I would've aced today's Mini Crossword if not for 1 Down. That was something I had never heard of before, and I tried a varietion on it as just a guess, then had to backtrack when

The NYT Mini is a quick and dirty version of the newspaper's larger and long-running crossword. Most days, there are between three and five clues in each direction on a five by five grid, but the puzzles are sometimes larger, especially on Saturdays.