For Friday, May 15, Forbes published the latest Connections Hint column for NYT Connections puzzle No. 1,069, with the day’s game going live at midnight local time. The clues led players through a board that mixed surnames of NBA players and actors with words that only made sense once they were grouped the right way.
The puzzle words included JORDAN, WADE, BIRD, CURRY, JAMES, PITT, ELBA, FORD, TRAVERSE, CROSS, SAW and WAS. FORD pointed to the yellow category, while TRAVERSE and CROSS helped reveal a group meaning to bypass a gap; WADE showed that the group was specifically about river crossings. ELBA was an anagram of ABLE, and SAW was an anagram of WAS. The blue category was tied to a particular palindrome, and the purple category matched a grouping seen very recently.
The mix of names and wordplay is part of why the puzzle still lands each morning. The column also folded in some non-puzzle talk, including the Montreal Canadiens’ playoff run and the Montreal Victoire reaching the Walter Cup Finals for the first time. The author noted that the Victoire’s trip to the Finals came with tickets that were actually reasonably priced, especially compared with the cheapest ticket for the Habs’ playoff run, which was around $700 CAD.
That broader sports note gives the column its extra bite: the same audience tracking a tough playoff market also got a reminder that women’s hockey’s biggest stage can still be accessible. The author also said they had previously missed watching the Montreal Victoire through their playoff run, a detail that turns the roundup from a simple answer key into a snapshot of what the writer had been following between puzzles.
For readers who keep up with the column day to day, the pattern is familiar. Weekend editions are available on the author’s Pastimes newsletter, and earlier installments such as the May 12 hints for puzzle No. 1,065, the May 13-style update for puzzle No. 1,066, and the earlier No. 1,065 breakdown all fit the same quick-hit format: a fresh board, a few hard clues, and the answers once the categories click. Friday’s edition did exactly what these posts are built to do — give solvers enough to finish the grid, then leave them with the feeling that they should have seen it sooner.
