Note: Make sure to complete today's NYT Connections before reading further! We'll be getting into spoilers for today's game pretty quickly. If you need some help to complete the grid, you can find my NYT Connections hints and answers column for today right here.
Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to my deeper look at today's NYT Connections answers. The categories and links between words in this game aren't always necessarily clear, even after you see the completed grid.
The idea behind this secondary column is to help provide some clarity on both the answers and any red herrings (at least the ones I see). I'm also hoping it'll be a jumping off point for chatting about each day's game without having to dance around the answers using emoji.
If I've missed any red herrings or misunderstood something, let me know by email, or via Bluesky or Discord message. I don't typically look at X or check the comments here.
I try my best to get all my facts straight. However, there will sometimes be cultural references I don't fully understand. I'll correct any errors as swiftly as possible.
A fairly straightforward group of synonyms this time.
I don't think there are any glaring double meanings or red herrings here, unless I'm deeply mistaken! That said, the Linkin Park song "One Step Closer" did spring to mind for me here.
🟩 they move in a spiral - EDDY, FOOTBALL, TASMANIAN DEVIL, TORNADO
This group does need some explanation, I think.
An EDDY is a type of air or water current that runs counter to a main current, much like a whirlpool. I thought this was a neat example of what a natural EDDY looks like:
Sidenote, I found this video while doing some research. I don't think it does a great job of visualizing what an EDDY current is but I thought it was super cool. Magnets are rad.
A spiral is a type of pass in American FOOTBALL or rugby. It refers to the way the moves ball through the air:
The TAZMANIAN DEVIL reference is a fun one, but it requires a certain level of cultural knowledge. It's a Looney Tunes character that's also known as Taz. He spins a lot:
🟦 songs from musicals - CABARET, EDELWEISS, MAMMA MIA, MEMORY
I mentioned which musicals these songs were from in the main column, but let's go through them again quickly. I figure you might want to listen to them as well!
Let's start with Liza Minelli and the title track from 1972's Cabaret:
Next up, we're traveling to the foot of the Alps, with "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music. Christopher Plummer (who I'm pretty sure I saw at a brunch restaurant once) appears to be singing here, but his vocals were overdubbed with a performance by singer Bill Lee:
From Austria, we're going to Greece with the cast of Mamma Mia singing "Mamma Mia." This is so much fun:
Instead of a version of "Memory" from the Cats movie (no, thank you!), here's a performance by the Elaine Paige, who originated the role of Grizabella in the West End version of the musical. That made Paige the first person to perform this song in public:
🟪 what "ed" might indicate - EDITOR, EDUCATION, EDWARD, PAST TENSE
For EDITOR, EDUCATION and EDWARD, Ed is just an abbreviation. PAST TENSE is a little more interesting, though.
It refers to words ending in -ed, indicating an action that was carried out in the past. So think of words like "washed," "needed" and "ended."
Apart from EDDY and EDWARD both being names that can be shortened to "Ed," I didn't see any red herrings here. If you did, please do feel free to enlighten me and I'll update this as necessary.
If you'd like to chat about today's game of NYT Connections with a group of exceptionally cool and lovely people and also me, you can do just that in our Discord community. We'd love to have you join us.
For now, I'm going to write these secondary columns on weekdays because I need a little break sometimes. I'll be back with another set of NYT Connections hints and answers here on Monday as well as another edition of this one all going well. You'll be able to find both of those on my Forbes author page when the time comes (following me there helps me out too!). As for the weekend editions of my NYT Connections hints and answers column, I'm currently doing that via my newsletter Pastimes.