Global Panic Over Pastel Squares: How a NYT Word Puzzle Became the World’s Most Viral Political Rorschach Test
The New York Times’ Connections puzzle for September 26, 2024, has become—against all logic and proportion—the most widely discussed diplomatic code since the Zimmermann Telegram. From Lagos to Lima, commuters who once read stock-market tickers now trade screenshots of pastel-colored squares like they’re negotiating carbon credits. Somewhere an underpaid translator in Geneva is explaining to…