NYT Connections, Pips, Mini Crossword, and Strands | April 21, 2026

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hello. Let's play a bunch of New York Times games. But first, we reveal our dad joke and this day in history.

[00:00:07]So, for Tuesday, April 21st, the difference between a numerator and denominator is a short line. Only a fraction of people will understand this.

[00:00:20]Hopefully, everyone who watches me. All right, that's more like a I don't know.

[00:00:27]Is that really a dad joke? Anyway, what do you think happened on April 21st, 1918?

[00:00:36]April 21st, 1918. Germany's Red Baron is killed in action. On April 21st, 1918, in the skies over France, Manfred Alrech Frier von Richtoen, the renowned German flying ace known as the Red Baron, was killed at age 25 by Allied fire. Flying very near to the ground, Rtophin was in pursuit of a Canadian aircraft flown by Wilfred May.

[00:01:03]A Canadian flyer named Roy Brown, who was on his way to assist May, has largely been given credit for the kill.

[00:01:08]It has also been suggested that bullets fired from the trenches by Austral by Australian gunners brought the Red Baron down, his plane crashing in a field. At a time when 20 air victories ensured a pilot legendary status, Raphen had downed 80 emni aircraft in confirmed kills. The British buried him in France with full military honors. His remains were later exumed and re-eried in his family cemetery in Vboden, Germany.

[00:01:38]All right.

[00:01:40]Well, I'd like to thank the following members who started a new month. Thank you to Ellen Prince, Jessica Flores, and Lorna Atwood.

[00:01:48]All right. Well, let's start with connections. We're finding four groups of four.

[00:01:52]We've got octopus, breeze, thunder, messenger, moon, saddle, bull, waltz, bunk, gold, hobo, mosy, bge, crossbody, stroll, and baloney. Bologoney spelled this way. H bologn and bunk and bull. Just something that's something that's not uh uh not correct. Someone's lying. Uh, what's the other one?

[00:02:25]I'm not I'm not seeing the other one.

[00:02:29]Thinking build like billagege water, right? Would that would that could that mean could that mean that? I'm not sure. But the these are synonyms. They're fairly clear. I'm wearing purple today. So, we're going to circle that and assume this is a category. I'm not going to put BGE in it with in with it yet, but I suspect it might be BGE.

[00:02:51]Uh, Mosy and Waltz feel like I don't know like Mosy and Stroll. Yeah, like we're we're walk just take take a take a stroll.

[00:03:01]Take a walk. Take a take a mossy walts down the street. Just like a nice movement. I don't know. A nice walk. Uh maybe breeze. I'm not sure. Let's mark this green.

[00:03:16]We're going to try for reverse rainbow today, but I think that's going to be green.

[00:03:21]Now, purple and blue are going to be harder. Plus, we need to find out what the fourth is. Both of these, I'm thinking maybe breeze for green, maybe build for yellow.

[00:03:30]Um, hobo is like a homeless person, right? A hobo, but I feel like they nothing else really means that. So, I feel like we're using the letters for purple, but I wonder what we'd be using it for.

[00:03:46]Not much to do. I can't think of a fill in the blank that would use hobo.

[00:03:53]All right, I'm going to I'm not going to think about that longer because I'm not sure. Octopus.

[00:04:01]Octopus's garden.

[00:04:05]Um, saddle.

[00:04:11]The cidle is to walk, but saddle, no.

[00:04:14]Isn't cidle to walk? I don't know.

[00:04:16]That's what my brain's telling me.

[00:04:18]Crossbody. What are we doing with crossbody?

[00:04:25]Crossbody.

[00:04:30]Maybe. Maybe some kind of harness like a saddle. Like a cross body like or a purse. Maybe maybe they are purses.

[00:04:39]A saddle purse. a cross body purse. A me or or like a satchel like a messenger satchel that sounds maybe like it could be blue.

[00:04:50]Just like types of carrying things.

[00:04:53]Again, I don't have a fourth, but if I can figure out purple, that would help.

[00:04:58]I don't know if a hobo is that octopus isn't. Moon isn't. And I don't think they're any of these.

[00:05:06]So, we can think about octopus and moon and thunder.

[00:05:11]Actually, I don't think gold is that either.

[00:05:14]Um, so what would this be? I'm thinking this is purple.

[00:05:18]Thunder, moon, octopus, and gold.

[00:05:22]I'm thinking build with yellow. I'm thinking breeze with green and hobo with blue.

[00:05:31]But what is this?

[00:05:34]Thunder, Moon, and Gold.

[00:05:40]Maybe it is a fill in the blank.

[00:05:43]I've been struggling with these fill in the blanks recently.

[00:05:48]Moon.

[00:05:55]Sailor Moon.

[00:05:58]I can't think of a fill in the blank with Octopus other than Octopus's Garden, the Beatles song. But I don't think the rest of these are Beatles songs.

[00:06:07]There's Moon River.

[00:06:13]I'm not sure, but you know what? I'm going to try it.

[00:06:18]All right, that was per one. Oh, James Bond movie titles. I almost said Goldfinger, but yeah, I'm not that familiar with Well, there there's Octopusy, isn't there?

[00:06:31]I don't know if I know these other ones.

[00:06:34]All right. Anyway, so I'm going to put the bags as blue.

[00:06:39]Nice bags. And then we'll put um Mosy, Stroll, Breeze, and Waltz is like walking slowly.

[00:06:48]Amble. Oh, darn. That was yellow. There really wasn't a good way to know whether which was yellow and green.

[00:06:57]All right. Um, I mean, these were verbs and these were adjectives. So, I don't know. I don't think we can really use that in this case to be sure.

[00:07:10]Although, some will tell me adjectives are always the green. So, I don't know.

[00:07:13]They were right this time.

[00:07:15]Okay. Um, really not too hard today.

[00:07:18]Even not knowing purple.

[00:07:20]I don't know. Is it hard to think of the bags?

[00:07:24]if you don't know the bags and yeah, I mean, blue, purple could definitely be a struggle today for if if there's just a knowledge gap there.

[00:07:32]Okay, so this gives away a bag with a bike. Okay, they gave it a 1.5. They're been thinking they they've been easy recently. 71%. Okay, that's not terrible.

[00:07:43]One and 169.

[00:07:47]So, I'm definitely not the only one who thought that would be the reverse rainbow.

[00:07:51]Um, yeah, even purple's at 7%. But people are mostly getting yellow, so it makes sense that it's yellow, I suppose.

[00:08:01]Very I mean very even here.

[00:08:04]Okay, so people are losing got either nothing or only yellow. We got 8% getting yellow green, which is actually the most common. 3% got yellow blue, which is interesting.

[00:08:15]Uh, putting moon in with so not knowing what the other bag is, not knowing the hobo bag. So, putting moon in there, gold in there, octopus in there. So, like we know it's bags, but what's the other one?

[00:08:26]Um, and then putting moon in with with the uh amble category.

[00:08:32]Blink up, saddle up, walts up, move.

[00:08:33]Okay. Yeah, this is again just trying to find the other way of um so I think that maybe thinking of cidle like you cidle up to someone. I want to look up cidle.

[00:08:42]Yes. No.

[00:08:45]idle.

[00:08:48]Walk in a quiet, casual, or slightly sneaky manner. There we go. So, yeah, that that's a little bit of a red herring. If you think saddle and cidle are the same word, or you think h isn't there a word like that? All right. Um, yellow first, blue first, green first, purple first before any mistakes, then saddle with yellow, moon with yellow, and build with blue. A buildback.

[00:09:11]Probably just not knowing what buildge is.

[00:09:14]All right, cool. Well, how'd you do? Hello. Let's do pips for Tuesday, April 21st. We'll do the easy, medium, then hard. Let's play.

[00:09:24]Um, these are all zeros. So, that's a double zero. And then 05 would make sense here. This has to be, let's see, 06 56.

[00:09:35]And then I suppose we got to make this add to nine. All right, there we go.

[00:09:41]Easy earns its name again. Let's do the medium.

[00:09:45]Okay. So, I think probably drawing this out will help us with placement.

[00:09:55]So, I need a one. I got a lot of one.

[00:09:57]Well, do I have a lot of ones? I have a one six and a one zero. Well, it's not going to be the one zero. So, it's got to be the one six.

[00:10:04]And this is our 66. Now, a less than two could be one of our zeros or this. Now, what's my smallest double? Oh, sorry.

[00:10:14]Smallest um not double. You know what?

[00:10:17]Eight and four is probably all twos. So, let's just assume that for a second here and see if that works because it's so oftenly true. There we go. Just finished finish based on that assumption. Um there might have been a more mathematical way to figure that out or maybe not. Let's do the hard.

[00:10:38]All right. Let's draw out what we can here. Um 12 and two. We do have a 66.

[00:10:46]Do we have a 15? No, we have a 2 three.

[00:10:50]Sorry. Do we have something that adds a six? Sorry. Do we have something that adds a six? Um I don't think so.

[00:10:58]Okay, so we got to do this, which I was going to suspect anyway.

[00:11:07]Big not equal cage with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So, this has one of each. So, anything we h think we have an extra of, we actually don't would be one way to put that. Um, oftentimes doubles end up in Let's see. Actually, this this has to go down. So, that goes down. That goes up.

[00:11:27]This is actually all forced. Okay.

[00:11:30]Oftentimes doubles end up in there like this. This is just really common because that's kind of how they get rid of the other one. So, let's try that.

[00:11:38]Um 10 is probably five and five. So we can use the double here.

[00:11:46]So for the nine, we could do a 54 with this. I'm trying to vibe it first to see if that just finishes the puzzle because it feels like it kind of is. Um so if that's five, these add to seven, which we have. And then we can do this.

[00:12:02]Um I'm thinking like this.

[00:12:09]Hey, look at that. Just vibed through it. I don't know. I didn't have a whole lot of logic to what I was doing there, but it had to do with probably these like the 10 was probably 55 with that. I mean, so the assumptions were that from the four and from the six that went into the not equal, we wanted a double. And then we wanted as many doubles in as we could. So the five five the one one and then from this five the four made sense for the nine and we just kind of went around. So I don't know whatever made sense actually solved it this time thankfully. All right. Well, how'd you do? Hello. Let's do the mini and midi crosswords for Tuesday April 21st. Let's play like the name Phil quickly for a speedy crossword apt.

[00:12:56]What connects these names? Al Green, Betty White, Rose Burn. Um, color star blank plant with a pointy pod. I don't know what connects these names.

[00:13:09]Tennessee Williams estate probably uh Teslas and Rivians for short car. Well, EVs. It's got to be plural. Assumed name alias. Washington papers. The Post. What connects these names? Chris Pine. These are all trees. Detective's assignment is a case currently broadcasted on TV.

[00:13:32]Oh, it's the star Annis. Annis. Annis.

[00:13:35]And Annie. Anyway, let's move on to the MIDI.

[00:13:39]The odd couple.

[00:13:42]All right.

[00:13:43]Lumines.

[00:13:46]That's to be light lit up. A lit maybe.

[00:13:50]Uh lumines is to emit. Maybe it's emit.

[00:13:54]Let's check the downs. Food informally.

[00:13:58]Uh, usually that's grub.

[00:14:01]Usually, let's look at these other downs, though. Crazy.

[00:14:07]Capital of Norway. Oslo.

[00:14:12]I'm double. I think it's Oslo. Uh, lacking courage. Let's see what would this be. Lumines glow. Okay, that works.

[00:14:21]uh hoped for item at the end of the bachelor arose the Bruins of NCAA UC UCLA Bruins odds figure okay this is part of our theme we'll wait on that crazy is loco lacking courage weary something weary about that doesn't fit let's keep going here but headon like a headbutt. Um, failed to include omit Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Bahad's figure. Um, family collectively your yin, I think.

[00:15:09]Could be kin, but oddsided figure.

[00:15:16]Something used daily by 60% of Copenhagen's commuters. The highest rate of any major city in the world. A bike.

[00:15:24]Local for a karaoke night or trivia night? A bar.

[00:15:29]Hey, that's pretty good news, huh?

[00:15:33]Vegetable used in bindi masala.

[00:15:36]I don't know.

[00:15:39]Right. Done. Finished. Complete. One of 13 in the base of the Great Pyramid.

[00:15:47]Don't know. Notradam.

[00:15:50]Enjoy a book. Read lowquality AI generated content familiarly. AI not trash. AI uh uh slop.

[00:16:03]Um lacking courage. Weary.

[00:16:07]I don't know. Jupiter and Mars but not Earth.

[00:16:13]Roman gods.

[00:16:16]Run blank. Go wild. run a muck. One might have silver linings. The uh what has the silver lining?

[00:16:26]Can't remember. Figure on the Hollywood Walk of Fame or the shape of the figure on the sidewalk. Star, butts, heads, rams.

[00:16:37]I might have silver linings. The uh odds figure bore. What the heck's going on here? Mama mia.

[00:16:49]Bore maker.

[00:16:52]Oh, mines have silver linings. Okay. Um, hey, that's pretty good news.

[00:16:59]Vegetable shape of a rugby ball. Oval captain in technically ovals are two-dimensional, but anyway. Captain in 20,000 leagues on the sea. That's Captain Nemo.

[00:17:13]Um, workout unit a rep. So, this done is over.

[00:17:20]All right. Oddsighted figure.

[00:17:24]I mean, yeah. Uh, he uh I don't know.

[00:17:32]It's not triangle. It's not pentagon.

[00:17:37]It's not. And we got some kind of theme here, too.

[00:17:41]I don't understand. Boore maker odds figure.

[00:17:48]Guess this doesn't have to be weary because I'm confused here. Lacking.

[00:17:54]It also doesn't have to be yin. So is this a book maker? This is a book maker.

[00:17:59]Weak. Uh, what's our um the odd couple book maker?

[00:18:15]I don't really understand what our theme is here. One of 13 in the base of the Great Pyramid.

[00:18:27]You'd think it would be Oh, no. It's not plural because it's one of 13.

[00:18:32]How am I going to finish this book maker oddsided figure could be nonagon?

[00:19:00]Hey, that's pretty good news. Nice.

[00:19:03]Is this acre 13 acres of the great pyramid? Okra weak weak need. So it was kin. Okay.

[00:19:16]Uh what's our theme?

[00:19:19]Bookmaker nonagon.

[00:19:23]I don't know. Anyway, how' you do? Let's do strands. Today's theme is risky business. So, like gambling, crime, I don't know. Risky business. Uh, we've got route here for some reason.

[00:19:38]Nope.

[00:19:40]Routes, roots, routes, router, routers. None of those. We have run. We have rune. Runed.

[00:19:55]What's this V doing?

[00:19:58]I don't know. AV maybe.

[00:20:01]Um, hey Dave, how you doing? Um, guys, buildings. Um, should I start with a hint? I've got plenty for a hint.

[00:20:20]Code.

[00:20:23]Coder.

[00:20:26]Coders.

[00:20:30]risky business, casino, gambling, poker, stock market, investment.

[00:20:44]Let's grab a hint. Bold.

[00:20:47]So, it's just synonyms like the adjective synonyms for uh bold like brave.

[00:20:59]Am I going to come up with any of these?

[00:21:00]Slain.

[00:21:03]Uh, gutsy maybe instead of guys. Okay.

[00:21:14]This guy's really slead. Say that all the time. Very slead.

[00:21:19]Um, got to think of more words. Bold, gutsy.

[00:21:30]Um, brave isn't here, which is weird.

[00:21:34]There's not another B as far as I can find.

[00:21:38]Uh, Daredevil maybe like I Okay. Devils. Dare. Maybe it's Daredevils. Yeah, there it is.

[00:21:51]Daredevils.

[00:21:58]Um, suat.

[00:22:12]I need to know if that's one or two words. Probably two. Courage.

[00:22:17]Courageous interest. No, hold on. Curious.

[00:22:27]Wait.

[00:22:35]Uh, I don't know how to spell courageous, I guess.

[00:22:39]What's the other word?

[00:22:49]Maybe it's not with the eye. Oh, okay.

[00:22:53]Dieting. Um, pretty pretty.

[00:23:00]What's going on here?

[00:23:07]Is it two word? Wait, we have two words left. So, this is all one word. I thought it would be two adventurous.

[00:23:16]And what is this last word?

[00:23:23]Tinripid.

[00:23:25]Intrepid.

[00:23:28]There it is. Okay. Like an intrepid explorer.

[00:23:32]Okay. I struggle with that a little bit.

[00:23:35]How'd you do? Hello. Today's bonus game is Weaver. We need to get from bribe to crime. changing only one letter at a time. When I say changing only one letter in the same spot.

[00:23:46]So I can't like switch the e B and the E or like mix up the letters. All I can do is change one letter and it has to be a valid word as we go. We got to get from bribe to crime. Now it's probably not change this B and then change this B and then be done. Um like we could go to brine. And I don't know how helpful that is, but probably we're going to have to switch away from the R and the I and the E or at least some of them and then come back. But we'll see. Um, let's see what what do I want to do. If I went to brine, then I could do um think about how to change the first letter now.

[00:24:38]So, I can't think of another R ne. I thought there'd be another one.

[00:24:49]Um, I can't think of another one. So, we we'll come up with something else. I don't think bright is going to be accepted. No, that's not that's how you spell bright. But, um, what else would I change here?

[00:25:08]If I could get to brome like that's great because then I could just do brome chrome.

[00:25:16]Well chrome is chr, isn't it? So maybe not.

[00:25:24]Rine is bro a word? No probe isn't a word. Right. I got to think a little bit clearer here. Can I change anything other than the bees?

[00:25:35]I can't think of any way to change bribe other than to brine.

[00:25:42]Bride. I could do bride and then we could do pride and then prime and then crime. Okay, that actually wasn't. It literally was just change only the non-greens. Okay, so I guess today was just easy.

[00:25:58]Yeah, I I it just took me too long to think of bride for some reason. All right. Well, how'd you do? All right.

[00:26:04]Let's spin the bonus game wheel and see what tomorrow's bonus game will be.

[00:26:10]It is Libby Gail's suggestion of ridges from the Washington Post. So, if you're following along, we will be playing that tomorrow. And as always, there's a link in the description. And how'd you do?

[00:26:23]And that is it for this video. Hope you enjoyed it. If you want to watch Wordle, you can click at the end of the video.

[00:26:28]It'll take you right there. I also have a pinned comment with all the games I played today. And if you enjoyed this, why not leave a like, subscribe, and a kind comment below.