Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #438 from August 22, dropping down three places from yesterday's answer, the Connections companion rated this puzzle 28 out of 5 for difficulty

We update our Connections hints and tips daily And if the hints aren't enough, you can see all four answers along with the category title and related words In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I've included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle 437

There are spoilers for connection #438 Only read this if you want to know the answer to today's connection

Alternatively, 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 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: Think of a classic prank and remember the printed newspaper

Now, what's the answer to today's game #438, Connections?

Drum roll, please

This week, if the difficulty is 3, I'll solve all of them If the difficulty is 2, I'll just have to stare blankly at the screen This week I'm a little

To be fair to myself, I was in a hurry and very distracted by a 5 year old with way too many questions for the time of day

I managed to get the first green category with decks, floors, levels, and stories It was so boring that I thought it was going to be yellow

I took two strikes trying to wake up orbs with the globe, sun, moon and egg 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 stiff

Anyway, I hope Friday is a 3

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty was 34 out of 5

Today's “hard” puzzle was a nice reset after slogging through yesterday's supposedly easy puzzle

I got things going by first finding the purple category with fizz, punch, slings, and sours I thought of gin-based cocktails These four work well with gin, but can be made with other liquors as well

Yellow was next complete with CAKE, COAT, PLASTER, and SMEAR Nothing special to say

The air trap got me because I put balloon, float, basketball, and bubble together and got a strike It was easy to put a tire instead

I live a relatively chart-free life, but the bars, lines, and circles made sense I don't think I had ever consciously looked at a bubble chart or even knew it was called that I'm always happy to learn something new