What do Clark, Chen, Craven, and Cowl have in common? Thousands of people on November 22, 2023, stared at their screens struggling to find an answer. The connection between them was shockingly simple: the letter “C” plus the name of a bird.Or was it, really? “Connections” is the name of the game, and CHS students scramble daily to solve it.
“Connections” is one of New York Times’ popular brain teasers where a set of 16 words are given to the player. The player must sort out the words into four categories to win the game, with each category arranged by color in terms of difficulty. Although the premise is simple, the New York Times game makers concoct tricky categories meant to stump players.
This popular purple puzzle has proliferated throughout CHS as quickly as every other NYT game so far. Some students discovered the game through TikTok, while others simply saw something new in the games section and let curiosity lead the way. Junior Griffin Sandridge explained that he stumbled upon “Connections” when he went to the NYT Games section to play the “Mini Crossword.”
“I enjoy categorizing things,” Sandridge said. “It’s a fun way to think about things and not stay bored.”
Many students enjoy playing “Connections” to learn new vocabulary words and kill time during class. Junior Jordyn Batz shared that her most memorable “Connections” moment was on April 1, when the game was loaded with a grid of 16 different emojis.
“You just really got to think outside of the box,” Batz said. “There’ll be like three different meanings of a word that fit into three different categories.”
“Connections” has led to many connections around campus, as this challenging matching game unites students across CHS.
