Today’s Mini Crossword plays pretty fair—most clues land quickly—but there’s one spot where you may want to pause and let the letters catch up. If you got stuck around 6-Down, you’re in good company. Below are targeted hints, then the full set of answers.
Hints (with light spoilers)
Across
1-Across points to the type of long-distance feat Ross Edgley became known for: a grueling swim length measured in miles. That first letter should feel familiar once you think “endurance water challenge.”
5-Across is the fuzzy fruit with a green-brown exterior and a punchy interior—think of the everyday answer that also appears in lots of clue variations.
6-Across describes someone who defaults to worst-case interpretations, like they assume the “bad intention” first.
7-Across is the biology hint: a genus name you might see in animal lists, pluralized in a way that signals a common everyday plural.
8-Across suggests smooth teamwork—something that “meshes” when people coordinate.
Down
1-Down is a signature product name tied to the early era of video chat—an app title that many solvers recognize instantly.
2-Down is a geography-to-category clue: signature Napa Valley offerings, plural, in the simplest possible form.
3-Down is a dream-leaning phrase that starts with a confident “yeah,” followed by the concept of wishing. It’s short and lands as a common contraction-style pattern.
4-Down is a theater/movies rhythm clue: “Open ___ night” is a well-worn phrase where the blank is a single word.
6-Down is a Mac-themed wordplay clue. The answer is something you can “find on a Mac,” and it also happens to anagram into the letters that make up the word “MAC.” If you try possible anagrams, you’ll get the right noun quickly.
Connections isn’t the game today you’re solving, but if you’re doing this slate of NYT puzzles as a habit, you already know how much letter patterns matter across formats—Mini just compresses that habit into a faster, tighter solve. For puzzle solving help and spoilers across the broader day’s lineup, the best approach is the same: anchor on a confident category word, then let cross letters lock the rest in.
Answers
Mini Across
1A: SWIM
5A: KIWI
6A: CYNIC
7A: APES
8A: MESH
Mini Down
1D: SKYPE
2D: WINES
3D: IWISH
4D: MIC
6D: CAM
If you paused on 6-Down, that’s a great example of why anagram clues are less about “guessing randomly” and more about “testing letter truth.” Even when you don’t know the whole answer right away, the promised letter constraint turns the problem into a short list.
