(I love that Elmo GIF way too much.)

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

When I graduated from university some [mumbles] years ago, I didn’t want to go to the graduation ceremony. I would have been quite happy to pick up my diploma from the faculty office or whatever.

My mother told me in no uncertain terms that wasn’t an option.

I went to uni in my hometown and still lived with my parents and sister during my studies. So, fair enough.

I walked the stage and picked up my diploma with the three of them and my grandmother in attendance. It was a nice day, in the end. While I didn’t really care about the occasion, my loved ones got to have their moment of pride.

I often recall about that day when there’s something I don’t feel like doing, but know someone else would benefit from it. It’s important to do things for those around us despite our own ambivalence. I get it. Maybe I’ll one day have kids of my own that I’ll force to walk the stage. I’d surely want to see that.

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, January 18 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...

Very much a process-of-elimination day in terms of getting the purples. The blues were up first. Straightforward enough, I thought.

TOTAL, PRICE and BILL seemed to go together, but once I realized that BREAK, DAMAGE and WRECK matched up, TOTAL was the only thing that made sense with them. That took care of the greens.

With TOTAL out of the way, BILL had to go with the rest of the duck words (PECK was a mild red herring for those). I did figure out the purples before submitting them, though. Those refer to Gary COOPER, Cary GRANT, Gregory PECK and Vincent PRICE.

A fast solve this time, and my streak is now up to 323 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. 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. Here’s a lovely song from Sayonara Wild Hearts, which is my favorite game. “A Place I Don’t Know” contrasts with the rest of the rhythm game’s more upbeat soundtrack, which I love with my entire heart:

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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