’t know existed then) the time I was talking about the show with my parents and proudly declared that “I’m a little bugger.”

Anyway, I don’t actually remember all that much about Bugs and have no idea if it holds up. But someone has uploaded all 40 episodes to YouTube, so there’s only one way to find out:

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, August 23 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...

• SMARTWATCH

• BOWL

• OIL

• CHICANERY

• COOLANT

• PODCAST

• HIPPODROME

• VAPE

• LEGERDEMAIN

• CRYPTO

• DECEIT

• FUEL

• COLISEUM

• SUBTERFUGE

• BRAKE FLUID

• STADIUM

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

• 🟨 Yellow group — they don't need to be solid to make something go vroom

• 🟩 Green group — big events happen here

• 🟦 Blue group — oh, you rascal!

• 🟪 Purple group — like Wikipedia, GLP-1 receptor agonists, CRISPR gene editing and 3D printing

One Word For Each Connections Group

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

Let’s take a look at one word for each group.

Today’s Connections word hints are…

• 🟨 Yellow group — OIL

• 🟩 Green group — BOWL

• 🟦 Blue group — DECEIT

• 🟪 Purple group — VAPE

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — liquids you put into cars (BRAKE FLUID, COOLANT, FUEL, OIL)

• 🟩 Green group — arena (BOWL, COLISEUM, HIPPODROME, STADIUM)

• 🟦 Blue group — skulduggery (CHICANERY, DECEIT, LEGERDEMAIN, SUBTERFUGE)

• 🟪 Purple group — modern inventions (CRYPTO, PODCAST, SMARTWATCH, VAPE)

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 — liquids you put into cars (BRAKE FLUID, COOLANT, FUEL, OIL)

• 🟩 Green group — arena (BOWL, COLISEUM, HIPPODROME, STADIUM)

• 🟦 Blue group — skulduggery (CHICANERY, DECEIT, LEGERDEMAIN, SUBTERFUGE)

• 🟪 Purple group — modern inventions (CRYPTO, PODCAST, SMARTWATCH, VAPE)

Never have I been more confused while playing Connections than when I was writing out the word list and got to LEGERDEMAIN. Like, what? I have never once heard of that.

My instinct was that it might go with HIPPODROME, COLISEUM and STADIUM as a kind of venue, but BOWL was also an option for that. So I left those alone at the outset and focused my attention elsewhere.

The yellows were no problem at all. As I put together DECEIT, SUBTERFUGE and CHICANERY — three words that were clearly a part of a group — nothing else made sense with them, so I tried LEGERDEMAIN. Lo and behold, that worked! As it turns out, that's a synonym of "slight of hand." I always love to learn something new while playing Connections. Watch me forget that by tomorrow. "Skulduggery" is such a great word too.

The venue words seemed like the greens, so I opted to submit what I assumed were the purples first. No idea about the connection there, but in hindsight, it made sense. PODCAST has been a term since 2004, so I took the category to mean 21st century inventions. Hence the hint.

The greens wrapped up another perfect game and my 176th win in a row. Here's my grid for today:

🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩

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. It’s cool that music PR people occasionally send me something new to check out. Such is the case with an emo rock band called Pool Kids, who I’d never heard of previously, and their new album Easier Said Than Done (which is out now). The press release included a link to a lyric video for a song called “Sorry Not Sorry.”

It’s a dreamy, chill track and according to lead vocalist Christine Goodwyne, it’s about veering between feeling like you’re not as important to someone as they are to you, and not being willing to tolerate that.

“It’s been many years since I’ve dealt with or felt anything like that, but it’s the kind of feeling that you never forget,” Goodwyne said. “Sometimes when I’m writing it can be inspiring to tap into those old, more potent emotions that I haven’t felt in a long time. It’s kind of an ode to an old version of myself that would’ve found a song like this very cathartic."

I just think it’s a darn fine song and I dig the album too. I might just have to go to their show here next month:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

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