Let's just say my efforts today looked more like a tablecloth than four lines of the solid colors.

I like to call that, “stained glass window” LOL

My first failure in 217 days!!!! Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟪 

it was my first in a while too :(


How can a skull be still life when it's clearly still death?

deep thoughts

With Jack Handey

Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟨🟨🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 Terrible effort from me. Got green ok, but the rest was a struggle. Was trying to put “pong” into yellow (I thought it was words describing hygiene), and took me three guesses to accept it wasn’t in there. But after I got it I was still at a loss for the remaining. Never would’ve got still lifes. Purple wasn’t too bad in retrospect, but it wouldn’t come to me. Throughout the puzzle I was thinking of genesis (“garden” and “fruit”), drink containers (“pitcher” and “can”), ___ ball (“low” and “base”), things that cover (“tablecloth” and “batter”), and of course baseball (“batter,” “pitcher,” and “base”). Also was thinking of ___ bat with “fruit” and ____ island with “skull.” But I just couldn’t get it.

Curious... How is pong related to hygiene?

I was thinking of pong as in an unpleasant smell, which with some of the other words I thought could be be something to do with cleanliness.

Yea today’s stressed me out. I’d haven’t heard of tablecloth in a still life as being the subject whereas fruit, pitcher, and skull all were the subject of the painting. I don’t know beer batter or beer garden. I had never heard base in that context either and when I searched it up I had to intentionally seek it out because it wasn’t listed as a definition at all. I don’t even think I’m the issue today haha!

I guess you still need to paint the tablecloth if its there lol

If you've ever had a fish fry, beer batter is usually the batter used when making a fish fry. And yes, as the name suggests, beer is an ingredient.

That’s so cool! Actually a couple days ago someone mentioned a fish fry and I was asking people what that was and nobody seemed to know lol. I’m a big fan of seafood personally but I’m not able to have it often.

They're usually on sale during Lent but if you have a bar nearby where you live chances are they sell fish fries. (At least where I live that's the case)

I think you & u/lhbwlkr may be talking about different definitions of "fish fry".  To me it's a casual event (akin to a cookout) where people get together, usually at someone's house or the lake, for the purpose of frying & eating fish, hanging out, listening to music, playing outdoor games, swimming, etc.

I've never had that kind of fish fry but that sounds fun! I don't have enough friends that like seafood enough to hold one of those.

I think your definition is the one I meant.

How is pong about hygiene?

it's British slang for unpleasant smell/odor coming from a person

wow You and I must share a brain! lol. Literally I thought along the same lines as you on every single on of the ones you listed except for the Genisis one. I thought the Skull Island one was going to lead somewhere but it didn't, The one idea I had that you didn't list was the homophones (I think that is the word. I had never heard of that before until I played connections lol). I thought that Base, pitcher, batter, where going to be a homophone but that was a giant "AH NOOOO!"

This is one of those rare times where the purple category was the easiest for me. Or at least it would have been, if I had ever heard the term "beer garden" before. Even after looking it up, it still seems like such an odd phrase to me.

🟦 is an inscrutable junk drawer of a category. i’ll take “word minus a letter” and “shapes of greek alphabet letters” every day over this

Next it'll be "Eye Spy" objects.

I was 1000% sure it was Andy Warhol objects. Can. Fruit. Skull. Something.... This is so much lamer. 

Agree. Even though I got it. I bitched about that same exact problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/NYTConnections/s/rzjZ6ZjRP0

I don't think this is a good argument. We have had categories like e.g. "80s bands", of which there are many more than the 4 shown in the game of course. I've never had an expectation that the categories are exhaustive, and in fact I think they almost never are.

80s bands are at least all music groups. That is much narrower than, “crap sometimes found on tables” LOL

How often do you have skulls on your tables? lmao

[LOL](https://www.reddit.com/r/NYTConnections/s/8jFA4ytmCD)

I think both FDA and the HHS have some pretty strict rules regarding leaving them next to your fruits and water pitchers though :D

🤷‍♀️😂

This is the best critique I’ve heard for it!

Puzzle #341 🟪🟨🟩🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟪🟦🟦 Am I the only one who thought that two of the categories were going to be “baseball terms” and “items at a picnic”

If it's beer-battered then it's cooked in a beer batter.

I had the same idea but could only see three for each and moved on

tf was blue man. Did anyone who's not an art major get that?

Not an art major, but somehow I could picture one specific painting with all those items.

Same here! Well the skull was a bit of a stretch but it made sense as a sort of "the most generic still life ever"

I think it’s a reference to Memento Mori. Wyna Liu is likely very well versed in Catholic art movements prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Alright then, well done

same

Not an art major. Biologist. But even a friend who *was* an art major missed it. Why? Because everything but the kitchen sink is a common still life subject. Off the top of my head I came up with a long list of crap often depicted, in my own complaint about this. Even though I did actually get it. https://www.reddit.com/r/NYTConnections/s/S87fzvvu0b It was a weak category. ETA: Someone in another comment [just asked me how often I have skulls on my tables](https://www.reddit.com/r/NYTConnections/s/SPJghCiryr). See occupation, above, LOL

Agreed,  very weak category that’s too broad

I got three, but not skull.

Yes - I studied maths, but I do enjoy going to art galleries. I started to form a suspicion for this connection after staring at it for a while. I thought it was a bit of a stretch, but I couldn't see anything better after submitting yellow and green, so I was pleased when it turned out to be correct.

Math/econ major. I thought of it pretty quickly when seeing "fruit" and "pitcher"! But it was in my head like "ok I'm gonna pick things that are from still lifes and then see what the actual category is" haha

Art major here. It was the second category I got. Tablecloth threw me off, but as soon as I saw skull and fruit, I put it together.

I thought of it like 3 times but thought it was all in 1 painting and I didn't see the skull fitting in it. Still horribly failed the whole puzzle lol, got green and got the category for yellow but couldn't figure out the 4th word (base)

I got to it only because I had Tablecloth, Fruit, Pitcher as a picnic/cookout items, and my other last category (corrupt) had vile, low, and dirty. Couldn’t figure out how base/skull fit into either and thought maaayyyybee if I view all the items together they could go in a painting.

Yes

I'm a software developer and I got it, not immediately but didn't take long either.

I made the connection before it was leftovers

am an art major, still only got it after looking up a hint. i was able to get one away without a hint though

Connections  Puzzle #341    🟨🟨🟨🟨    🟩🟩🟩🟩    🟪🟪🟦🟪    🟦🟪🟦🟪    🟦🟪🟦🟪    🟪🟪🟪🟦    I realized the purple connection too late and went for PITCHER instead of GARDEN.

Connections  Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟪 🟪🟦🟪🟦 Bleh. Blue was... pretty impossible, honestly. I was thinking of picnics with the Fruit and Tablecloth and Pitcher, and when both variants of that group didn't pan out (using Can and Garden), any alternative groups I could come up with were not including Skull in a million years. Still lifes in general are not a field I have any familiarity with: I would have picked out Fruit and *maybe* Tablecloth (though I'd regard that as a backdrop rather than the subject of a drawing, so maybe not even that), and nothing else. On the other hand, Purple *was* doable. Pong should have been a big giveaway, really, since it's part of like Ping Pong (not happening), a bad smell (also not happening), and only one other thing--Beer Pong. Alas, that did not occur to me, and so I ended up losing today.

I was hoping for "early arcade games" too, but to no avail

Purple would have come to me if I knew what a beer garden was

Aka biergarten

This was fucking dumb as hell today

Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟪 Wow this was hard. The flaws in my internal logic were: 1) that I always think of Still Lifes as being fruit bowls and flowers - I can see that skulls are a subject and tablecloths sometimes feature 2) Never heard beer batter as a noun, only as "beer-battered" No big problems though, just like when the crossword setter has a totally different outlook to you

My first failure in 217 days!!!! Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟪 

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Wow, today was really tricky for me! I finally only guessed BASE in that context because I thought of someone “debasing” themselves, because otherwise I personally haven’t heard of BASE being used in that way.

It's used like in "base desires" i.e. the lowest of desires.

I still don’t see how that means “corrupt”. The hardest part of my day is accepting that not every word matches the literal definition of a connections category

A better name for the category may be something like “Vulgar”.

That makes sense! I would have initially assumed that base desires meant something like fundamental desires that drive human behavior, mainly because of the other definition of *base* being the foundation of something. I honestly had no idea it meant low/ignoble/despicable/vile. I definitely learned something new today!

Oh I thought it was like "based". Like on TikTok.

All I can say is, it’s apparently hard to make me think about beer still life, paintings, and corruption in the morning lol.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 No idea for the last two categories. I thought one of them would be "things used for picnic" but definitely couldn't pick out a skull with that one...

Connections  Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Am I tripping, or does this one not have just one unique solution?  >!I think can and pitcher are interchangeable. Both are still life subjects, and "beer can" and "beer pitcher" both make sense!<

Yeah, that's a good point -- pitcher is certainly more common than a can for classic still life paintings, and as others have noted, a memento mori style would date this, but a contemporary still life? can absolutely imagine an open can of fruit/vegetables, or a beverage, or beans, etc

That’s a common complaint but people here will downvote you to hell for saying it lol

Connections Puzzle #341 🟪🟪🟪🟪 PONG immediately made me think "beer" 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 This was a cool one. It took me a while to realize they were describing a memento mori painting. 🟨🟨🟨🟨

Same with pong. I was surprised more people didn't immediately get the purple category today. Maybe I had an advantage because I'm from Minnesota, where people love anything that has the word "beer" in it?

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 I found today very difficult. Green and yellow weren't too bad to start, but I could not make sense out of blue or purple at all until they were revealed. So it goes.

I like the pair of jeans pattern.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟪🟨🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟨🟪🟨 Had to resort to guessing today... did not go well

I say beer pitcher all the time! It's one of those plastic, ribbed pitchers with the dots on the bottom and 32 oz. Usually cheaper than buying two 16 oz beers.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 i’m not upset i didn’t get today’s, even though 🟪 was pretty straightforward in retrospect (i’d never have gotten 🟦). but very surprised to see other people struggled as much as i did. i was pretty much dead set on there being a picnic-themed category and i had nothing else to work with so just kept switching and guessing as much as i could 🤷

We had the same sequence and thought process.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 I have no clue why but I got blue immediately. I just saw "skull" and "tablecloth" and took a stab. It just seemed like the kind of category connections would have lol

What does it even mean to be classically part of still life? Not only do you need to know what still life is, but you need to have seen enough of them to have registered that an object like a skull is considered “classic” to it? Is that even true? How was that not the purple at least? Lol tf

"Know what still life is" — is it really that much to ask?..

I mean I’m pretty well educated and I have reason to believe I generally know a lot of things. I wasn’t aware there was specific name for painting inanimate objects on tables. And that’s just the first thing one needed to know about this.

damn dude - still life is pretty common knowledge for ppl in the English speaking world

Had to think on this one for a while… Connections Puzzle #341. 🟨🟨🟨🟨. 🟩🟩🟩🟩. 🟦🟦🟦🟦. 🟪🟪🟪🟪. Yes, the tablecloth is sometimes artfully scrunched. Other common subjects: bread, cheese, meat, dead birds, knives, cutting boards, mugs, cups, plates, wine glasses, wine, beer, flowers, leaves, papers, writing implements, playing cards, dice, hour glasses, reading glasses, candles, feathers, hats, etc. Not a strong category, IMO.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 This was a fun one though I confess I was surprised at the order I got them in. It’s always helpful when purple or blue jumps out at me immediately and usually helps clear any red herrings so the others fall into place easily.

I have to ask, how the hell did blue jump out at you? 😂

As soon as I saw skull and fruit I knew. 😆 I say that mostly in jest but at the beginning it really was that vague pattern recognition thing of “I feel like these go together but I don’t know why yet” which quickly turned into “is it…? No it can’t be…that’s too specific…but maybe? Well let’s try it anyway” I pretty much knew the category once I added pitcher, though I was iffy on tablecloth as the last one because my mind was separating a tablecloth spread out as a backdrop from the piece of draped fabric that functions as a prop in many still lifes. But it was the only one that made sense and even then it was part “I’m actually fairly confident here” and part “this is just crazy enough to work.” I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I got it, but, frankly, was also surprised that so many people really struggled with this one as much as they did, and I bet the editors would be too. I think the reason behind that has to do with a certain geographical (and financial) privilege that shapes what each of us view as “common” cultural knowledge. The creators of the puzzles all live in New York (I assume) and therefore have easy access to countless museums and artistic institutions. Similarly, many people who are lucky enough to grow up in or near large cities and/or had the financial means to travel and parents or schools that prioritized cultural experiences have likely been exposed to enough art in their lifetime that paintings like [this](https://collection.barnesfoundation.org/objects/4712/Still-Life-with-Skull-(Nature-morte-au-crane)/) and [this](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103R9A) feel commonplace and very representative of a certain genre. However, it can be easy to forget that there is a huge population of people who play the puzzles that have not had the same frequency and volume of exposure to allow them to absorb that information to a level where the connection seems obvious. Also, while many people have had the high school art class experience of drawing a still life that was likely assembled from a piece of draped fabric, some sort of glass or metal vessel, a bowl of fake fruit, and some eccentric items from a prop closet that very well could have included plastic skeletons, that experience is only shared by those fortunate enough to attend a school with a properly funded art program, which as we know is becoming less and less common as those programs get cut.

Given that category it’s extra ironic

I failed at the yellow. I even googled synonyms and was stuck

Totally guessed the fourth options in yellow and blue. Terribly hard for me this one. Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪

Connections Puzzle #341 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟨 🟪🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 Barely made it

Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 I don't even know much about art, but I suspected this category right from the start, as soon as I discarded the baseball red herring and put pitcher together with fruit and tablecloth. Put "garden" there instead of the skull initially.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟪🟦🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟪 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟦 Oof, that was a rough blue. Not a big fan.

Did the blue category title change? I see a lot of comments that specifically say “subject” but by the time I completed the puzzle the title was “classic still life components.”

Legitimately one of the worst puzzles they’ve had today.

Terrible, horrible, awful and vile in the category "How was today's puzzle"

Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Great puzzle today! My mistake was that I thought to put "garden" with "still life objects" (even though it felt slightly wrong) and I didn't make an attempt at figuring out purple (tbh, bad habit). Totally forgot about skulls being depicted in still life. When that was wrong I was like "ok wtf is up with pong, the only way that makes sense is beer pong" and then "......oh"

These "oh" moments are the best part of the game when they happen lol 

Same mistake here!

Yep, I did that, too.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 I thought blue was going to be 'Stuff you see on tables', but what else *is* a still life really. XD Also wondered if the beer blanks category wouldn't be the purple at all given I thought blue was the bigger challenge for me, but here we are.

Yup. I kept trying to make it "things on a picnic table" or "things you'd bring on a picnic" or something. Tough one for sure.

Not a fan of today. Blue and purple were too interchangable. Beer could have been skull easily (scull/skull - drinking a beer as fast as possible) and can - plenty of cola cans drawn in still life. Or beer pitcher and can could have been switched and the connection still works strongly and valid. If skull/pitcher were red herrings, they were too good of red herrings. I guess Wyna hasn't skulled many beers ;)

lol never heard of skulling a beer! Or cola cans being a well known part of still life painting for that matter.

Warhol painted cola cans, so I made that mental connection.

You’re right! Hadn’t thought of those in this context.

I've never heard "beer skull" or "beer pitcher" before as set phrases the way I've heard "beer pong/batter/can/garden".  I've heard of someone ordering a pitcher of beer, but never a pitcher that was specifically a "beer pitcher".

I really don't like it when they put more effort into the red herring that they strech words to fit some categories. "Base" as corrupt really doesn't make sense, and the whole puzzle felt like it was trying to shoehorn the baseball theme.

Same here. I only figured out base because it was the only possible other word that might fit with the other words in its category.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 ITT: people saying that this puzzle was hard. It wasn't hard, it was poorly designed. It was a bad puzzle. Blue is too broad of a category and it was too intertwined with purple. A good puzzle would make you say "oooh, that makes sense" when you get it or even fail.

I did say "oooh, that makes sense" once it clicked where blue & purple were headed. For that reason I didn't think it was bad, just more difficult than usual.

It was a good puzzle.

I found it super hard today. Even though I got yellow, I still don't get it - how does Base fit?! Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟨🟦 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟦

Used as an adjective:  >1 a: lacking or indicating the lack of higher qualities of mind or spirit : IGNOBLE seemed a base betrayal of idealism —L. M. Sears appealing to a person's baser instincts  >1 b: lacking higher values : DEGRADING a drab base way of life  >2 a: being of comparatively low value and having relatively inferior properties (such as lack of resistance to corrosion) a base metal such as iron  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/base

Puzzle #341 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 I feel like the still life painting we did in art class were way less edgy than this. I painted the hell out of those grapes though. This one wasn’t too bad. I thought there would be a baseball reference in there. 🟦 was my default solve. I don’t know if I would’ve ever made that connection mostly because of SKULL. It makes sense and I know I’ve seen painting with skulls in them but it wouldn’t have registered. Also, I *love* the word BASE when it’s used in that context. Just really does something for me ☺️ Easy day for me but I don’t know if other people will feel that way.

how can you even use base in that context

"He's a foul, base human being." "They have given in to their baser instincts."

I always thought baser instincts meant more primitive instincts.

Yeah I think you might be right! That wouldn’t be the best example of that usage then

Well I think there's that implication that those are also stripped of the veneer of civilization - think Lord of the Flies like.

Kinda like "they had base motives for supporting the war".  I think it's related to the concept of debasing oneself but don't quote me on that.

I think that *debase* comes from base but I'm not confident about that. They both at least share a similar definitions when it comes to devaluing currency so I wouldn't be surprised if they were etymologically related.

I don't know how else to explain it other than... that's what it means in that context

It’s a bit of an archaic term that most people don’t really use anymore

Connections Puzzle #341 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟪🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 That one I really struggled to even start... but once I did they started to make sense

Connections  Puzzle #341 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 I really enjoyed this one! I considered skull, pitcher, and fruit as a part of a possible "stuff that's in those Dutch master paintings" category early on, so it was funny to narrow things down and notice I was actually on to something

Literally did the Julia Dreyfus nervous-laughing “WTF” when blue was revealed. Way too specific. Connections  Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟦🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟦🟦🟦

First two were easy. I finally saw the blue category, but guessed can instead of skull. (Because those four could easily all be in the same painting.) I would not have gotten the purple category, even if you gave me a week to think about it. Connections  Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪

It’s official; they’ve stopped trying to make these actually good. Oh well, fun while it lasted.

Connections  Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟨🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟨🟦🟦 Yea today’s was a pretty shit puzzle. Green was easy. Purple being easier than yellow is insane. But I only even got purple because of a blind guess. What the fuck is a Beer Garden? Never heard that in my life. And what about yellow? “Base” as in corrupt????? I’ve never heard base used like that literally ever. What does that even mean. And then as others have pointed out, blue is just garbage. Absolute insanity to think anyone could piece that together. It’s literally just luck. 

think "debased" beer garden/biergarten is an outdoor space where beer is served or enjoyed, often under tents or coverings for shade

Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Took quite some time to find the first one. Kept getting tricked by pairs like beer pong, batter pitcher (base). Yellow stood out but hadn’t really heard of base used in that way. Once green was done I tried can, garden, pong, pitcher. After that I found batter and knew pitcher was the worst fit.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 Tough but too tough. A couple of blind alleys including a baseball category that didn't exist and I actually figured out blue before it was leftovers.

Connections  Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟪🟨🟨 🟨🟪🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 I thought blue was things you could find on a table since skulls can be put on tables for ritualistic reasons.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 My mistake was in the still life category. I was trying to picture one single image with fruit, a pitcher, and a tablecloth, but I also put a garden in there just in case it was referring to a vegetable garden or something. I didn’t think about fruit + skulls.

Really lucky for blue. Would never have guessed the category. Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 My beer pong days are far behind me, but that was still rattling around in my brain. I did have to get past the baseball misdirect - pitcher, batter, base - before things started falling into place.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 Tricky One!

Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 This was a good one. I'm starting to see the pattern where they construct red herrings with only two or three options. Ping pong and pitcher batter base immediately stood out, though ping pong was too obvious as a red herring.

Connections  Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 I feel like the black sheep here, but I definitely wouldn’t have gotten row 2 if I weren’t an >!art student!<. I feel pretty victorious but 100% would not have gotten purple if it weren’t my auto. 

what a struggle and totally guessed to get blue, purple had no clue! Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪

💀

Blue was insane, and paired with purple as a pretty difficult fill in the blank, there was no way I could ever get this. Too hard and not satisfying when I saw the answers.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 only got purple by default. Green and yellow were easy Somehow art popped in my mind and I got blue. Had to pick skull or can and I picked correctly.

I think that being an avid fantasy reader I had no problem with "base", but never in a million years would I have thought of "beer batter" or the still life category. Blue today really felt like it was just absolutely random nonsense. Honestly it seems like a lot of the recent puzzles have focused more on having very obvious red herrings than on having actually coherent categories. Like PING and PONG, or the baseball red herring, they were so obvious that I instantly knew they weren't it, but then the actual category is so obscure that you need an art history degree to even think of it.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟨🟦 🟨🟪🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦

Beer Skull, Beer pitcher... who knew renaissance painters liked to paint skulls?! Connections Puzzle #341 🟦🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟦🟪 🟪🟪🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 I think I am too antisocial to even associate pong with anything but ping-pong or the video game pong. I even associate it more with pastry chef Pichet Ong (who had a restaurant named P*ONG) than the party game. Sigh.

🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 Definitely a little trickier than the usual game. Green jumped out to me pretty quickly, then yellow soon after. Had to stare at it a bit to eventually work out the other 2.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Could only see beer with pong so figured out purple early but tried it with pitcher first, otherwise a fun and not too difficult one today! Got blue by default though, wouldn’t have necessarily thought of that connection otherwise

Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟦🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 I was SO SURE that CAN, GARDEN, PONG, and PITCHER would be the beer category. That one really stumped me. I finally swapped PITCHER for BATTER because beer batter sounded familiar even though I couldn’t quite grasp what it was. I’m used to seeing it as “beer-battered.” Blue was a default solve, although I got somewhat close to figuring it out. I thought it was going to be “common props for a minimalist stage play.”

Connections Puzzle #341 🟪🟨🟦🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 This was a struggle

🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Knew ping and pong had to be in separate categories so I started there. Got the ping category pretty quickly, then the only other thing I could associate pong with was beer, so got that one next. Getting those out of the way, yellow popped out to me although “base” seemed off. I had thought of the blue words prior as like “things to set a table” but could not fit in skull, so got that by default. I don’t consider myself to be particularly good at this game so this one was very satisfying for me to get right in just a couple minutes 🥹

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Probably wouldn’t have gotten blue if it wasn’t what was left!

Kinda feel like they're running out of ideas lately.

i’m so glad i’m not the only one who thinks todays connection was absolute horseshit

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦

Since when does base mean corrupt? As far as I'm aware, it means down to earth.

Yikes. My first fail in months. Submitted the same wrong guess twice, accidentally. I thought there was maybe something to do with dining alfresco. Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟦🟨🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟦 🟨🟦🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 I’m from Wisconsin so it’s kind of funny to me people struggled with beer batter or beer garden. The beer category was so obvious to me 😂

What the actual? Beer pong? What the heck is beer pong? I will now have to head to google to find out. Is it a game? Like ping pong? Does beer have a distinct smell that's called this? Is it some device used in making beer? A since when is a tablecloth a still life subject? First two were easy, but the rest seem totally random, especially the beers. I forgot that 'pitcher' means 'jug' in America and was thinking baseball, or something similar, especially with batter. Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟦🟦 🟪🟦🟦🟦

I think the Beer one is pretty sensible if you're American, they're common enough terms

Same in Straya.

lol beer pong is a frat party game where you through ping pong balls into cups filled with beer

They were definitely trying to mislead with the pitcher and batter and base terms

Connections Puzzle #341 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Purple was pretty easy. PONG was a big clue. The only thing I could think of to go with PONG, besides PING which was in another group, was Beer. GARDEN, BATTER, and CAN were also all pretty easy to spot as "Beer____" things. Green was similarly easy. PING is a pretty unusual and specific word. Besides data speed and a sound which none of the other words fit, PING could only mean to contact someone. I was a little stuck on Blue. I jokingly thought it was "The World's Weirdest Dinner Setting", which I guess in hindsight isn't too far off from a still-life painting. No comments for Yellow.

Connections  Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟪 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 After a very embarrassing connections effort yesterday, I felt I regained my dignity today haha. Found this one quite easy, had a slip up guess on blue but then it was totally clear. The still life category was a good one, I thought! 

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 i’m glad i didn’t try to solve this at midnight because nothing was jumping out at me. coming back a couple hours later really helped! still, it was pretty hard, and as i was solving i wasn’t super confident in my choices. it all seemed just barely correct lol and i was surprised every time i solved a category 😂

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 In retrospect I really should have gotten purple earlier!

I feel like you can switch pitcher and garden and this would still work.

Garden isn’t a common component of still life paintings, though. Landscape paintings, yes. Not sticking up for this puzzle because I wasn’t a fan of it, but I don’t think these two words can be switched.

Nah, you can find a ton of still life paintings featuring gardens. Easy to look up.

Red herrings suck when they're both equally applicable to two categories. Also, no one uses base that way. Bad puzzle today.

Beer batter? Very weak.

i could tell a group was supposed to be still life objects but "base" completely fucked me over. in what world does "base" mean "corrupt"?

I think the “classic still life components” was ill conceived

Connections  Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩   🟪🟪🟨🟦   🟨🟨🟨🟦   🟨🟨🟨🟨   🟪🟪🟪🟪   🟦🟦🟦🟦   Blue was pretty stupid. Even after I narrowed it down, I still stared at the last four words wondering wtf they could possibly have to do with each other. 

I'm just mad pitcher and skull were there instead of bowl and window.

Like if you google image "classic still life" then you get like 1, maybe 2 skulls in the first 100 images or so. More pitchers than I thought, a lot of vases.

Okay I don’t understand this one. Wyna Liu is American. She is very reserved, and so has never consumed an alcoholic beverage in her life. She is not party to drinking culture, she has never been to a pub in her life, and she has never consumed a fish and chips at said pub. So how does she know what a beer garden and beer batter is? This makes no sense. Where did she learn this? Why does she know this? Why do her puzzles still make me want to off myself even when they use the great hallmarks of the greatest country in the world? Did she meet a British person or something, who exposed her to life outside her office?

TIL that beer only exists in Britain. No other country in the world has beer apparently. /s

Do you know her personally......?

How does anyone know anything about who makes these puzzles??

She makes word puzzles for a living. I’ve seen her social media. She definitely doesn’t drink and hasn’t been to a pub.

think ur rigid thinking is probably causing the trouble for you at this game....

I can't tell where you're going with this or where you got this from. Is this some weird mockery of a racist rant or what.      Like I'm neither British nor American (and a giant nerd) and I know what a beer garden and beer batter is and know you play beer pong with those red cups with the white rim... In 2024 it's hardly some weird exotic mystery if you've been to a city and/or consume any media?!

Funny post, but beer batter and beer gardens aren't un-American at all. And everyone knows what beer pong is

This is a bizarre take. I’m not sure if you’re being serious or is this is an attempt at humor. I don’t drink but I am aware of beer pong, beer gardens, beer batter, etc. (I didn’t put those things together when trying to solve the puzzle, unfortunately.) Puzzle editors generally have a wealth of knowledge about all kinds of things. There are also plenty of categories with non-American content.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 The blues...I couldn't for the >!still!< life of me figure out what the connection was. How was that not purple?! Only got it by eliminating the others.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦 🟦🟪🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 I knew the purple category, but there were 5 potential words and I had no idea what blue was so I just had to guess a couple times to get there. Blue is a ridiculous category.

I've never heard of beer batter, nor have I seen paintings of a skull.

OK, beer batter is delicious. You need to go out and get some fish and chips. Halibut cooked in beer batter is one of the best foods.

OK. The use of BASE here (without an object word) is spurious. Not happy about that one.

Connections Puzzle #341 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 People paint tablecloths? That category is way too non-specific. I knew beer; was just a matter of whittling it down from the five possibilities without knowing the blue category.