Hey there, Connectors! I hope your week is going as deliciously as possible.

I’ve had a full beard for a long time. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve been clean shaven. I’m still claiming that despite a recent mishap.

While using a new electric razor/clipper thing that I picked up, I accidentally buzzed pretty much all of my beard off. I tidy my face fuzz in the shower instead of the sink to make cleaning up easier, but there’s no mirror (not that I’d see much without my glasses on anyway). You’d think that I’d at least feel what I’m doing, but nope. It’s pure vibes for me.

It wasn’t all gone. The clipper left some stubble, so I can still say I wasn’t clean shaven.

There is a lesson here for me, I think. Maybe it’s not always best to jump into something new with both feet. A little caution might be the best course of action.

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 hang out with 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 the comments or Twitter much. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, June 19 are coming right up.

How To Play Connections

Connections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT’s website or Games app.

You’re presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.

There’s only one solution for each puzzle, and you’ll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.

Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and you’re incorrect, you’ll lose a life. If you’re close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that you’re one word away from getting it right, but you’ll still need to figure out which one to swap.

If you make four mistakes, it’s game over. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen with the help of some hints, and, if you’re really struggling, today’s Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.

If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publication’s Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.

Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find our hints Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.

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...

• FINAL
• DESTINATION
• TRAIN
• STOPS
• BLOCKS
• BALL
• MASKS
• PAPERS
• FOILS
• JACKS
• JACKETS
• ROUTE
• ATTENDANCE
• GLOVES
• STARTING POINT
• HOMEWORK

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• ? Yellow group — how many people are assessed until they're 21 or so
• ? Green group — from A to B
• ? Blue group — top and car would fit in here
• ? Purple group — equipment to help establish barriers?

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 — FINAL
• ? Green group — STOPS
• ? Blue group — BALL
• ? Purple group — GLOVES

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• ? Yellow group — components of one’s grade
• ? Green group — map app options
• ? Blue group — classic toys
• ? Purple group — fencing gear

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 — components of one's grade (ATTENDANCE, FINAL, HOMEWORK, PAPERS)
• ? Green group — map app options (DESTINATION, ROUTE, STARTING POINT, STOPS)
• ? Blue group — classic toys (BALL, BLOCKS, JACKS, TRAIN)
• ? Purple group — fencing gear (FOILS, GLOVES, JACKETS, MASKS)

I enjoyed the FINAL DESTINATION reference on the top line. Those horror films are invariably good, gory fun. The latest one became available to rent and buy digitally this week. I’ve heard positive things about Final Destination Bloodlines, so I'm looking forward to catching it this weekend.

(Seeing TRAIN and STOPS together on the top line was amusing too. The train in the original Final Destination did not stop. If you know, you know.)

Oh yeah, we've got a Connections puzzle to solve! Let's do that.

The yellows fit together easily enough in my mind. HOMEWORK was a dead giveaway there.

I then took a stab at BALL, MASKS, GLOVES and JACKETS, thinking they'd be related to a masquerade ball. That left me one away from a group. I realized a moment later that I was actually looking for fencing gear, so I swapped out BALL for FOILS (one of the weapons used in fencing). I was a little surprised to see that was the purple group.

(I was stumped for a hint, so I went for a pun on "fencing." Please don't be mad

The greens jumped out at me after that. That left the blues. I did figure out the connection before submitting those. I wonder how many people have played with JACKS this century.

No perfect game this time, because I am too gosh darn hasty. Still, that's win 114 for my latest streak. Here's the grid:

????
????
????
????
????

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Friday’s game if you need them.

P.S. Last week, I saw Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins play a bunch of Pumpkins songs with a band that was not the Pumpkins, but included another one of the Pumpkins. The tour marks the 30th anniversary of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and the 25th anniversary of Machina/The Machines of God.

The show was… fine? It was fun to hear Corgan and crew play the likes of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and "Tonight Tonight" in a small, sub-1,000-capacity venue. I had been looking forward to this show and, as I often do, I checked the setlist for previous dates. I was happy to see that the previous few had five-song encores, including my absolute favorite Pumpkins song, "Stand Inside Your Love."

On this night, however, the encore was only one song long. Don’t get me wrong, it was cool to see former Pumpkins bass player (and Montreal native) Melissa Auf der Maur make a guest appearance on "The Everlasting Gaze" to close the night, but I was sad not to hear "Stand Inside Your Love" live for the second time in my life.

Anyway, since I’ve recommended that song and "Tonight Tonight" in this column previously, let’s go with "Disarm" (a track from Siamese Dream that I didn’t hear the other night) rather than a sonically heavier Pumpkins track:

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

Please follow my blog 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! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my new newsletter, Pastimes.

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