We’re rapidly approaching the end of the work week. Huzzah! Another lovely summer weekend awaits. I’m looking forward to the coming week because rain is in the forecast. Lovely, wet, cool, glorious rain! It’s been too hot and too dry and too dusty and there was smoke in the air for a couple of days, which sets off my wildfire heckles.
Of course, that’s neither here nor there. We have a Mini Crossword to solve, so let’s get our thinking caps on!
Looking for yesterday’s NYT Mini Crossword? Check out our hints and answers right here.
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!
How To Solve Today’s Mini Crossword
Hints and Clues
We’ll start with some extra clues:
Across:
1A. Frequently asked q’s
5A. We invaded.
6A. Creator Mike White
8A. Electronic correspondence
9A. Late to class
Down:
1D. Steak
2D. Smell
3D. Near the other Q country
4D. Like an octopus
7D. Cunning, more like
Before we get to the answers, here’s the first letter for each word in today’s Mini.
Across
1A. F
5A. I
6A. L
8A. E
9A. T
Down
1D. F
2D. A
3D. Q
4D. S
7D. U
Okay, onto the answers! Remember, spoilers ahead!
Across:
1A. Common queries, informally — FAQS
5A. Only four-letter country with a “Q” in its name — IRAQ
6A. TV’s “The White ___” — LOTUS
8A. Something you might “Mark as read” — EMAIL
9A. Late — TARDY
Down:
1D. ___ mignon — FILET
2D. Burnt toast has a strong one — AROMA
3D. Only five-letter country with a “Q” in its name — QATAR
4D. Likely inspiration for the mythical kraken — SQUID
7D. Sneaky — SLY
I wasn’t sure about the first couple ACROSS words right away but I knew LOTUS (The White Lotus is a great show, even if Season 3 was kind of weak) and EMAIL was pretty obvious, to the point I wondered if it was too obvious. I moved to DOWN at this point, plugging in SLY and then FILET, AROMA and QATAR (which I thought of before IRAQ, go figure). This basically filled in everything except 1 ACROSS which I got once I plugged in SQUID. This one took me 49 seconds.
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!
