Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #439 on August 23rd, which is down three places from yesterday's answer, the Connections companion rated this puzzle 36 out of 5 for difficulty

We update our Connections clues and hints daily And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four solutions along with the category title and related words In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle 438

Connection #439 contains a spoiler Only those who want to know the answer to today's connection should read it

Or see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections solution depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses

If you need a hint to help you solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

If you read these hints, you should at least find the answer to today's connection If not, please continue reading for larger hints Also, if you only want to know the answer, scroll down further

Here's a bigger clue: If you know burlesque, start there Then consider paint colors and displays Finish with language

So what is the answer to today's game #439 connection?

Drum roll please

This week my yo-yo is struggling on level 2 difficulty, but knocking it down on level 3

When I was younger, I had a number of performer friends who were into burlesque, so boas, corsets, fans, and gloves were easy as the first category Feathers are not lacking

From there, the yellow category was created with displays, monitors, screens, and terminals

I got stuck on the blue category because I had never heard of buff as a shade of beige I combined it with cream, fawn, and tan because none of the other words fit the color wheel

Trying to successfully connect the nails with finish, buff, tan, and basque was a mistake However, it did lead to seeing color

I had never seen a category for purple homonyms, but the last category collectively revealed them: bask (Basque), check (Czech), finish (Finnish), tie (Thai) and clever

Read this late in the day According to Connections Companion, the difficulty rating was 28 out of 5

This week, if the difficulty is 3, solve that puzzle If the difficulty is 2, I'm staring blankly at the screen Not my week

To be fair, I was in a hurry and very distracted by a five-year-old

I managed to get the first green category: deck, floor, level, story It was so boring that I thought it was going to be yellow

Tried to wake up orbs with globe, sun, moon and egg and took 2 strikes What should I do?

Somehow I accidentally hooked up the names of the newspapers with globe, mirror, post, and sun I don't know

I finally figured out the yellow category with projector, reel, screen, and speakers I thought today that speakers were “orators” and not audio equipment

Purple, although fun, was eggs, moons, streaks, and toilet paper to fill in the memorization I wish they had used TP instead of toilet paper Toilet paper as a verb sounds too formal

Anyway, I hope Friday is 3