The Mini Crossword: Friday, January 9, 2026
Pixar movie whose title robot’s name is an acronym: five letters.
A bite-size puzzle.
January 9, 2026
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Mollie Cowger is an associate puzzles-and-games editor at The New Yorker. Her crosswords have appeared in USA Today and other outlets.
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Video
[
Virtual Togetherness Through Partner Crosswords
](https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/virtual-togetherness-through-partner-crosswords)
Social dynamics of the crossworld, a crossword meet-cute, and other ways to puzzle with friends while social distancing.
Crossword
[
The Crossword: Wednesday, January 7, 2026
](https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2026/01/07)
Martial-arts icon who starred in “Enter the Dragon”: eight letters.
The Writer’s Voice
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Sadia Shepard Reads “Kim’s Game”
](https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/sadia-shepard-reads-kims-game#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_4fad824f-68e3-4177-99f3-61594ccdc2c9_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
The author reads her story from the January 19, 2026, issue of the magazine.
The Food Scene
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Flynn McGarry’s Artful, Ambitious Next Act
](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-food-scene/cove-flynn-mcgarrys-artful-ambitious-next-act#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_4fad824f-68e3-4177-99f3-61594ccdc2c9_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
With Cove, his fourth restaurant, in Hudson Square, the twenty-seven-year-old wunderkind chef cooks with a new expansiveness.
This Week in Fiction
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Sadia Shepard on Loss, Faith, and the Web Between Stories
](https://www.newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/sadia-shepard-1-19-26#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_4fad824f-68e3-4177-99f3-61594ccdc2c9_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
The author discusses her story “Kim’s Game.”
Takes
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Patrick Radden Keefe on Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”
](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/takes/patrick-radden-keefe-on-truman-capotes-in-cold-blood#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_4fad824f-68e3-4177-99f3-61594ccdc2c9_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
Capote’s journalistic transgressions were serious, but there is no denying the awesome influence of his work.
Shuffalo
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Shuffalo: Sunday, January 11, 2026
](https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/shuffalo/2026/01/11#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_4fad824f-68e3-4177-99f3-61594ccdc2c9_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
Can you make a longer word with each new letter?
Fiction
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“Kim’s Game”
](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/19/kims-game-fiction-sadia-shepard#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_4fad824f-68e3-4177-99f3-61594ccdc2c9_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
She didn’t much care for him or his video camera. But then, she’s never much cared for anthropologists.
The Sporting Scene
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Aaron Rodgers, Football’s Rorschach Quarterback
](https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/aaron-rodgers-footballs-rorschach-quarterback#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_4fad824f-68e3-4177-99f3-61594ccdc2c9_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
The Pittsburgh Steelers gambled on the forty-two-year-old, one of the N.F.L.’s most polarizing players, to try to end their playoff disappointments. Will it pay off?
Letter from Copenhagen
[
Denmark Is Sick of Being Bullied by Trump
](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/19/denmark-is-sick-of-being-bullied-by-trump#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_4fad824f-68e3-4177-99f3-61594ccdc2c9_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
The U.S., once Denmark’s closest ally, is threatening to steal Greenland and attacking the country’s wind-power industry. Is this a permanent breakup?
Q. & A.
[
What Makes the Iranian Protests Different This Time
](https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/what-makes-the-iranian-protests-different-this-time#intcid=_the-new-yorker-article-bottom-recirc_4fad824f-68e3-4177-99f3-61594ccdc2c9_roberta-similarity1_fallback_cral-top2-2)
Unrest has spread across the Islamic Republic as it faces economic disaster at home and a profound weakening of its network of regional allies.