""”

Thanks for joining us. I’m sorry my team couldn’t explain more on the chopper before you got here. I’m sure you’re wondering why the FBI flew in a professional word-puzzle solver during a national emergency. It’s because we need your help. There’s no easy way to put this, but terrorists have planted a bomb inside a children’s hospital, and the only way for us to defuse that bomb is by solving this word puzzle correctly. If we fail, thousands of innocent children will die.

We brought you in because you’ve got PhDs in linguistics, creative writing, and logic from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. They say you’re the best at New York Times connections puzzles. For the sake of us all, I hope they’re right. You seem cool as a cucumber. Good. We needed someone who could keep their wits about them under pressure.

This puzzle is just like a New York Times connections puzzle. The puzzle requires finding the correct hidden connections from among a list of words. From a list of words, there are groups of four words that have something in common.

Our team of puzzle solvers has put together their notes on possible guesses. We need a fresh set of eyes on these options.

Step One: Look over those notes and consider the strength of each guess. 

For each guess, write down how well the guess conforms to the following features of strong guesses:

- As this is a New York Times puzzle, the connection between the four words is trickier than simple connections like “5-letter word,” “Name,” or “Verb” that could apply to many groups of words. The connections should be unique to this particular group of words.
- The connection fits each of the four words equally well. Look out for one word that doesn’t quite fit!
- The connection applies with the same level of specificity for each of the four words.
- Each of the four words has the same relationship to the connection. Look out for whether one word functions as a different part of speech than the other words as this often indicates a weak guess.

Step Two: Determine which guess is strongest and select that one to submit.

Notes on possible guesses:

{notes}

Let’s think this through step by step. Share every thought that comes to mind. At the end, write down your top choice for a guess to submit. Good luck, godspeed, and God bless America. We’re all counting on you.

"""