NYT Connections April 27, 2025 #686 Hints & Answers

The modern electronic pocket calculator was first introduced in 1970 by a Japanese company called Busicom. Early calculators could cost hundreds of dollars (equivalent to thousands today) and only performed basic arithmetic. The first scientific calculator with trigonometric functions, the HP-35, was released in 1972 and revolutionized engineering and scientific fields by making complex calculations portable.

The term 'shock of hair' dates back to the early 17th century and was originally used to describe a resemblance to a sheaf of grain or straw (a 'shock' being an agricultural term for bundled stalks). This agricultural metaphor carried over to describe particularly noticeable, often upright bundles of hair, showing how language often borrows terminology from different domains to describe physical characteristics.

Goldfish crackers were originally created in Switzerland in 1958 by a man named Oscar J. Kambly, who designed them as a birthday present for his wife. The smiling face wasn't added to the Goldfish design until 1997, when the brand introduced the now-iconic 'Goldfish with personality.' Today, the Pepperidge Farm brand produces over 150 billion Goldfish crackers annually in the United States alone.

The Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show, despite being a beloved character supposedly representing Swedish culture, is actually considered somewhat controversial in Sweden itself. His gibberish language bears little resemblance to actual Swedish, and some Swedes find the character to be an odd caricature. The character was performed by Jim Henson himself, who created the Chef's distinctive speech pattern by improvising pseudo-Scandinavian-sounding gibberish rather than attempting authentic Swedish.