NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, August 17

Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend so far.

My partner and I have been talking about moving in together and figuring out a timeline for that, so the conversation has of course touched on whether to buy or rent a place.

For many of us, we’ve been told our entire lives that we should buy a home. That it’s a symbol of success we should all aspire to. It’s just what you do when you have enough saved up.

I long thought that too, but now I’m not so sure. For now, at least, renting seems like the way to go.

I like that the only things I need to fundamentally worry about paying for each month when it comes to keeping a roof over my head are the rent and utility bills. I don’t need to concern myself with property taxes, school taxes, condo fees, repair bills and so on. My landlord recently replaced the washer-dryer and busted hallway lights. I didn’t have to pay a penny extra to deal with that.

Plus, at least in my neck of the woods and for the time being, renting is generally cheaper month-to-month than buying a place. Sure, you’ll have an asset that you own entirely once the mortgage is paid off, and you can more or less do what you want with the property. But it ties up a lot of your capital as well (unless you take out a HELOC or loan against your home, but doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of paying it off?).

Currently, I’m able to invest the difference between my rent and what I would pay for a mortgage. Barring a complete collapse in the market, by the time I’m ready to retire, those investments should be able to cover my living expenses.

I have also considered eventually starting to buy properties to rent out. But the idea of being a landlord just feels gross. Morally, I don’t think I could do it. I also don’t really want to deal with the whole rigmarole that comes with that — finding good tenants and handling any issues that come up and so on.

Keeping my money in the market is much more my speed. I’ve got some holdings I don’t plan to sell for a long time. Using a small amount of money to play around with buying and selling stocks is pretty fun too.

Anyway, my point is that you don’t necessarily need to do what everyone tells you. Do the research to figure out the best option for you. Live your own life your own way.

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 Sunday, August 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...

• PRESS

• CLOSE

• WELCOME

• STAMP

• OPEN

• SPEECH

• HANDY

• ADDRESS

• PETITION

• ENVELOPE

• PUSH

• ACCESSIBLE

• NAME

• NEARBY

• ASSEMBLY

• EXIT

And the level one hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — not far away at all. For my partner, this apparently covers pretty much everything in relation to her house (I’m very much joking, my love (yes, she reads Pastimes))

• 🟩 Green group — your message won’t get far without these, though

• 🟦 Blue group — portal phrasing

• 🟪 Purple group — important factors that were guaranteed in 1791

One Word For Each Connections Group

Need some extra help? 

Be warned: we’re 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 — HANDY

• 🟩 Green group — NAME

• 🟦 Blue group — OPEN

• 🟪 Purple group — PRESS

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — conveniently located

• 🟩 Green group — needs for sending a letter

• 🟦 Blue group — words on a door

• 🟪 Purple group — First Amendment freedoms

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 — conveniently located (ACCESSIBLE, CLOSE, HANDY, NEARBY)

• 🟩 Green group — needs for sending a letter (ADDRESS, ENVELOPE, NAME, STAMP)

• 🟦 Blue group — words on a door (EXIT, OPEN, PUSH, WELCOME)

• 🟪 Purple group — First Amendment freedoms (ASSEMBLY, PETITION, PRESS, SPEECH)

Lots of potential pitfalls on today's grid, but I managed to steer clear of them out of the gate, thanks to getting the blues first. WELCOME and EXIT had to be things you might see on a door. CLOSE might have fit in there too, but I avoided that red herring by guessing OPEN and PUSH (the only two words that properly made sense with the others).

The greens were next up. I thought those were easy enough thanks to ENVELOPE and STAMP.

At that point, the yellows jumped out at me. However, you know me. I had to go for the purples first. The First Amendment is such an important thing, and it's horrifying to see those freedoms being dismantled and/or completely ignored by certain figures in power.

Anyway, I slid through the yellows for another perfect game and my 170th win on the bounce. Here's my grid for today:

🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. I’ll be back over at Forbes for the Monday-Friday editions for the column. And if you haven’t subscribed to Pastimes already, definitely do that! It would be super sweet of you.

P.S. This isn’t a super chill song like I’d normally use for a Sunday recommendation. But, fittingly enough, it made me smile.

Sheryl Crow played a country festival here this weekend and as much as I’d like to see her live, I wasn’t paying the going rate to see her and Shaboozey — I wasn’t really interested in anyone else on the bill. Country isn’t my kind of thing anyway.

I do love many of Crow’s songs, though, and “If It Makes You Happy” is right up there. I’m a big fan of Like a Version as well, and a recent edition saw a band called Skegss cover that song. I thought it was pretty swell. It did, indeed, make me happy:

Also, here’s the latest Like a Version cover. It’s a lovely tribute to Ozzy Osbourne by The Terrys:

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

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