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

Are you facing trouble in cracking the NYT Mini Crossword, January 2 version? Then, here’s some assistance for you in word-guessing and placements. As compared to the larger NYT crossword, this puzzle is simpler and easy to solve.

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.