Oranje deals with a sneaky Wyna Liu for November 11

[@ADailySliceOfOranje]

Wyna was extremely devious today! However, I was able to break down her thought process! Leave your comments below and let's talk about it! Also, my apologies about the loud bang about a minute in. One of the Santas fell over during the decoration setup. All is good!

[@Tsteinlauf]

Oh, Ouch, is 🎅 OK? 😊

[@Joe-lb8qn]

Today was difficult for me as we only have the mars and maybe dove bar in UK so i guessed around and got it on my last guess . In retrospect bird was easy even as my left over category as i knew three of them but not heard of sue bird. Got Wordle in 5.

[@geowiz9436]

Nailed your puzzle again, John! My sister works as an actor on a Christmas themed train, this time of year. She asked my dad and I what the 12 Days of Christmas gifts were a few days ago, cause she needed to memorize them for her routine. It was fresh in my brain. With that the other categories were pretty straight forward. Only thing I'm not sure on is what an Olympic Village is.

[@LadyAndreaRose]

The olympic village is where the athletes stay.

[@dora.7873]

Great job untangling John's puzzle, Oranje. I wasn't able to solve it...too many overpopulated categories for me.

[@ADailySliceOfOranje]

It was a difficult one indeed. 😊

[@geowiz9436]

Well it happened. After 12 days I lost my connections streak. I saw the candy bars instantly and knew the Green and the Purple category. The problem was I didn't know what the fourth was for either of those. I've never heard of "thrust" used to describe the gist of something. I still don't even get that one. And I'm not a Sports person, so I've never heard of Sue Bird in my life. As for the Bras? Yeah I wasn't figuring that out. I've never even heard of a Demi Bra. Wasn't mine to win today.

[@Tsteinlauf]

😢

[@michellelam6561]

STARE STOMP STOCK STOIC - should have trusted my first instinct; would have it in 3.

[@losh23]

Nice Puzzle John! Getting the 12 Days of Christmas was definitely the key for that puzzle. Since I haven't been "doing" the puzzles on the NYT site, I've been trying to solve them by pausing when you first open them and going old school pen and paper solving. Actually been able to find the Spangram and solve the Connections with no mistakes when I take the time to think out each step before just throwing guesses out there. Weird question but when you see this could you tell me how many people have played Connections at that point (for the 11th)? I can see back to my last Connections played and its at 1M+ and that was Tuesday the 5th. Just wondering if people are actually boycotting the site?

[@ADailySliceOfOranje]

It is at 1 million games at 1:15pm on November 11

[@John_NYT]

Great solve as always. You do a great job of spotting my purples which helps everything else fall into place. I’ve got some pretty difficult ones in my last batch so I’ll be very curious to see how you tackle them.

[@ADailySliceOfOranje]

Yeah… I sense you have brought the heat for those ones.

[@ellensassani]

Gadzooks! You mean it's going to get even WORSE??? 😬😆😆😆

[@ADailySliceOfOranje]

@@ellensassani I can confirm that it is

[@LadyAndreaRose]

Oh my!!!

[@PaulRoehl-fi1iw]

BLEAT, TORUS, STOIC

[@briangonigal3974]

STUFF STARE STEIN STOIT STOIC -STOIT?????? (Do I at least get bonus points for finding all the letters already in position?) In Connections got "Gist" first, then Bras & Chocolate Bars pretty much together (trying to sound out "___ Bar" to fill out that category pretty much revealed the soundalike "Bra" category, although for awhile it was a toss-up which one "Sports" belonged in). Wasn't familiar with Sue Bird, but since it was the last category left that made no difference whatsoever.

[@dora.7873]

STARE STUDY STOCK STOIC Strands #253 “To your health!” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵 Connections Puzzle #519 🟨🟨🟨🟨 Chocolate bars 🟩🟩🟩🟩 The main idea, the essence 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Kinds of bras 🟪🟪🟪🟪 _____ bird I didn't know who Sue Bird is, but it had to go with the purple since that was the last remaining category. Similarly with DEMI bra...I never heard of it, but it had to go with blue by process of elimination,

[@ellensassani]

Well done, Oranje! Wordle 1,241 3/6* 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜TRACE 🟨⬜🟩⬜🟨CLOUT 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩STOIC Hard word to think of. STOCK was a previous answer. Strands #253 “To your health!” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵 I got stuck on MEDICAL CARE for a bit! Connections Puzzle #519 🟦🟦🟦🟦TYPES OF BRAS 🟩🟩🟩🟩MOST IMPORTANT PART 🟨🟨🟨🟨CANDY BARS 🟪🟪🟪🟪____ BIRD I was indignant about the category CHOCOLATE BARS, because as far as I knew PAYDAY didn't have any chocolate. But I looked it up, and there is in fact a chocolate-covered version which I have never seen. I think I can guess someone else who will get Blue first. I was not familiar with SUE BIRD, but three was enough for me to name the category.

[@Tiqerboy]

Nice solve. It was an easy puzzle if you knew the bras because that eliminated the red herrings (PUSH-UP CRUNCH CORE....). It's okay, as a 57 year old single guy, never to have set foot in the women's lingerie section. I saw the Chocolate Bars (okay I call them Candy Bars) easily enough. I was trying to decide if BIG was a candy bar but I'm pretty sure it's "Mr. Big".

[@ADailySliceOfOranje]

@@Tiqerboy I was hung up on Big too

[@randolpho-]

Wordle 1,241 3/6 🟨⬛🟨⬛⬛CHILI 🟩🟨⬛🟨⬛SINCE 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩STOIC Strands #253 “To your health!” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵 Connections Puzzle #519 🟨🟨🟨🟨CHOCOLATE BARS 🟦🟦🟦🟦TYPE OF BRASSIERS 🟪🟪🟪🟪___BIRD 🟩🟩🟩🟩BASIC INFORMATION Connections #7 🟪🟪🟪🟪GIFTS OF _12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS_ 🟨🟨🟨🟨FEMALES 🟩🟩🟩🟩HIRED HELP 🟦🟦🟦🟦???

[@randolpho-]

I work in retail and as soon as Halloween was over, the real horrors began, with Christmas music.

[@Tiqerboy]

John's Puzzle Forget it. Another goose egg day: A;ll my guesses were right away. After my fail, I thought I had a chance at light blue, so I tried another combos. I saw the female references and servants easily enough, and for light blue I was first thinking of the Hunger Games, but eventually settled on Olympics. It was still overpopulated. It was one of those Purple FIrst puzzles again, and frankly, my mind isn't on Christmas yet, so maybe I would have gotten this next month. Connections #7 🟨🟪🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟪🟩 🟨🟨🟪🟨 🟦🟦🟪🟦 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟨🟪🟨🟨

[@ellensassani]

Great job on John's puzzle, which was very devious. A 5,5,5,1 Purple-first puzzle is one thing, but this was a 6,5,5 puzzle. No bread crumb to help find Purple. And without finding it, the fact that I knew the other three categories didn't help much. I suppose in retrospect I should have latched onto HENS, but ... Oh well. Very clever, John! 😈 Connections #7 🟩🟪🟩🟩X servants 🟪🟦🟦🟦X Olympic things 🟨🟪🟨🟨X females 🟩🟩🟩🟩SERVANTS 🟪🟦🟦🟦X Olympic things

[@Tiqerboy]

Usually I can't solve those Purple first puzzles where you have only one word as the odd one out, assuming you can even find it. But yes, HENS was it. It's hard to make a Connection only going by one word. The only Purple First Puzzle I can remember solving was that one you created that had the various dogs GUIDE, SERVICE and so on. I'm trying to remember if Wyna Liu ever created a "Purple FIrst" puzzle with three obvious categories, all overpopulated. I can't remember any.

[@ellensassani]

@Tiqerboy And HENS could have been in the "females" category.

[@ADailySliceOfOranje]

@@ellensassani It gets so much worse in John’s future appearances 😫

[@ellensassani]

@@ADailySliceOfOranje 😮😮😮