In case you missed Tuesday’s NYT mini crossword, you can find the answers here:
Wednesday is approaching and with it, more puzzles and riddles and other obstacles to overcome. Most of these obstacles are somewhat dire: We have to work and make money to be able to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. We must have fun with the existential horror that is not created. We must attend to the needs of others and balance them with our own, and so on and so forth. But the NYT Mini Crossword is a lower-stakes obstacle course, and that’s definitely—as the kids say—my jam.
Mini is a smaller, faster, more digestible, bite-sized version of the larger and more challenging NYT crossword, and unlike its bigger sibling, it’s free to play without a subscription to The New York Times. You can play it on the web or in the app, though you’ll need the app to deal with the file.
A few tips for the die-hards in case you don’t just want the answers right away:
- 1 Opposite — Don’t gush. It’s the last one. . .
Seriously, that clue alone should get you there.
While some of today’s words are quite simple, some may confuse you. You will find the answers below. Obviously, spoilers. Go ahead for today’s solved puzzle image.
ACROSS
1. The edge of a cup, essentially — STRAW
6. Considered both percussion and strings — PIANO
7. Knight Attire — ARMOR
8. More Than Just Want — Needs
9. Circus Safety Feature — NET
BELOW
1. Bridge length — SPAN
2. Item “level” or “spare” — RUBBER
3. Noodles eaten with pork chashu — RAMEN
4. One end of a battery — ANODE
5. Superlative appeared on a Razzie Award — OVERBEAR
I admit I was massively thrown off by 1 Across, which I thought was going to be “SPOUT” because a cup has a spout, not even a straw. The creator of this Mini Crossword has gone over the SPAN of the bridge with this one. Some infant and toddler cups have straws, but the cups have spouts. They’re not doing‘t nouns they have straws. They have mouths. Period.
I was so taken aback by this that I was completely turned off by the rest of the puzzle, because the first letter of every word is the same. So I got SPOUT then PIANO then Armor then NEEDS and then I got stuck because none of the DOWN words made any sense. When I finally changed SPOUT to STRAW, that’s when I got TIRE and RAMEN and ANODE and WORST. Difficult puzzle. Very hard.
How did you do in today’s Mini Crossword? Inform me Twitter and Facebook.
If you also play Wordle, I write guides for that too. You can find these and all my TV guides, reviews and more here on my blog. Thanks for reading!