Oh If I'd Only Seen That The Joke Was On Me For Wordle Strands And Connections

Oh-If-I'd-Only-Seen-That-The-Joke-Was-On-Me-For-Wordle-Strands-And-Connections // Solving the trifecta of NYT word games for Monday, April 1, 2024

[@RisetotheEquation]

Choked in no uncertain terms on TITTER! Then choked AGAIN on the EMOJI version of Connections! Share your results below!

[@Joe-lb8qn]

Lol at you going for hints

[@milesbaillie6348]

On Connections, the two blank tiles should show a teapot and a saw (didn't work on my PC either) - worked on some devices.

[@chinareds54]

For future reference, if you need to find nontheme words for hints after most of the puzzle is completed, you can still reuse the claimed letters. (Of course, there's no reason to do it with only one theme word remaining).

[@dougr4069]

Hmmm. Frond in 3 with what was given in 2.

[@patmurkland4161]

That wasn’t a fair playing field to have such pathetic-looking emojis and two missing. Nice solve!

[@subodhcsingh]

Kudos to you, Art, for solving Connections even with two of the emojis missing!

[@Shalmanese]

This was hard because you were missing 2 emoji fonts. But for future reference, if you make a guess that is one away and a second guess that isn't one away, you now know definitively the one you changed away was is a part of the set and the one you changed to definitely isn't so you could have logiced your way to knowing which blank was part of which.

[@milesbaillie6348]

I think I agree with a few others commenting that today's Connections should be struck from the record for scoring purposes, given the irregularities around how the emojis displayed.

[@UTU49]

Agreed. 1. It's a very unusual example of a Connections puzzle. 2. Because of display disparities, the levelness of the playing field was completely shot to hell.

[@Tsteinlauf]

Some, like Oranje28, realized it was a computer glitch and changed devices. For once my little Android phone rose to the occasion. My lettuce even looked like lettuce. 😊

[@Joe-lb8qn]

As someone not in the competition i suggest todays connections results be invalidated due to mess ups witn missing and different emojis making it either different levels of difficulty or impossible other than by luck

[@BigAsciiHappyStar]

FWIW, I *think* I might have got rot13(fperjrq bire) for a different reason. I got Y and G, but then received incorrect information for a wrong guess (nothing instead of one away) causing me to lose. Can't remember exactly, but maybe next time I will take careful notes whenever playing.

[@chinareds54]

I say if anyone tried to solve it with incomplete information other than Art, we throw out today completely. Art's not officially in the competition (at least for a prize). I won't count myself toward the invalidating because I did have the wherewithal to switch over to my phone when my computer browser only showed 6 images, but I'm not sure what to do about the time bonus (see my official entry).

[@MelanieNLee]

As someone else not in the competition, I agree. Perhaps today's Connections game should be discounted since several players would be at a disadvantage, or two points could be added for those players missing the two emojis.

[@Joe-lb8qn]

@@chinareds54 the emojis themselves can also be misinterpreted unlike a word. For example my Dracula emoji on my phone looks like an elf and Doug (who has a channel) thought the teapot was a lantern as in Aladdin. Whereas you can't mistake the words.

[@LadyAndreaRose]

Reddit is saying a lot of folks had missing emojis. I'd be ok with not counting 4/1. I did have all emjojis and did well, and I don't think it's fair to compare to people who had blank squares.

[@hopechazz]

TITTER was a tough word for many of us meaning a nervous laugh/trying to suppress the laugh. Makes me think of the Mary Tyler Moore scene on television with Mary attending funeral for CHUCKLES THE CLOWN. Poor Mary! 😂😂😂

[@gilearl9763]

Additionally instead of the broccoli emoji they showed a lettuce emoji which is a better slang for money

[@auldfouter8661]

I thought they looked like oak leaves so that was me snookered.

[@SaladVonBaco]

Weird that 2 of the pictures didn't show up on your screen. Also interesting how the pics you had looked slightly different for me. Same pics just drawn different.

[@YouTubethegoater]

xxx, 295, Marble Racing, 4.5 Connections Puzzle #295 🟨🟨🟨🟨 Foods(0.5 points) 🟩🟩🟩🟩 Words that Rhyme 🟦🟦🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 Letter Homophones 🟦🟦🟦🟦 No idea(not a movies guy) 2.5 points for categories, 2 mistakes, no bonus points(almost got the order), so a 4.5 to start the month.

[@robehouse]

Chase-trout-frond.

[@TomCee53]

You are missing two images. Saw and Tea. I guess your browser just doesn’t have those. Talk about an April Fool Joke. 😢 The green is lettuce.

[@pwmiles56]

I got a similar screen to Art's, two blanks and what looked like a stick of celery.

[@MrRys]

Oh tea, I was thinking about kettle from yesterday 😅

[@joeybearden3120]

xxx, 295, Joey B, 8 YYYY - Sandwhich ingredients (0 pts) PPPP - Alphabet homophones GGGG - Rhymes with grain BBBB - Horror movies Time Bonus Cool gimmick, but really hope it's a wone time thing. I won't object to this game being thrown out.

[@mtarvon3577]

Scoredle 5/6 14,855 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ ROUTE (293) ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 SLAIN (9) ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ PRONG (6) ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ BRONC (2) 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 FROND

[@doraa.7873]

A TITTER is a nervous or partly suppressed laugh. It's the way people laugh when they find something funny but feel that they shouldn't be laughing at it.

[@RisetotheEquation]

Sort of like the way people were tittering at Art teetering on complete disaster on Strands today?

[@doraa.7873]

@@RisetotheEquation 😂

[@SethWilson]

SLATE BOUND FROND

[@doraa.7873]

Today's Connections was clever but ill-conceived...the editors should have realized that the emojis would not display properly, or the same way, on everyone's devices. Some us had blanks, others had different-looking emojis. I had a hard time just figuring out what all of them were! Itty-bitty graphics were hard to see on my phone screen, and on my desktop browser, there were two blanks. I had to look at both devices to figure it out. I think today's puzzle should be invalidated from the tournament.

[@ellensassani]

100% agree. Clever design; insufficient QA. Not equitable by any stretch of the imagination.

[@ellensassani]

In their defense, they may have figured that no matter what got rendered, it would be a good April Fools joke. They probably aren't aware that there is a small band of lunatics out here who have turned this into a competition. 😆

[@milesbaillie6348]

@@ellensassani "small band of lunatics"? how dare you! I think we're quite a large band... 🤪

[@ellensassani]

@@milesbaillie6348 😆💛💚💙💜

[@RisetotheEquation]

It will be.

[@gilearl9763]

We got cheated! 2 emojis were missing on our screen. They showed up when I checked out Dougs channel. The missing emojis were a teapot and a saw

[@eeshapopat4067]

It’s because of certain browsers not supporting certain emojis

[@auldfouter8661]

UK players would all be hearing Frankie Howerd say " Titter ye not ! " in " Up Pompeii ". Art you can still use blued letters to make words to earn hints.

[@UTU49]

Great tip about the blued letters. I love finding extra words, even thought I never use hints.

[@MelanieNLee]

Happy Easter Week! It's also April Fools Day! Wordle 1,017 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ EMPTY 🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜ FOILS 🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩 FRAUD 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 FROND I used this word on or around Palm Sunday last week. Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🟡 This one was pretty easy for me. Connections Puzzle #295 🟨🟨🟨🟨 FOOD 🟦🟩🟪🟦 (THINGS THAT FLY: 👽✈🐝🧛) 🟩🟩🟩🟩 RHYMES 🟦🟪🟪🟪 (LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET, including 😱 (O)) 🟦🟪🟪🟪 (LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET, including I don't remember) 🟦🟦🟪🟦 (HORROR MOVIES, including 👁) Two of the spaces showed up blank for me. I wrote an extended comment about this elsewhere on this thread. Art: You should give yourself half-credit for the yellow category and half-credit for the blue category.

[@hopechazz]

I did not know TITTER and CHORTLE in Strands. I was fine getting the other words, however. I almost had my four categories in Connections and it took me six tries to get FROND being a tough word for me. In regards to Wordle, I have a 98% with the 5 letter words and a 95% with the 6 letter words.

[@MrRys]

The lines never cross in strands (in the correct words) And kinda stupid on nyt part that they didn't use actual images on the connections

[@auldfouter8661]

You can cross to your heart's content when making words for hints entitlements though and you can reuse blued out letters too which might have helped Art today.

[@gilearl9763]

SOARE CLINT PRONG FROND

[@georgesthibaudeau1533]

HOTEL GROAN CRONY FROND

[@auldfouter8661]

There's the old joke about " a muffled titter ran round the audience "

[@ellensassani]

😆

[@BigAsciiHappyStar]

Something weird must have happened. My mobile phone app showed a teapot and saw in lieu of two blanks. If several other players report the same bug then I'm afraid the joke is on Wyna Liu

[@Joe-lb8qn]

This was a bad way to do this by using actual emojis and not pictures.bound to mess up for some. I had some slightly different emojis especially the dracula which on my phone looked more like an elf. Which luckily is also a film if not horror. My bacon looked very different also i guessed it was bacon but it could have been something else.

[@pwmiles56]

I got a similar screen to Art's, two blanks and what looked like a stick of celery. I'm on Windows 10 which is near-obsolescent, maybe that explains it

[@chinareds54]

I got 6 black and white images and 10 blanks on my computer browser. Had to switch to my phone to see the emojis.

[@MelanieNLee]

@@chinareds54 😯😮😲😳

[@geraldoadcock6953]

Dracula was an elf crossed w/Eddie Munster; teapot looked like a genie's lamp.

[@stevenreese1747]

xxx, 295, Steven, 6 In time, not in order, 1 mistake Food? (No point) Horror Rhymes ??? I had two blank icons... So i had to just randomly guess which one went where. Felt pretty bad. I'm definitely not a fan of this April Fools emoji edition of connections and will be looking forward to a more normal game!

[@Tsteinlauf]

You should have a half point for food. The yellow was food,, with the specific addition of also referring to money.

[@stevenreese1747]

@@Tsteinlauf I'm not so sure, in this case. The fact that it refers to money feels extremely critical to the connection between them, to me. I'd say I basically didn't understand the group, which means no point. I might say the same thing as you for someone else, but I'm not giving myself the half point for that one, knowing the thoughts that were going through my head at the time. Sounds like we're not using this result, anyway. I do appreciate your generosity, though!

[@milesbaillie6348]

CONNECTIONS: xxx, 295, Miles, 7 Like Art and others, I had a problem in that two of the emojis just appeared as blanks (in Chrome browser on laptop). The missing ones (I discovered after attempting the puzzle) were the teapot and the saw. Even with this handicap, I still worked out that EYE, EWE, BEE were letter homophones, and I definitely would have twigged TEA for the fourth if I'd seen it, and I also spotted horror movies and would have realised that SAW belonged there. So I am going to score on the basis that I had a properly formatted board. ❎ Food (probably not enough for the intended connection) ☑ Rhyme with each other ☑ Homophones for letters ☑ Horror movies Mistakes remaining:•••• Base score = 4 + 3 Style score (ordering + speed) = 0 + 0

[@MelanieNLee]

I say half-point for the yellow category.

[@Tsteinlauf]

I also think ,.5 for the yellow. They ARE all food.

[@hopechazz]

Should perhaps not include CONNECTIONS game today because of some people having missing emojis. Juggling this tournament with the three games with further questions on STRANDS/posting scores is a little much. It might be wise to just COUNT the Connections scoring system this month. Once May arrives, you might have a clearer approach to using/scoring all three games in this tournament (ie. Using time factor). I KNOW that this does not AFFECT me as I am only trying to give you some helpful information.

[@RisetotheEquation]

Thanks Charles, April 1 Connections will be declared null and void.

[@hopechazz]

@@RisetotheEquation And HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY. ☺️

[@doraa.7873]

@@RisetotheEquation I think that's the best decision!

[@chinareds54]

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if throwing out today might be unfair to someone who happens to be really good with emojis and scored really well today, just to have their result thrown out for the one day they had an advantage. So, I see maybe two equitable solutions: 1) We simply say the "Connections entrant" is the competitor plus their equipment. So if your computer messed up the emojis, tough. Skiers wouldn't get a do over if their ski broke during a race, or if a basketball player lost a shoe in the middle of a game. 2) This is more complicated, but we could score April on the basis of the daily average over 29 days if you had a glitch or 30 days if you had all 16 emojis today. So basically we'd be saying your score for April 1 is your daily average for April.

[@hopechazz]

​​​​@@chinareds54 The 29 days for Glitch people and the 30 days for Non-Glitch people sound good, although it could be more work for Art to tally up the scores with the two groups. You did bring up some good/interesting examples with other unexpected circumstances with life not always being fair and to deal with it. We can leave things as they are or come up with one of your suggested ideas, Chinareds. What do you think, Art?

[@michellelam6561]

Wordle - HOTEL SNOOP CROWN IRONY WRONG FROND (I was thing of FROND at the third guess but I wanted to test more letters.) xxx, 29, Michelle L., 8 Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 Over 5 minutes. Probably will be getting a lot 8 pointers for this competition. I did the 295th Connections, but it should be scrapped due to the irregularities in the emojis. Some of my emojis were not very clear what it was (e.g. the bacon emoji was just red and white wavy lines; no black outline). You had two of your emojis were missing.

[@randolpho-]

Anyone playing on an iphone or maybe an android saw the emojis.

[@retiredump7038]

All of them were shown on my iPad

[@TazHayabusa]

xxx, 295, Luis, 2 Connections 🟨🟨🟨🟨 "The dough" 🟩🟩🟩🟩 Rhymes 🟪🟪🟦🟪 🟪🟦🟪🟪 🟪🟦🟦🟪 🟦🟪🟦🟪 xxx, 29, Luis, 7 Strands “What’s so funny?” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵🔵 Spangram not first -1 No hints Over 5 minutes -2 This is my first entry and oof, what a rough start. Emojis are not my thing, but I will say, it was an interesting gimmick. If this was their version of April fools, I got fooled indeed!

[@ellensassani]

Wordle 1,017 4/6* ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ TRACE ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜ GROSS ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨 BROWN 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 FROND xxx, 295, Ellen Sassani, 7 🟩🟩🟩🟩 RHYMING WORDS 🟦🟦🟪🟪 X I forget, but way off 🟨🟨🟨🟨 FOOD/MONEY 🟪🟪🟪🟪 LETTER HOMOPHONES 🟦🟦🟦🟦 HORROR MOVIES RIOT: 3 + 4 + 0 + 0 I'm afraid we'll have to throw this one out, because clearly some people couldn't see all the images. That kind of irritates me, because I could see them and did a decent job of figuring this out. xxx, 29, Ellen Sassani, 10 “What’s so funny?” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 BHST: 10 - 0 - 0 - 0

[@doraa.7873]

HOTEL SWOON FROND Art, can you please review the scoring rules for Strands? I need a reminder and maybe others do too. Is it minus 2 points for failing to find the spangram first? Thanks. xxx, 29, Dora, 9 Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵🔵 No hints, under 5 minutes, -1 for not getting spangram first xxx, 295, Dora, 8 Connections Puzzle #295 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yellow: Food words that are slang for money (never heard of CHEESE used this way, but guessed it belonged with the other foods) Purple: Homophones for letters Blue: Horror movies Green: Rhyming words Base 4 + 4, no bonus points

[@RisetotheEquation]

-1 if spangram not first; -2 if over 5 min; -2 per hint used

[@doraa.7873]

@@RisetotheEquation Thanks! I've edited my post to correct my Strands score.

[@LadyAndreaRose]

Xxx, 29, andrea, 10 Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 Time- 2:35

[@subodhcsingh]

Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵

[@TomCee53]

Wordle 1,017 3/6* ⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛hotel 🟨🟩⬛⬛🟨organ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩frond xxx,29,Tom Cee,9 Out of order, 3:40 An inauspicious start to the month. 🐣🤷‍♂️🥴 Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵🔵🔵 xxx,295,Tom Cee, 2 1+0+0+1=2 Out of order, 4:10 Connections Puzzle #295 🟦🟩🟪🟪words with homophones 🟪🟪🟪🟪letter homophones 🟦🟩🟦🟩 🟨🟩🟩🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟩

[@lisag8476]

I am surprised that so many people had technical issues with seeing the emojis on today's Connections. My game was fine, so I assumed everyone's was as well. That's really too bad because I thought it was a fun concept and a good April Fools trick. I enjoyed it. I'll go ahead and post my results anyway, since I'm so used to doing that. xxx, 295, Lisa G, 8 Connections Puzzle #295 🟪🟪🟪🟪 letter homophones 🟦🟦🟦🟦 horror movies 🟩🟩🟩🟩 words that rhyme with each other 🟨🟨🟨🟨 sandwich ingredients (0) 7 base, 1 point for order

[@hopechazz]

My game was fine as well, but I only came CLOSE to getting all four categories which OFTEN happens. I presently get my four categories on the average of two times a week. I am happy with my Wordle percentages.

[@lisag8476]

​@@hopechazz😄 👍

[@Tsteinlauf]

You should get .5 for sandwich ingredients. The yellow is that plus a bit more, the "bit" being the other .5. 😊

[@joeyscerbo7776]

xxx, 295, Joey Scerbo, 8 Connections Puzzle #295 🟨🟨🟨🟨 Slang for money 🟦🟦🟪🟦 (Scary things) 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Scary movies 🟩🟩🟩🟩 They rhyme 🟪🟪🟪🟪 Sound like letters 4+3+1(time, 4:33)+0(order)

[@LadyAndreaRose]

Xxx, 295, andrea, 8.5 Connections Puzzle #295 🟩🟩🟩🟩 rhyming words 🟨🟨🟨🟨foods 🟦🟦🟦🟦 horror movies 🟪🟪🟪🟪 letter homophones Time- 3:59 Order - close but no cigar.

[@tclark8205]

Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 SCORE - 8 SPANGRAM FIRST (-0) HINTS USED (-0) OVER 5 MINUTES (-2)

[@sharkdom]

xxx, 295, sharkdom, 8.5 Connections Puzzle #295 🟪🟪🟪🟪 letter homophones 🟨🟨🟨🟨 X sandwich ingredients 0.5 🟩🟩🟩🟩 rhyme with lane 🟦🟦🟦🟦 horror films Luckily i could see all the emojis, bit of a shambles from the game designer today 😢. 4 mistakes left, 3 categories ++ time = 8.5

[@Tsteinlauf]

You should have a .5 for the yellow. That seems to be the consensus, and I heartily agree. They are food/sandwich ingredients.

[@sharkdom]

@@Tsteinlauf fair enough. Updated. Probably too late for Arts records but in the unlikely event that I end up missing out on a prize by half a point at the end of the month I will request a recount!

[@sharkdom]

In fact just realised this one is being voided anyway so doesn't even matter!

[@TwoBuckToll]

xxx, 295, TwoBuckToll, 1.5 Puzzle #295 🟩🟩🟩🟩 words that rhyme with pain 🟪🟦🟪🟪 (x) sounds like other words 🟨🟨🟨🟨 (0.5) foods 🟦🟪🟪🟦 (x) to guess wildly 🟦🟦🟪🟦 (x) ask for punishment 🟪🟦🟪🟪 (x) clear a row A teapot is not tea. 0 guesses left + 1.5 categories + no style = 1.5

[@Tsteinlauf]

xxx, 29, Therese, 7 Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🟡 Wordle 1,017 3/6 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ADIEU - FLOOD - FROND xxx, 295, Therese, 7.5 Connections Puzzle #295 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 FOOD, LIKE FOR SANDWICHES = .5 RHYME = 1 WORDS REPRESENTED BY SINGLE LETTER = 1 HORROR MOVIES = 1 ORDER: 0. TIME: 0. TOTAL: 7.5 I thought sure that the purple was blue. Wyna Liu fooled me!!

[@Obesepelican]

xxx, 295, obese, 5.5 Connections Puzzle #295 🟩🟩🟩🟩 rhymes (“ane”) 🟨🟨🟨🟨 food (0.5) 🟪🟪🟦🟪 🟦🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟪🟪🟪 🟪🟪🟪🟪 letters 🟦🟦🟦🟦 horror movies could not for the life of me think of that sheep emoji as a ewe 😭 + 1 time

[@Quilter_Di]

xxx,29,Quilter Di,9 Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵🔵 -1 for Spangram not first, 1:45 for time

[@lisag8476]

xxx, 29, Lisa G, 9 Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵🔵 -1 for spangram not first. 1:15 solve I am usually not so fast on Strands.

[@Thefocusissharpinthecity]

xxx, 29, Kevin L, 10 Time: 2:32.10 Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵

[@pwmiles56]

Probably under 5 mins. Oh you prissy Americans... in the UK we love a titter Let's hope this aborts the Strands comp as presently constituted! Strands #29 “What’s so funny?” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵

[@chinareds54]

Is there any point in sharing the images of the Strands solves with the hints bug currently in place? They might not even accurately reflect the game results.

[@doraa.7873]

@@chinareds54 You're right! There's definitely a bug in the way this Beta version of Strands displays results. What does that mean for this tournament?

[@Tsteinlauf]

I guess it means we need to be honest.😊 My Android reports my use of hints correctly every time. I even ran a test a few days ago to check. I do see where other folks, like in Doug's videos, for example, have some hints not recording. We do rely on honesty for naming the Connections categories, so I would think that we could be trusted.

[@pwmiles56]

@@Tsteinlauf Perhaps it's an emoji problem like yesterday. For example I found this one on a list, should be a lightbulb💡. But I don't think the comp can even run if the software isn't reliable.