Mr. Ayas is a good host, and he’s doing his best to honor that drink order. In fact, he’s trying so hard that he has removed the word “ice” from all of the theme entries in his puzzle. There are also no words in the surrounding fill that contain the letter string I-C-E, which is an elegant constructing touch.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for! A bite-sized version of the New York Times’ well-known crossword puzzle, The Mini is a quick and easy way to test ...

Time for a new Mini, though this time things have expanded beyond the usual 5x5 square for a larger puzzle. But first… 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 ...

The NYT Mini Crossword is a smaller version of the full crossword puzzle, typically featuring a 5x5 grid, although the grid size can vary slightly. Unlike the full crossword, which may take an hour or more to solve,