How today's NYT Connections answers and red herrings fit together.

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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 via my author page.

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to my deeper dive into today’s Connections answers. The idea behind this is to help clear things up for anyone who isn’t sure how today’s groups fit together.

If I’ve missed any red herrings or misunderstood something, let me know via email or on Discord. I don’t typically look at X or check the comments here.

I’m going to assume that you’ve already beaten today’s game. We’re going straight into spoiler territory here. So, consider this your one and only warning.

Here are today’s NYT Connections answers explained (and any red herrings I spot) for Monday, May 11:

Today’s NYT Connections Answers Explained

Connections – Yellow Group

🟨 move stealthily, with "in" (CREEP, SLIP, SNEAK, STEAL)

The category title takes care of things here, I think.

Connections – Green Group

🟩 kinds of schemes (COLOR, PONZI, PYRAMID, RHYME)

A COLOR scheme is a selection of colors that’s used to create a particular look. A design of a room and a film will have its own distinct color scheme, for instance.

A PONZI scheme and PYRAMID scheme are both types of scam, and they’re not too dissimilar. As far as a PONZI scheme goes, that involves organizers using funds from new investors to pay existing ones.

A PYRAMID scheme involves participants recruiting other individuals to take part in a program, usually for a fee. The people they rope in are then pushed to find new participants of their own, and so on. It will inevitably fall apart:

A RHYME scheme is the pattern of rhymes in a song or poem. In a limerick, for instance, the rhyme scheme is AABBA, in which the “A” lines all rhyme with each other, as do the “B” lines:

Connections – Blue Group

🟦 detective movies (CHINATOWN, KNIVES OUT, SEVEN, VERTIGO)

CHINATOWN only won one of the 11 Academy Awards for which it was nominated (Best Original Screenplay). It was up against stiff competition in the Best Picture category in the form of The Towering Inferno, Lenny, The Conversation and the winner, The Godfather Part II:

I love KNIVES OUT so much. It’s an absolute blast. So too is the sequel, but I’ve yet to watch the third installment, Wake Up Dead Man. I should fix that post haste:

SEVEN is arguably one of the best films of the ‘90s. It’s a dark, smart thriller with an unforgettable ending:

I haven’t seen VERTIGO. For shame, I know. I really ought to watch it:

Connections – Purple Group

🟪 body parts surrounded by two letters (ELEGY, KARMA, KEYED, SHANDY)

These refer to:

• ELEGY > leg
• KARMA > arm
• KEYED > eye
• SHANDY > hand

Connections – Red Herrings

I didn’t spot any red herrings today. Let me know if you did!

If you’d like to chat about today’s game of Connections and just about anything else with me and a very lovely group of people, you can do just that in our Discord community. We’d love for you to hang out with us.

I’ll be back with another set of NYT Connections hints and answers tomorrow, 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.