FOURSURE
September 18, 2026 Puzzle Breakdown
Four groups, four words each — here's the connections between today's words.
How everyone did today
Musicians with Biopics released after 2016
Bob Dylan, Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Elvis Presley
Hollywood has been on quite the musical drama tear lately, which made this the easiest group to spot today. Freddie Mercury got Bohemian Rhapsody, Elton John inspired Rocketman, Elvis Presley had Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, and Bob Dylan rounded things out with A Complete Unknown. If you have spent any time near a movie theater since 2018, these larger-than-life subjects were likely hard to miss.
U.S. Presidents of the 60s, 70s, and 80s
Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Regan
A straightforward stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue makes up the second group of the day. Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan held the Oval Office in unbroken succession from the late sixties through the late eighties. If you kept your twentieth-century American history straight, grouping these commanders-in-chief should not have caused much gridlock.
Presidents with universities named after them
George Washington, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman
You might have been tempted to group these four simply as US presidents and call it a day, but the tricky penultimate category demanded a bit of higher education. Beyond holding the highest office in the country, George Washington, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, and Harry Truman all lent their names to colleges or universities. From GWU and JMU to Lincoln Memorial and Truman State, these commander-in-chiefs also happen to be campus namesakes.
Famous Saxaphone Players
Bill Clinton, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins
Three of these names belong on the Mount Rushmore of jazz, while the fourth famously played his instrument on late-night television in sunglasses before heading to the White House. Bill Clinton joins Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins as well-known saxophone players, anchoring the hardest group of the day. If you hesitated wondering whether a former US president really belonged beside jazz royalty, that pause was entirely by design.
Why these four groups
The engine of this board is political misdirection, anchored by nine commander-in-chief names that immediately muddy the waters. Bill Clinton is the linchpin trap, baiting players into forming an oversized presidential bloc alongside Richard Nixon and Abraham Lincoln instead of sending him to the jazz club with John Coltrane. The difficulty curve holds because the pop culture category is essentially airtight, as Freddie Mercury and Elvis Presley anchor the modern biopic angle with zero historical crossover. Sorting the remaining statesmen requires surgical precision, peeling off the timeline-bound cohort before recognizing George Washington and his academic peers, ultimately forcing players to notice Clinton’s musical chops.