NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, November 2

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

Local elections are taking place in Quebec today for council and mayoral positions. As I write this, I’m undecided about my vote for Montreal mayor. My preferred choice is very unlikely to win the mayoral race, so I might have to go with a tactical choice there. However, I’m actually excited to vote for my council candidate. He’s a solid dude, and he doesn’t back down from a fight.

Seems appropriate, then, for me to go on a little rant about provincial political issues, because some things are truly bananas here.

(Sorry if you don’t care about this. It’s six paragraphs, and you can scroll past it. I won’t be upset if you skip it all.)

At around 4AM last Saturday, the governing party rammed through a law that revamps pay for doctors working in the public healthcare system. It even bans them (under threat of obscene fines of up to $20,000 per day) from challenging government policies with “concerted actions” — in other words, protesting it.

The law is an attempt to get them to treat more patients at a time when residents can wait for years to get a family doctor. But doctors say forcing them to meet certain targets will greatly reduce the quality of care they can offer. Plus, their pay is being cut.

Now, dozens say they are going to leave the public healthcare system and they’re planning to legally challenge the law. More than 100 have applied to work in other provinces over the past week and Ontario premier Doug Ford said his province would welcome Quebec doctors with open arms.

The law is a desperate ploy to resolve a healthcare crisis that’s been decades in the making. But it’s a measure that’s doing even more damage to a crumbling public health system. I hope the situation has changed for the better between the time I write this and it goes out to you. I’m not holding out hope.

I firmly believe in the value of a public health system (I grew up with the amazing NHS, after all). However, this year, I switched to a private clinic because my family doctor absolutely sucks. I’m happy with my decision so far, but wish it was one I didn’t feel the need to make in the first place.

I could go on about this deeply unpopular government’s language police, blatantly racist laws, other policies that have damaged the healthcare system and the utterly absurd attempt to enshrine its values in a new provincial constitution. But for now I’ll try to take solace in knowing that the governing party looks likely to lose every single one of its seats in next year’s provincial election.

ANYWAY, let’s have some fun with today’s Connections and then a recommendation for a song that broke my damn heart.

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, November 2 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...

• CAPRI

• AQUA

• CRAMP

• CARGO

• KHAKI

• LOAD

• SWEAT

• PANT

• GEM

• TAN

• REDDEN

• CAMEL

• HAUL

• SAG

• FAWN

• FREIGHT

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

• 🟨 Yellow group — these have gotta go... to a specific place

• 🟩 Green group — like sand and mousy

• 🟦 Blue group — time to pause and take a breath (it is Sunday, after all)

• 🟪 Purple group — lib, can and pi would all fit in here

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 — LOAD

• 🟩 Green group — CAMEL

• 🟦 Blue group — SWEAT

• 🟪 Purple group — GEM

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — goods to be transported

• 🟩 Green group — light brown shoes

• 🟦 Blue group — show signs of physical exertion

• 🟪 Purple group — starts of zodiac signs

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 — goods to be transported (CARGO, FREIGHT, HAUL, LOAD)

• 🟩 Green group — light brown shoes (CAMEL, AWN, KHAKI, TAN)

• 🟦 Blue group — show signs of physical exertion (CRAMP, PANT, REDDEN, SWEAT)

• 🟪 Purple group — starts of zodiac signs (AQUA, CAPRI, GEM, SAG)

I imagined off the bat that CAPRI would be a reference to Capri-Sun or the Italian island, given that we had a Capricorn reference just over a week ago. So I left that alone at the outset.

The blues were clear enough out of the gate. The greens were up next, but I was missing a fourth word. In a brain-fart moment, I initially included CAPRI for a one-away guess before I realized FAWN made the most sense.

Down to the half grid and I realized that CAPRI had to be a Capricorn reference after all, given AQUA(rius), GEM(ini) and SAG(ittarius). FREIGHT and CARGO made the yellows clear enough for the win.

I think we had a group of pants not too long ago, so the KHAKI, CARGO and PANT red herring wasn't going to trip me up this time.

And that'll do it for today, with another win extending my streak to 246. Got to be happy with that run. 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. I teased this song recommendation on Discord the other day. It wrecked me, which is something I never imagined would be the case for a performance of this particular Blink-182 song.

With his acoustic cover of “I Miss You,” Frank Watkinson uses world weariness and emotional resonance to project a deep sense of loss. It’s Johnny Cash covering “Hurt” but with an emo classic that’s been (rightfully) memed to death over the last 20 years. I love covers that transform not just the musicality of the song, but adds more depth to them. BRB, I’m out of Kleenex:

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

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