In case you missed Thursday’s NYT Mini Crossword puzzle, you can find the answers here:
Here we are again—Friday! The weekend is almost here, and with it the apex of the crossword’s difficulty on Saturday. Theoretically at least, every day from Sunday on gets a bit trickier, so today’s Mini is ostensibly the second hardest of the week. We’ll see if that’s the case with today’s puzzle.
The NYT Mini is a smaller, quicker, more digestible, bite-sized version of the larger and more challenging NYT Crossword, and unlike its larger sibling, it’s free-to-play without a subscription to The New York Times. You can play it on the web or the app, though you’ll need the app to tackle the archive.
Spoilers ahead, obviously. Skip ahead for all the answers plus an image of today’s completed puzzle.
ACROSS
1 — See who can get there the fastest — RACE
5 — Comic actor Sandler —ADAM
6 — Acronym for a pro-housing movement — YIMBY
8 — Fencing sword — EPEE
9 — Org. that certifies foods as “Organic” — USDA
DOWN
1 — Beam of sunshine — RAY
2 — French goodbye — ADIEU
3 — Places where bug juice is served and color wars are waged — CAMPS
4 — Plant deep (within) — EMBED
7 — Opposite of nay — YEA
This was a lot easier than I expected. The words I wasn’t sure of I was able to fill in by simply filling in others. Tough ones included the “acronym for a pro-housing movement” which I couldn’t remember. YIMBY stands for “yes in my backyard” and is a direct reaction to NIMBY—the “not in my backyard” folks. I also couldn’t remember what a fencing sword was, and initially guessed FOIL though I was pretty sure that wasn’t right. The bug juice threw me for a moment, but I had ‘C’ and ‘A’ from RACE and ADAM and CAMPS flowed naturally from there. I finished today’s Mini Crossword in 1:21. How did you do? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
If you also play Wordle, I write guides about that as well. You can find those and all my TV guides, reviews and much more here on my blog. Thanks for reading!
