NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, December 13

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend!

Amid all of the drama surrounding Netflix and Paramount battling to buy Warner Bros. Discovery for an obscene amount of money, I remembered that, just 25 years ago, Netflix offered itself to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbuster laughed Netflix out of the room and now it’s practically dead after the company it could have bought for relative peanuts stomped it into the ground.

Netflix is now one of the biggest companies in the world. Consolidation of media giants is generally terrible for a lot of reasons. Compared with Paramount, Netflix seems like a less-bad option, even though I do worry for the future of physical media, theatrical releases and Warner Bros’ game studios.

Anyway, this week I read a very interesting piece about Netflix from roughly a year ago that was published by the magazine n+1. It’s a long piece, but I think it’s worth reading if you’re interested in Netflix and finding out how the company reached this point.

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, December 13 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...

• HERCULE

• POIROT

• AJA

• GAUCHO

• PALAZZO

• PIAZZA

• ARE

• APOSTLE

• STRAWBERRY

• DEPOT

• CULOTTE

• GOODEN

• HER

• SEAVER

• MORTGAGE

• HAREM

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

• 🟨 Yellow group — but where are the bell-bottoms?

• 🟩 Green group — The Colbert Report had two in its name

• 🟦 Blue group — kings of Queens

• 🟪 Purple group — Hellenic icons who might keep it brief

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 — HAREM

• 🟩 Green group — DEPOT

• 🟦 Blue group — STRAWBERRY

• 🟪 Purple group — ARE

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — wide-legged pant styles

• 🟩 Green group — silent "T"

• 🟦 Blue group — New York Mets legends

• 🟪 Purple group — Greek mythological figures minus a letter

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 — wide-legged pant styles (CULOTTE, GAUCHO, HAREM, PALAZZO)

• 🟩 Green group — silent "T" (APOSTLE, DEPOT, MORTGAGE, POIROT)

• 🟦 Blue group — New York Mets legends (GOODEN, PIAZZA, SEAVER, STRAWBERRY)

• 🟪 Purple group — Greek mythological figures minus a letter (AJA, ARE, HER, HERCULE)

Oh boy, this was a toughie. I thought there might be something to POIROT, DEPOT and CULOTTE ending in words or sounds that rhymed with "lot" but nothing else made sense.

French words maybe? No? Italian words? Nah.

After a moment though, I realized there were several words with a silent "T." That got me the greens. Totally thought they'd be the purples. Alas.

HERCULE then stood out. There's no way it was going to be a reference to HERCULE POIROT after the latter went with the greens. So I figured it had to be a Hercules reference. Some brain-scratching later, I had AJA(x) and ARE(s). I realized that HER(a) had to go with them. Thank you, Supergiant, for making the Hades games so I was able to know that last one.

I'm not ashamed to admit I needed help from there. SEAVER seemed like the odd one out at that point. I looked that up and, sure enough, it was a Mets player. Absolutely no chance in hell I would have figured those out without the help of a good search engine.

That left the yellows. I vaguely remembered that CULOTTE was a type of pant, but didn't know the rest. I'm gonna consider both the blues and the yellows as leftovers today.

Wyna, if we could do these tougher games on weekdays and easier ones on weekends so I have more reason to put together Answers Explained columns, that would be wonderful. Thanks, appreciate you.

Almost a streak-breaker for me, but I lucked out with a perfect game. I don't love having to resort to looking things up, but if it means I can keep my streak going beyond the current 287, I'll do it.

Here's my grid:

🟩🟩🟩🟩 
🟪🟪🟪🟪 
🟦🟦🟦🟦 
🟨🟨🟨🟨

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. Here's a song from my favorite German boy band... I mean, party metal band. But this isn't actually a party metal song at all.

I really like the Velvet remix of "Pump It" by Electric Callboy. It's a more laidback, synth-heavy version. There's no screaming or loud guitars, as much as I like both of those things. This version lets great lyrics like "Look at my glutes, what a perfect butt/I'm pumping like a pro and I never really stop" shine. (I'm kidding, I think this is one of the most intentionally funny songs I've heard in a very long time). Nico Sallach is a fantastic vocalist, and he really gets to show out in this version:

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

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