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Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend!
I am not the best at learning from my mistakes. This is something I am forever trying to improve on, but I have made certain errors over and over. Some of these have hampered my personal life. Others on a professional basis to some degree. There are two mistakes I’ve made at work that stick with me, though.
One was when I appeared on a podcast a while back. The host asked me a question and I just froze for about a minute. It was a topic that was in my wheelhouse and as soon as we were done, I realized what I should have said — and it would have been germane and interesting. Lesson here: to be more prepared!
The other is from many years ago at this point. I was interviewing a victim of harassment for a story that turned out to be somewhat impactful. It resulted in a social media platform (one that no longer exists) changing its policies to help prevent harassment. While I was proud of that, I wasn’t happy with the interview. I asked a careless question and the person I was speaking with swiftly ended the conversation.
I was a young, inexperienced writer, but I should have known better. Still, I learned from that mistake. The lesson I took away from it is to always lead with empathy. It’s a tenet I try to carry in all aspects of my life, not just in my work.
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, January 17 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...
PLASTER
SLING
HIDE
BLANKET
PELT
SINK
RED
COAT
SKIN
COVER
CAST
INKS
SIMON
HURL
KINS
CAPTURE
The level one hints for today’s Connections groups are:
🟨 Yellow group — mask a mistake (geez, I wonder what inspired today’s intro?)
🟩 Green group — move a thing from one place to another without carrying it
🟦 Blue group — [YouTube link]
🟪 Purple group — hours of carefree fun starts here
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 — COAT
🟩 Green group — HURL
🟦 Blue group — SINK
🟪 Purple group — RED
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Need some extra help?
Today’s Connections groups are...
🟨 Yellow group — spread over
🟩 Green group — throw
🟦 Blue group — anagrams
🟪 Purple group — first words of kids’ games
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 — spread over (BLANKET, COAT, COVER, PLASTER)
🟩 Green group — throw (CAST, HURL, PELT, SLING)
🟦 Blue group — anagrams (INKS, KINS, SINK, SKIN)
🟪 Purple group — first words of kids’ games (CAPTURE, HIDE, RED, SIMON)
The blues jumped out at me right away. No problem at all with those.
But then a red herring tripped me up. PELT, COAT, HIDE and BLANKET amounted to nothing. Not a blip. (SKIN would have fit in with those too.)
At least it didn’t take me much more than a few seconds to figure out the greens.
From there, SIMON brought to mind Simon Says and HIDE had to be a reference to Hide and Seek. I didn’t know what would go with them, but with HIDE out of the way, that meant there was no fifth option left for the yellows. Reverse engineering, for the win! CAPTURE (The Flag… I guess?) and RED (Rover/Lion/Letter… I don’t know which!) rounded out the purples.
No perfect game this time, but my streak is now up to 322 wins.
How did you get on today? Here’s my grid for this one:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟨🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
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. I can’t believe I haven’t recommended this all-time Eurodance classic before (l can’t see that I have, at least). In certain parts of the world, "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!" by The Vengaboys is an ironclad floorfiller.
I just found out that Vengaboys supported Scissor Sisters and Kesha at a Madison Square Garden show last year. That’s a fantastic lineup! Anyway, good luck getting this out of your head:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
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