NYT Connections, Mini Crossword, and Strands | Dec 21, 2024

[@chadkent327]

Oscar is the radio alphabet designation for the letter O

[@abscott88]

Standard phonetic alphabet Oscar is used for O, not exclusively but commonly used for radio/phone communication.

[@nicasraissa1607]

Such a bad day to miss Connections! I lose about 70% of the times, but today, while watching your video, all the categories (besides purple) came to me, especially the beds!

[@mathrhapsody]

Crockpot is a brand of slow cooker. But a crock is a ceramic dish.

[@tomkadams]

Connections was really hard, the cooking one was definitely a stretch ("crock" for crock pot but also "pot" in the same category?) and the other two had a couple things that I have not heard before, I managed to get it by using all the mistakes and a bit of luck.

[@RandomPlaceHolderName]

I'm surprised how many never heard of a crock.

[@Tiqerboy]

Your time on the Mini Crossword was much better than mine, it took me close to 7 minutes. I had trouble with LINEONE, EERIER and LASE and it took me a while to correct the errors I had. But I didn't give up. I usually feel I should be able to get through this without a hint and I didn't have to resort to that today.

[@florentperusse8132]

As a french speaker, the green category was easier for me today, since casserole is very much so a type of kitchenware more than the dish itself!

[@tannerarmstrong1496]

Nato phonetic alphabet has an official name for every letter. Alpha, bravo, Charley, Delta... The word for O is Oscar

[@gemma3877]

I got a reverse rainbow today with one mistake. I didn't understand the purple theme and went for the 4 that I didn't fit in elsewhere. Basically I made the most common mistake by mentally including O in yellow, which meant I put BAND in purple.

[@hudaahmadmalik785]

Haha! I had almost the exact same convo in my head for “Steve-o” and “Steve Murphy”.. wait am I combining Eddie Murphy and Steve Harvey?? 😂

[@shinbios]

Had I seen that O as a letter rather than zero, I'd have probably worked out that the NATO phonetic translation of O was Oscar

[@ZorinDobson]

Getting Lase was a really good pull. I had to use the checker to help with this crossword.

[@In_42_Space]

I found the yellow and green but even that didn’t help narrow down the last two. Didn’t know those two random beds and no way I was going pluck Oscar out of my brain with those words 🤷‍♂️

[@sonalita_]

I don't understand your hesitation over the cooking utensils - to me that was the obvious category! O is Oscar in the international phonetic alphabet.

[@Rangsk]

Because it's crock pot and casserole dish, not crock and casserole. I talked pretty extensively about it afterwards in the video.

[@sonalita_]

@@Rangsk yeah but we know NYT are often a bit fast and loose with what fits in the categories :D

[@bibliopolist]

@@Rangsk Well no, it's definitely casserole, not "casserole dish".

[@RandomPlaceHolderName]

@@Rangsk Crock and crock pot are two different things.

[@Stephen-Fox]

Connections was a weird one for me - I identified all of the categories, but was only able to get one of the groups - cooking vessels (I think I used to owned a clay casserole dish that I used specifically for my roast peppers stuffed with tomatoes until it cracked when I was washing it and I deliberately didn't replace it because it was a nightmare to clean even after lining it with foil so I knew that as a type of dish as well as a meal, and just knew crock pot as a phrase, so I knew of them all as 'kinds of dishes') - because I just couldn't figured out the fourth for Beds, Loops, and was only able to identify two of the Oscars - Grouch and Statuette - (Though I did immediately grok O for Oscar - Phonetic Alphabet - when I failed) - The three loops I identified were Circle, Hoop, and Ring; the three beds I identified were Bunk, Murphy, and Sleigh. I suspect I only remembered Murphy was a type of bed because the Sims always adds the ability to die from a Murphy bed closing while a Sim is in it when they add Murphy beds into the game. Would have been good enough for 5 points in only connect (actually might have been able to solve it in only connect since until you're on the last two groups that's on time rather than lives so if you know three you can brute force a group)

[@Tiqerboy]

It was painful to watch you struggle since I found this one fairly easy. I saw the beds right away but couldn't find the 4th (SLEIGH) so I entered green which I saw right away (yes, the ceramic dish itself is often called a casserole, at least that's what I've always called it). Then I cleared yellow, not thinking to put O into that category (so I guess I dodged a red herring without realizing). Looking at light blue and purple, I got the Aha moment on Purple so that allowed me to put SLEIGH in with the other three bed types. So I got these in green-yellow-ligh blue-purple order and the most common solve pattern 1 in 66. The difficulty dropped to 3/5 according to the Bot, which I think is on the cusp. What's interesting a lot more people with one error than the perfect solve (13% vs 28% who got 1 error). But I've seen to quickly solve puzzles I've struggled with. The funny thing about Connections, as much as I want to perish the thought, your bad day is never that far away.

[@damelza.snelders]

2 clues in the mini about the winter solstice but it should specify that it is in the Northern Hemisphere! We enjoyed our longest day in Australia 😎

[@Rangsk]

The NYT puzzles should always be assumed to be targeted at a US audience

[@damelza.snelders]

@Rangsk they are all very US centric!

[@stacey738]

The winter solstice is the shortest day in Australia too, just in Australia's winter. So it still applies. Longest day is in summer.

[@damelza.snelders]

@@stacey738 the clue for 12A says "for the next six months"

[@MissKapanadze]

I did awful on all three of these 😂 got yellow and green on connections, needed to use hints on the mini and strands. I did get monastery and mosque right away but then couldn’t find others. Also tried sad spaces for the spanagram 😂

[@veronicapietsch8017]

Only blue today!!! because of bed frame shopping lol 😂 but purple was purpling and I didn’t wanna put crock with pot SMH

[@ChessPlayer-mk5vv]

My baloney has a first name, it's O S C A R

[@ZorinDobson]

Yeah I did ok but casserole can for sure be the cooking vessel as well. I believe the word is borrowed from French. The only one I was questioning in that category was crock.

[@MissKapanadze]

A casserole is a type of pot, which is different from casserole dish. I don’t think the term is commonly used in the U.S., so it’s weird NYT puzzle used that definition. Maybe it’s common in NY 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@finlandtaipan4454]

Oh no, tough Connections. I made two mistakes guessing between the five loops including the O. I know the NATO alphabet but never thought about it in this context. I don't watch Sesame Street (why would I, I'm old) and I had never heard of Oscar the the Grouch. So the Oscars were my leftovers. But I survived. Excellent Saturday Mini! Sluggish 3:32 for me. Fun Strands. "Sad spaces?" LOL. But I agree: synagogue ought to have been included. I saw all the words and locked in the spangram first. But I made one correctable minor mistake: I started spelling BB the wrong direction.

[@auldfouter8661]

Casserole is French for saucepan coming from the diminutive of casse = ladle. The word has come to mean the actual meal cooked in the utensil.

[@Sg190th]

I knew it was oscar the grouch but no other words added up :L

[@nervoussips2622]

Oscar is o in the nato alphabet

[@MoviesWithDallin]

I sell mattresses so the blue came easy to me.

[@howarddenmark8124]

First view and first comment

[@sher1978]

Connections Puzzle #559 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟪🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 I didn’t think casserole went with the green category, but it did , I messed up the O in the yellow category, I knew my beds, purple was very purple for me.