I'm looking for a connection today. The June376 Connect answer for puzzle #21 is slightly easier than yesterday's puzzle, and the Connect Companion has rated the difficulty of this puzzle at 3 out of 5.

Every day we update this article with connection tips and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. If the hint is not enough, you can find all the 4 answers below, with words that correlate with the title of the category. Additionally, it includes reflections on yesterday's puzzle, #375, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers are ahead for connection #376. Read only if you want to know the answer for today's connection.  

Also see How to Play NYT Connect Guide for tips on how to solve puzzles without our help.

Unlike our guide to Wordle answers today we recommend the best Wordle Start word as your strategy, solving the connection relies on identifying the category to connect between 16 words. The difficulty of each category is represented by color, yellow is the easiest grouping and purple is the most challenging. If you make 4 mistakes in your guess, the tips may help, as the answer will be revealed.

If you need tips for solving grouping, here are the themes for each based on the order of difficulty:

These tips should get at least some of the ways to find the answers connected today. Or scroll further down if you just want to know the answer.

Here's a bigger tip: Today's puzzle is to cheer up the little guy and have fun in the park while giving him the consent to move forward. Then it's all about loot.

So, what is today's connection answer in game #376.

Drum roll, please.

Friday got weird with a category title that felt like a full sentence.

I admit that the trick of including Rumpelstiltskin got me after knocking down an amusement park ride right away. I saw it and combo it with Cinderella and David and Goliath while looking for a fairy-tale connection. I did a strike on that thing to see when there was no obvious one.

That said, the leap from the underdog and rags to wealth and I saw stories coming from behind shortly afterwards.

The shortest category title was pretty simple from there. Everything was giving the go-ahead.

The purple category was purple. I don't think I'd ever made that connection naturally if it weren't for the last four available words. I get it, tail, ass, ass, bump. Bumps are not what I got, I think I've never heard someone describe the Gluteus maximus as bumps unless it's flatter than cardboard You learn new slang every day.

Read this later in the time zone. According to Connections Companion, Connections answers in game #3.5 where the difficulty rating was 5 out of 375:

After yesterday's refreshing end, Thursday will come and you will eat a little bit of humble pie, or at least I did. 

Soon, I had a yellow category with nails, screws, and nuts. My first guess was a strike because I had a bolt instead of a washing machine. This was the theme of the day.

Immediately after the green category stood out. Flies, hooks and sinkers were quickly discovered. Again, replaced with a rod instead of a line. Hit two out of four. I may have tried to keep the rod around longer than I should have, but usually something to swap jumps out quickly

When I got the dryer, the mirror and the sink I wasn't thinking about the hair salon. The only reason I tried the chair was because it didn't fit the other categories I was looking at. 

Getting blue makes purple a quick fill, and I was not surprised by the answers of bolts, bugs, sticks and strikes. I was looking for a golf related game, but I don't know why that connection is what I wanted. That said, I was very bothered by the rod. I continue to be annoyed by the rod.