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

I stumbled across something on Wikipedia that I found pretty interesting. From the name, I thought a fire control tower would be the same thing as a fire lookout tower, as in it’s a place where people search the landscape for fires and take appropriate action when they see one.

But that’s not what fire control towers are at all! They’re found near coastlines and used as vantage points to spot enemy ships and direct gunfire toward them. I think more things should have clear and obvious names, especially when they’re involved in life-and-death situations.

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, September 27 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...

I thought there either had to be a "____ pigeon" group or mobile network operators from the jump. As I looked around, I saw that CLAY would fit into a group of molding materials. So, I cleared the blues, then the yellows.

There were no other obvious "clans" on the grid, so I figured there had to be some wordplay going on with WU-TANG. The Tang Dynasty sprang to mind, which fit in with LOHAN (Han) and BBQing (Qing). HOMING (Ming) rounded out the purples. That left the greens for win number 574 on the spin.

How did you get on this time? 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. Oh no, I'm in an Elliott Smith kinda mood. Don't get me wrong, he was an incredible artist, but it feels like the only way to properly listen to his music is when you're staring outside through a window that's getting battered with rain. Anyway, "Twilight" is a perfect song:

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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