(Snow is a frozen form of rain, I guess)

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

It’s been a week since Rob and Michele Singer Reiner were killed at their home. Their troubled son was charged with two counts of first-degree murder soon afterwards. Such a horribly sad situation all around.

Rob Reiner was an incredible filmmaker and storyteller. I’m still trying to process his death. I really appreciated what Seth Meyers had to say about his experiences with Reiner, so I’ll just share this:

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, December 21 are coming right up.

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...

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

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…

Today’s Connections groups are...

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...

As a habitual tea drinker — even though I don't really use a teapot — the yellows were no problem at all. PERIODICALS and REFERENCE made the greens fairly clear. I did wonder for a second if ISSUE would make sense with those, but I lucked out by guessing the group correctly the first time.

After AIR and GUM, er, dropped onto the same line, I had a good feeling that they'd precede "drop." I really liked the inclusion of EAVES here. That was fun. (AirDrop is a way to send files, photos etc between Apple devices. Android devices are starting to support that too.)

That meant I had the blues left over. This group didn't quite add up for me. I didn't quite make sense of it, so I'm sorry if my hint didn't quite work. I'm also very tired as I write this so please forgive me!

In any case, my streak is now up to 295. I'm starting to feel a little nervous about some potentially tricky games on the road to 300 this week!

How did you get on today? Here's my grid:

🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦

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. Given the Rob Reiner intro and that I like to recommend more laidback songs on Sundays, there's really only one song I can go with today. From the soundtrack to Reiner's incredible coming of age film, Stand By Me, here's "Stand By Me" By Ben E. King. I'm sure I've recommended this before and I don't like to repeat recommendations, but there isn't a more fitting song this time:

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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