I’ll stop bleating on about my Japan trip, I promise. I just have a couple more things to share. I won’t get into the Kobe beef or the beautiful gardens or our memorable stay at a Buddhist monastery or my pilgrimage to Nintendo’s headquarters or just how dang scary the deer in Nara Park are.
We visited a couple of very memorable bars in Tokyo. Gen Yamamoto has just eight seats and offers a cocktail version of a tasting menu. The drinks include a broad range of fresh ingredients and are served in unique glassware. It expanded my horizon of what a bar could be. It wasn’t cheap, but it was worth every penny.
And then there’s Bar Benfiddich, which made the list of the world’s best 50 bars last year. Again, the drinks here are like nothing else I’ve had. They’re assembled with great care, showmanship and creativity by the owner and sole bartender Hiroyasu Kayama.
Given that the entire planet was on the brink of falling apart when we visited the 17-seat bar in March 2020, we were able to walk in without a reservation. These days, you’ll probably need to book a slot well in advance to try one of Kayama’s bespoke creations. The fact Bar Benfiddich has a Scottish name made it all the more endearing to me.
Before we begin, I’ve set up a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat about each game (and other topics) with me and other folks. I’m always interested to find out how other people approach the game, so join us! It’s fun.
It’s also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, February 10, 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 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 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 my hints for each grid via 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…
- AUNT
- AROMA
- SHOWER
- BOUQUET
- VASE
- PEPPER
- NOSE
- STOP
- UNCLE
- TOMATO
- TRUCE
- DUST
- SCATTER
- NOTE
- EITHER
- MERCY
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- Yellow group — crumble over
- Green group — remember to swirl first
- Blue group — hey, quit it
- Purple group —
What Are Today’s Connections Groups?
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Today’s Connections groups are…
- Yellow group — sprinkle
- Green group — scents of wine
- Blue group — “aah, enough!”
- Purple group — words famously pronounced different ways
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 — sprinkle (DUST, PEPPER, SCATTER, SHOWER)
- Green group — scents of wine (AROMA, BOUQUET, NOSE, NOTE)
- Blue group — “aah, enough!” (MERCY, STOP, TRUCE, UNCLE)
- Purple group — words famously pronounced different ways (AUNT, EITHER, TOMATO, VASE)
I should really have had a perfect game today, but alas. That’s my fourth win in a row. Here’s how I fared:
My first thought that AUNT might have something to do with ants – not a bad instinct, in hindsight! The link with UNCLE was an obvious red herring since there weren’t any other family names.
I knocked off the yellows quickly, followed by the blues. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone actually use UNCLE to beg someone to stop doing something outside of old comic strips.
I had a pretty confident feeling about VASE, BOUQUET, NOTE and AROMA going together. But no! I was one away from a group with the other four words (which I thought would be the purples). That meant the smell-related words had to be the greens.
I still submitted the purples first. These really should have clicked, especially since I hesitated on a couple while reading them aloud as I double checked my word list. I thought to myself “it’s just as well I don’t make videos of me solving Connections, because Americans and Canadians would make fun of how I say TOMATO.” And even then, I still didn’t spot the connection.
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 Tuesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. There’s one album I listened to far more than any other on my Japan trip, and that was I Disagree by Poppy. It’s a messy mish mash of pop and metal that probably shouldn’t work, but really does and I love it very much (I wrote a whole post about it on a Substack I don’t really use anymore).
The title track is a great slice of nu metal. It’s a diatribe against the music industry that just happens to be catchy as hell. I’m very much looking forward to finally seeing Poppy live for the first time in a few weeks and grooving away to “I Disagree” from the comfort of my seat:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!
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