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(That GIF is so hypnotic and soothing! Deeply satisfying.)
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend so far.
I’m going to share a very cool thing I read about the other day. Some smart people used mathematics and science to calculate the longest theoretical line of sight from one point to another on planet Earth. Thomas Buckley-Houston (a software developer and digital nomad) started trying to figure out the solution eight years ago. Ryan Berger, a friend of Buckley-Houston, joined the endeavor a few months back.
Buckley-Houston’s latest blog post about the project is a pretty technical read, but I found it fascinating. The pair determined that the longest sightline of the planet extends between an unnamed ridge in the Himalayas and Pik Dankova, a mountain in Kyrgyzstan. The distance between the two points is a little over 530km (329 miles).
According to Buckley-Houston, no one has taken a photo of this sightline yet, in large part because getting to the ridge is pretty difficult and the conditions would need to be just right. But if you were able to pull it off, you’d get to take a cool photo. You might even get to name a part of the world.
For the less-adventurous among us, Buckley-Houston and Berger created an interactive map for us to explore. It shows the furthest theoretical sightline from just about any point on the planet. It features 4.5 billion sightlines.
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, March 8 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...
NICE
NADAL
ZIPPER
SELES
JACKET
OSAKA
JAW
SINNER
EYE
GREMLIN
PHOENIX
SQUATTER
REFER
TREMOR
ROTATOR
LIMA
And the level one hints for today’s Connections groups are:
🟨 Yellow group — large settlements
🟩 Green group — the same both ways
🟦 Blue group — the bird, weapon and u would fit in here
🟪 Purple group — like many people without trust funds, these begin with nothing
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 — NICE
🟩 Green group — SELES
🟦 Blue group — JAW
🟪 Purple group — SQUATTER
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Today’s Connections groups are...
🟨 Yellow group — cities
🟩 Green group — palindromes
🟦 Blue group — horror movies minus "S"
🟪 Purple group — starting with slang for "zero"
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 — cities (LIMA, NICE, OSAKA, PHOENIX)
🟩 Green group — palindromes (EYE, REFER, ROTATOR, SELES)
🟦 Blue group — horror movies minus "S" (GREMLIN, JAW, SINNER, TREMOR)
🟪 Purple group — starting with slang for "zero" (JACKET, NADAL, SQUATTER, ZIPPER)
I had to go for the tennis players — NADAL, SELES, OSAKA and SINNER — first, but those were a red herring! That meant I had to go with my alternate idea for SINNER, movie titles minus the "S." That got me the blues.
That also meant OSAKA had to be a city, so I got the blues taken care of. ROTATOR naturally lends itself to "cuff," but nothing else quite made sense with that. However, ROTATOR is a famous palindrome (meaning it reads the same forwards as backwards), so that locked in the greens.
I didn't clock the purple category today. Those refer to jack, nada, squat and zip. Still, I'm happy to get a 372nd win in a row with a perfect game.
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. Here’s a laidback Sunday song recommendation that Ree offered up over in our Discord group. “Wildfires” is a soulful tune from the British group Sault. It’s extremely my kind of jam at this time of week/year/life:
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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