In case you missed Thursday’s NYT Mini Crossword, you can find the answers here:

ForbesToday’s NYT Mini Crossword Clues and Solutions for Thursday December 12thFrom Erik Cain

It’s finally Friday and my last day writing NYT mini crossword puzzle clues. It’s been an incredible week, culminating with The Game Awards and some pretty awesome announcements on Thursday night. But enough of the introduction, let’s solve this puzzle!

The NYT Mini is a smaller, faster, more digestible and bite-sized version of the larger and more challenging NYT Crossword and, unlike its bigger brother, is free to play without the need for a New York Times subscription. You can play it on the web or in the app, although you need the app to edit the archive.

Answers to today’s mini crossword puzzle below. . . .

Spoilers ahead!

ABOVE

1 – Spread out like fingers – SPLAY

6 – Long cloud of smoke – PLUME

7 – Subway Payments – PRICES

8 – Kind of garden with a bonsai tree – ZEN

9 – “Could I ___…” – ADD

DOWN

1 – Rating of a Hawaiian Tropic bottle, in short: sun protection factor

2 – New York hotel from “Home Alone 2”, with “the” – PLAZA

3 – Baited – BAITED

4 – Change because the Constitution – AMEND

5 – Answer to approximately 3.6% of Harvard applicants for the Class of 2028 – YES

Not a particularly hard mini today, especially because the first few words were so easy that most of the more difficult later words were filled in by the time I got there. I wasn’t sure if SPLAY would be right, but it was. PLUME and FARES followed. I wanted to say KOI garden, but it was ZEN. As soon as this was filled, the remaining dominoes fell. This one cost me 1:10.

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If you also play Wordle, I also write instructions for it. You can find these and all of my TV guides, reviews and much more here on my blog. Thanks for reading!