In case you missed Tuesday’s NYT Mini Crossword puzzle, you can find the answers here:
Wednesday is actually Odin’s day. Odin being the sort of trickster god he is—not quite Loki, but still a trickster—he’s hidden his name in our week and most people don’t even know it. Thor is less subtle. His day is almost as obvious as the Sun’s. In any case, it’s Wednesday and I’m still traveling and now we need to solve today’s Mini Crossword.
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.
One good tactic with crossword puzzles is to try to get as many ACROSS as possible first and then you’ll find a lot of the DOWN are already done—or vice versa if the ones ACROSS are trickier.
While some of today’s words are pretty simple, some might have you stumped. You’ll find the answers below. Spoilers ahead, obviously. Skip ahead for the image of today’s solved puzzle.
One thing I’d note for today’s Mini is pay attention to the numbers. Is the clue plural? If so, so should your answer. Lines, signs, all these things demand more than one.
ACROSS
1 — Tool for swabbing the deck — MOP
4 — Doorbell’s sound — CHIME
6 — Vertical lines on graphs, in math — YAXES
7 — Crept around in a weaselly way — SLUNK
8 — ____-turvy — TOPSY
DOWN
1 — Bungled situation — MIXUP
2 — Signs of things to come — OMENS
3 — Bothersome — PESKY
4 — Skin bump — CYST
5 — Angel hair topper? — HALO
Sometimes I think too much about a crossword clue. Vertical lines on a graph are obviously Y-Axis (or axes in this case) but I think there must be some other word I’m not aware of and that throws me for a loop. I had SNUCK instead of SLUNK for a bit on 7 Across. It’s easy to make these small mistakes and that has a ripple effect on your entire puzzle. Still, overall this wasn’t too pesky of a Mini. 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!
