NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, September 13

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend!

I’m trying to figure out exactly when I’m going to visit my family and friends back in Scotland in the middle of next year. Late July is out, because I snagged tickets for an Ariana Grande show around that time here.

As I write this, I’m desperately waiting for news of Electric Callboy’s North American tour dates for next year. That’s definitely happening, because they have a festival appearance scheduled for Ohio in May. I’m not missing my chance to see them on this side of the pond. (I mean, as long as they’re playing in Canada and/or Mexico, because I don’t plan to travel to the US anytime soon.) Anyway, I think it’s safe to say that I have my priorities in life straightened 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, September 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...

• NICKEL

• KEY

• WON

• MAJOR

• PRINCIPAL

• DOLLAR

• PRIVATE

• BILL

• SOLDIER

• PERSONAL

• CRITICAL

• POUND

• INNER

• WING

• STERLING

• SECRET

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

• 🟨 Yellow group — vital, crucial

• 🟩 Green group — the kinds of things you might keep to yourself whenever possible

• 🟦 Blue group — they make the world go around, apparently

• 🟪 Purple group — linked to a word you can repeat eight times and have it make sense as a sentence

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 — MAJOR

• 🟩 Green group — PERSONAL

• 🟦 Blue group — POUND

• 🟪 Purple group — SOLDIER

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — important

• 🟩 Green group — intimate and undisclosed

• 🟦 Blue group — global currencies

• 🟪 Purple group — buffalo ____

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 — important (CRITICAL, KEY, MAJOR, PRINCIPAL)

• 🟩 Green group — intimate and undisclosed (INNER, PERSONAL, PRIVATE, SECRET)

• 🟦 Blue group — global currencies (DOLLAR, POUND, STERLING, WON)

• 🟪 Purple group — buffalo ____ (BILL, NICKEL, SOLDIER, WING)

There were several money and currency-related words on the grid, but I was verrrrry suspicious of them. So I looked elsewhere for my first guesses.

The yellows and greens were no problem at all. So it came down to figuring out which currency words made sense with the WING and SOLDIER. After a few moments, I realized what linked BILL (also one of the money-related words) and WING.

But I'd never heard of buffalo in connection with any of the other currency terms or SOLDIER. Nevertheless, I took a partial gamble by assuming that NICKEL wasn't a currency. That got me the blues, then the purples wrapped things up.

A BILL in this case is a player on the Buffalo Bills N.F.L. team. A Buffalo NICKEL, I have learned, is a type of nickel that the U.S. Mint issued in the early 20th century. Wikipedia tells me that "Buffalo Soldiers were United States Army regiments composed exclusively of Black American soldiers, formed during the 19th century to serve on the American frontier." And a Buffalo WING is a type of chicken wing.

Wikipedia's also got you covered for details about the hint. Yeah, that sentence still confuses me.

I eked out a perfect game with a regular rainbow for win 197 on my current streak. Eek! 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. This week, I listened to a new episode of a very infrequent podcast. As in, there have been two episodes released since 2013.

A Life Well Wasted is about the people who make video games. For this episode, creator and host Robert Ashley traveled to Seattle to interview several people who worked on what's been described as “the biggest flop in video game history.”

Neither the name of the game involved or the company behind it are named (it wasn’t too hard at all for me to figure out what those were), but that doesn’t matter. It’s a story about the humans who spent years making something that didn’t find its audience. Now, their game — which has long been removed from sale and is impossible to actually play — and the studio they worked at no longer exist.

A Life Well Wasted is one of two podcasts I’d suggest to anyone who isn’t into video games but is curious about them and video game culture. I highly recommend checking out this particular episode, which is called “Game Over.” It’s a fine piece of work, and it gives the people who made this game the chance to tell their sides of the story. You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere else that podcasts are available.

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