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Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend so far.
I read a super interesting piece this week from the British indie pop band Los Campesinos! about the finances involved in their 2024 North American tour. They sold out nearly every show on the two-week jaunt, in which they played venues with capacities ranging from 630 to 1,300 — just to give you a sense of their popularity on this side of the pond.
Even so, the band (who all have day jobs) would have lost money on the tour if it hadn’t been for their merchandise sales. All of the profits they made went toward funding the next tour, rather than in their pockets.
I found this an absolutely fascinating read. I haven’t bought merch at shows for a very long time, but I suppose I should rethink that if I want to properly support the artists I’m seeing.
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, May 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...
STEEP
PRIMARY
STRAIN
STIFF
HIGH
MAIN
FLEECE
GRAMMAR
HOSE
PIPE
SQUEEZE
BOIL
LINE
GRADE
POUR
DUCT
And the level one hints for today’s Connections groups are:
🟨 Yellow group — water way to go
🟩 Green group — shake down
🟦 Blue group — in Long Island, it might be iced
🟪 Purple group — not too long till they're out for summer
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 — MAIN
🟩 Green group — FLEECE
🟦 Blue group — POUR
🟪 Purple group — HIGH
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Today’s Connections groups are...
🟨 Yellow group — conduit
🟩 Green group — swindle
🟦 Blue group — tea-making verbs
🟪 Purple group — "school" modifiers
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 — conduit (DUCT, LINE, MAIN, PIPE)
🟩 Green group — swindle (FLEECE, HOSE, SQUEEZE, STIFF)
🟦 Blue group — tea-making verbs (BOIL, POUR, STEEP, STRAIN)
🟪 Purple group — "school" modifiers (GRADE, GRAMMAR, HIGH, PRIMARY)
I narrowly avoided the red herring of HOSE fitting in with the yellows, as I realized just before submitting a guess that it should go with the green group. So I was able to knock out the first two guesses swiftly.
As someone who drinks 6-10 cups of tea a day, the blues were no problem either. The purple category was easy enough to deduce as well.
A regular rainbow today brings my streak up to 441 wins.
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. I have this terrible habit of starting to listen to artists right after they’ve played a show near me. Such is the case with Bring Me The Horizon. I’d heard a couple of their songs over the years, but hadn’t really sat down and properly listened to them until now. They’re good! I like them. And I’m annoyed I missed seeing them by, like, two weeks.
Don’t worry, I’m not gonna recommend a metalcore song for you right now. It’s Sunday, so we have to go with a more laid-back number.
This is an a cappella cover of “Shadow Moses,” one of BMTH’s best-known songs, by a choir that was assembled to perform with the band. One of the hallmarks of a good song is how well it translates to different genres and arrangements. I think this is just swell:
...oh, go on then:
P.P.S. I did consider using Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” as a recommendation sometime this week considering the purple hint I went with today, because it’s a good song. But that went out the window when I read transphobic comments Cooper made a few years ago.
Fuck that guy. Trans rights are human rights. Don’t tolerate the intolerant.
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
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