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A well-balanced mix of logic, culture, and abstract thinking.
Success depends on context, not just word similarity.
Familiar terms carry layered meanings, look deeper.
The New York Times Connections puzzle persists in challenging and delighting with its complex logic and nested categories. Sunday’s puzzle (Puzzle #742) stayed true to the weekend tradition of heightened difficulty, delivering a puzzle that may have seemed simple on the surface, but concealed richer, more devious threads underneath.
Some players might have been confused by surface appearance, words such as ‘flash’ or ‘progressive’ have modern media or politics written all over them, but as the grid revealed itself, the reasoning behind the groupings required close attention to context, history, and doublespeak.
Whether you were baffled or quickly saw the connections, here is a complete analysis of today’s grid and what connects it.
BULLETIN, FLASH, REPORT, WIRE, HAPPINESS, LIBERTY, LIFE, PURSUIT, ENTOURAGE, EUPHORIA, INSECURE, SUCCESSION, DEPARTED, PORT, PROGRESSIVE, REMAINING
Yellow: News Announcement: BULLETIN, FLASH, REPORT, WIRE
This set captured the vocabulary of breaking news, words related to journalism, broadcasts, and official announcements.
Green: Nouns from a Famous Line in the Declaration of Independence: HAPPINESS, LIBERTY, LIFE, PURSUIT
A verbatim reference to the American founding document: ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’ Adding ‘pursuit’ as a noun to that completes the historical allusion.
Blue: HBO Series: ENTOURAGE, EUPHORIA, INSECURE, SUCCESSION
All of these titles are part of HBO’s original programming inventory, from teen drama (Euphoria) to office comedy (Insecure).
Purple: What ‘Left’ Could Stand For: DEPARTED, PORT, PROGRESSIVE, REMAINING
This collection exploited the various connotations of the term ‘left’, from direction (port) to political orientation (progressive) to lack (departed) and what remains (remaining).
Sunday’s Connections puzzle was the game at its best, hiding deep layers of complexity in what appeared to be straightforward words. Categories spanned pop culture and seminal political writings, deftly pairing accessible notions with abstract relationships. The last set, dealing with the word ‘left’ in four different contexts, was particularly lovely in its wordplay nuance.
Whether the challenge of the day resulted in victory or a learning moment, Connections once again provided a demonstration of how rich English language can be when examined through the eyes of patterns, meaning, and creative abstraction.
Until next time, happy connecting.
