NYT 'Connections' Hints And Answers For Saturday, June 14

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend.

It would feel quite odd to start off this edition with a fun GIF as usual, and then immediately reflect on what a desperately sad few days it’s been. The plane crash in India, and the deaths of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson would have been brutal enough. Those losses compound on top of the ongoing situations in LA — a microcosm of what’s going on in the US as a whole — and Gaza and Ukraine. Anyone could be forgiven for having feelings of dismay right now.

As I wrote yesterday, I try to keep things as positive as I can in these columns. I choose to cling onto optimism and to believe that things will get better, and to try to do good and donate to worthy causes.

Today, I will simply offer this, which I would contend is the finest piece of art ever crafted by humans (it’s certainly better than anything AI could possibly generate, obviously). If an alien asked me to show them what makes humanity beautiful, this would be the first thing I got them to listen to.

It’s impossible for me to hear the opening notes of “God Only Knows” without feeling a wave of emotion and nostalgia wash over me. I was fortunate enough to see Wilson live a couple of times (and Mike Love’s Beach Boys, I guess…). I absolutely teared up when this started playing. Thank you for everything, Brian:

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, June 14 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...

• MOM

• QUEEN

• RIBBON

• BORDER

• BLUE

• BOSTON

• HEART

• LEGEND

• TOTO

• ARROW

• ICON

• HOOCH

• RAT

• BULL

• ASTRO

• DIVA

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

• 🟨 Yellow group — a very popular performer with a large body of acclaimed work, perhaps

• 🟩 Green group — parts of a somewhat cliched piece of art that pays tribute to an important person in one's life

• 🟦 Blue group — like Eddie Crane, Slinky and Lady

• 🟪 Purple group — toy and fox would fit in 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 — ICON

• 🟩 Green group — ARROW

• 🟦 Blue group — BLUE

• 🟪 Purple group — BOSTON

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — goddess

• 🟩 Green group — elements of a classic "mom" tattoo

• 🟦 Blue group — dogs of the screen

• 🟪 Purple group — _____ terrier

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 — goddess (DIVA, ICON, LEGEND, QUEEN)

• 🟩 Green group — elements of a classic "mom" tattoo (ARROW, HEART, MOM, RIBBON)

• 🟦 Blue group — dogs of the screen (ASTRO, BLUE, HOOCH, TOTO)

• 🟪 Purple group — _____ terrier (BORDER, BOSTON, BULL, RAT)

ASTRO (The Jetsons) and TOTO (The Wizard of Oz) brought to mind famous fictional dogs, but I was stumped as to what else might work with those. So I got the yellows first, after being amused that MOM and QUEEN were next to each other on the initial grid (though "mother" is perhaps more of a common thing in stan culture than MOM).

I did realize that there was at least one dog-related group here after all. I knew that BORDER, BOSTON and BULL were all types of terrier. RAT made sense with those. That got me the purples.

I was a bit stuck on the blues and greens, though. ARROW, RIBBON and HEART seemed to go together as in the types of things you'd see in brand labels or logos. I tried BLUE with those, which put me one away from a group.

I came back to my initial idea about famous pooches, because nothing else was making sense. HOOCH fit with those (as in Turner and Hooch). Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that BLUE (as in Bluey or Blue's Clues) was the fourth word. Fittingly enough, that took care of the blues.

That left the greens for victory. Can't say I loved that one. A bit too nebulous for my tastes.

No perfect game this time, but I'm happy to extend my streak to 109 wins. Here's my grid:

🟨🟨🟨🟨 
🟪🟪🟪🟪 
🟩🟦🟩🟩 
🟦🟦🟦🟦 
🟩🟩🟩🟩

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

P.S. I felt the language in this song was perhaps a little too spicy to share in a Forbes edition of the column this week, but I was very tickled to learn that New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani released a hip-hop track some years ago. Better yet, it kind of slaps.

Under the moniker Mr. Cardamom, Mamdani paid tribute to his grandmother with the song "Nani." Somehow, Mamdani and his team were able to convince the legendary actor and cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey to appear in the enjoyable video:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and others! 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!

Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. Also, subscribe to this newsletter if you haven’t already!