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Sort the sixteen terms into four categories. The four categories are joined by a common thread, with that being the solution. I think this one will play hard, so good luck!
PLAGIARIZE WREATHS TAKE THE ROPES ESKIMO KISSES
MAGNETIC FIELDS SKINNY DIP LILY PADS JOINT ROTATIONS
BASKIN ROBBINS STRIP CLUBS ELEVATOR CABLES ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
BARBER SHOPS REMOVE WRINKLES MINISKIRTS POLAND
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I think the four categories are:

Words containing "SKI"
- ESKIMO KISSES
- BASKIN ROBBINS
- SKINNY DIP
- MINISKIRTS

Things with POLES
- BARBER SHOPS
- STRIP CLUBS
- MAGNETIC FIELDS (north and south pole of a magnet)
- POLAND

Things related to LIFT
- PLAGIARIZE: plagiarized text is lifted from the original source
- REMOVE WRINKLES: accomplished by a facelift
- ELEVATOR CABLES: used to lift the cab (and the elevator itself is called a lift in some countries)
- JOINT ROTATIONS: movements used in lifting weights

Things that are GREEN
- LILY PADS
- ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
- WREATHS
- TAKE THE ROPES: seems a bit iffy, my best guess is that a newbie, who is "green", has to learn the ropes

The common connection is

Skiing: Ski (duh), ski lift, ski pole, and finally the color green used to denote beginner ski slopes

However, as Stiv noted in the comments this answer is probably incomplete:

Both POLE and SKI can be followed by synonyms for LEAP (pole vault and ski jump); given this was posted on February 29 aka leap day, that seems like it's probably the intended connection. If anyone can extend this idea to the other categories feel free to post it in a separate answer!

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  • $\begingroup$ I had these groups too - I was 100% confident on the first two but not the others because I found a thematic connection with the date of posting that I couldn't extend to them... We can have rot(Cbyr INHYG naq Fxv WHZC, juvpu ner flabalzf bs YRNC, eryrinag fvapr gur chmmyr vf cbfgrq ba 29 Sro - Yrnc Qnl. Ohg V pbhyqa'g guvax bs shegure flabalzf (ubc? obhaq?) gung zvtug sbyybj YVSG be TERRA...) Can you think of a way to rescue this idea - it seemed an excellent fit for the first two - or is this a dead end?? $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Mar 2 at 9:18
  • $\begingroup$ Very good. Stiv might have a point here. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Mar 2 at 16:59
  • $\begingroup$ @Stiv Ah yeah, that definitely seems promising. The third category could maybe be rot13(terra fcevat) but I'm not sure about the fourth $\endgroup$
    – Carmeister
    Commented Mar 2 at 17:55
  • $\begingroup$ (And now that I clicked M Oehm's link I see they already had the same idea, oops) $\endgroup$
    – Carmeister
    Commented Mar 2 at 18:03
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah. Too bad rot13(ubcyvsgvat) isn't a thing. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Mar 2 at 20:37

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