The daily grind continues. Or maybe today’s New York Times Connections just felt harder. June 16, Puzzle #1101, didn’t hold back. You clicked the tile, stared at the grid, and wondered what kind of mental gymnastics the creators were pulling today.
If you are stuck, breathe. There is help. Not the dry kind. The “actually useful” kind.
How the Score Works
The Times has a bot now. Like Wordle. It grades you after the game. It’s cold, numerical judgment. You get a score. You see if you are winning. Registered players can dive into the data—win rates, streaks, how many times you got four yellows in a row. It’s for the nerds. And by nerds, I mean everyone.
Play for fun, then play for data. The algorithm doesn’t care about your feelings.
Hints for the Grid
Let’s look at the clues. They are ranked from “obvious” to “please explain yourself.”
The Yellow group is safe. Comfort food territory. Condiments. Specifically, the creamy stuff you dump on lettuce. No surprises here. Just ranch and its friends.
Green is a social concept. Think weddings. Or kings. It’s a person who follows someone else. Always around them.
Blue gets weird. The hint says “you won’t find these everywhere.” It’s an idiom trap. Not physical things, really. Abstract rarity.
Purple? The final boss. “Where players dunk the ball.” If you answered only with sports, you lost. It’s a double entendre waiting to bite.
The Actual Answers
Did you get them right?
The Yellow group is all about Creamy Salad Dressings. You had four options that taste good cold. Blue Cheese, Caesar, Green Goddess, and Ranch. Classic. Safe.
Green was about Attendants. Who watches the boss? A court. An entourage. A retinue. And a suite (as in presidential). It’s about being surrounded.
Blue is where it gets slippery. The theme is Rare Things in an idiomatic sense. A black swan event. A blue moon. A perfect storm. A unicorn startup. None of these show up at the grocery store.
Then comes Purple. The trap. What “hoops” might refer to. Everyone thinks basketball. Smart. But you also have earrings. And red tape. And gymnastics gear. All are hoops. But not for sports. Did you fall for it?
The Hall of Pain
This isn’t the first time we’ve wanted to quit. Some puzzles stick in the craw longer than others. A quick look at the all-time toughest lists might prepare you for what’s next. Or make you feel better about your struggles today.
- Puzzle #1 had you grouping things that can run. Candidates run. Faucets run. Mascara runs. Nose? It runs too.
- Puzzle #2 hid “power ___” everywhere. Power nap. Power plant. Power Ranger. Power trip.
- Puzzle #3 focused on streets in movies. Elm. Fear. Jump. Sesame. Not real geography. Just set pieces.
- Puzzle #4 asked for things found “one in a dozen”. An egg. A juror. A month. A rose. Math with personality.
- Puzzle #5 wanted things you can “set”. Mood. Record. Table. Volleyball. Setting the table is easy. Setting volleyball? Not so much.
We play every day. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we don’t. The grid resets anyway. Tomorrow’s words are waiting. Will they be harder? Who knows.
