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Botanical bristles / SAT 9-13-25 / Found darling / Italian pianist who composed the scores for "Nomadland" and "The Father" / Octet on a chessboard / DNA compound whose name includes the letters D, N and A / Sort of habitat in a bottle garden / Petunia's partner, in cartoons / Rolled chip brand from Mexico / The solution referred to in Sherlock Holmes's "seven-percent solution"
Saturday, September 13, 2025
Constructor: Alex Jiang
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium (Easy, but for one very disruptive obscure answer)
Word of the Day: LUDOVICO EINAUDI (16A: Italian pianist who composed the scores for "Nomadland" and "The Father") —
Ludovico Maria Enrico Einaudi OMRI (Italian: [ludoˈviːko eiˈnaudi] ⓘ; born 23 November 1955) is an Italian pianist and composer. Trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, Einaudi began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as pop, rock, folk, and world music.Einaudi has composed the scores for a number of films and television productions, including This Is England, The Intouchables, I'm Still Here, the TV miniseries Doctor Zhivago, and Acquario (1996), for which he won the Grolla d'oro. His music was used as the score for the Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning films Nomadland and The Father.
He has also released a number of solo albums for piano and other instruments, notably I Giorni in 2001, Nightbook in 2009, and In a Time Lapse in 2013. On 1 March 2019, Einaudi announced a seven-part project named Seven Days Walking, which was released over the course of seven months in 2019. (wikipedia)
• • •
Anyway, in a certain corner of the music-listening world LUDOVICO EINAUDI is very popular. But even though I am really quite adjacent to that world, nope, no way, no idea. Nothing about the clue, nothing ... well, nothing was going to help me with his name. 15 random letters. Total chaos. I have no idea how well known he is, but I would be willing to bet that I am not the only solver to be completely flummoxed by his name today. For me, he was certainly the most obscure thing in the grid by far. And because of that, and the fact that I have no idea what a "bottle garden" is (17A: Sort of habitat in a bottle garden = CLOSED ECOSYSTEM), the top section of this puzzle was ... an adventure. Even ACADEMIC PROGRAM gave me trouble (1A: Student's plan). I'm the most terminally on-campus person you'll ever meet (35+ years straight on college and university campuses), and yet I got ACADEMIC and then ... nothing. It's such a dull phrase, it didn't even occur to me. ACADEMIC RECORD, ACADEMIC PROGRESS ... my brain just couldn't find the handle on PROGRAM, which means all three long answers up top were ??? for a bit. Here was the (otherwise promising) start of my solve:
From there on out, things got easy. Very easy. Comically easy. I slid down that rightmost diagonal section like wheeeeeeee...
Seriously, never saw a single clue. Once I brought those answers down the west side, I basically had the front ends of every long answer, and based solely on letter patterns, I wrote in each one of those long answers. No clues needed. I think you could have done it too if you'd been presented with PLU-TUCK-------, and ASL-OSEA-------, and WEL-ITSN-------. There's really nothing else that any of those answers could be than what they are. Still, I don't think I've ever no-looked every answer in a triple stack. Insane. I felt immortal. Which is the opposite of how I felt up top. So, if nothing else, this puzzle took me on a ride from one solving extreme ("wtf!?") to the other ("I am a solving god!"). I can't say that aspect of the puzzle wasn't a little fun. And, difficulty level aside, I really do think that bottom stack is good. Way way way better than the top stack.
Didn't love having both A-OKAY and A-ONE in the grid. Also, I nearly threw my laptop across the room when, after struggling so much with LUDOVICO EINAUDI, I got handed a former Australian PM (!?!?!!). But actually, with a few crosses, I remembered his name, so my fears were unwarranted. Not much else to say about this one. The bottom section was finished in a flash, so none of the answers made much of an impression. You always remember the struggles more than the successes... or maybe that's just my particular brain type. That wouldn't surprise me.
Miscellaneous:
- 17A: Sort of habitat in a bottle garden (CLOSED ECOSYSTEM) — literally just a garden in a bottle, it turns out: "A bottle garden is a type of closed terrarium in which plants are grown. They usually consist of a glass bottle or carboy with a narrow neck and a small opening. Plants are grown inside the bottle with little or no exposure to the outside environment and can be contained indefinitely inside the bottle if properly illuminated" (wikipedia).
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| [Why, though?] |
- 34A: Petunia's partner, in cartoons (PORKY) — they're pigs, but you probably knew that. I don't really remember Petunia cartoons. I was aware of her existence, but she seems like a late add. Wikipedia tells me she actually appeared quite early (1937), but she "made only a handful of appearances in Warner Bros. cartoons." Nonetheless, she did appear frequently in their merchandising, particularly their comic books.
- 3D: Found darling (ADORED) — very confusing clue. I was reading "Found" adjectivally, and wanted the equivalent of "adopted puppy" or "rescue cat," i.e. a "darling" who has been "found" (by you)
- 39A: Botanical bristles (AWNS) — most days, crosswordese annoys me. But there are times when I'm grateful for the gimme, and today, after that experience up top, was one of those times. Crosswordese to the rescue!
- 28D: Octet on a chessboard (RANKS) — ah, chess terminology. My, let's say, favorite. I assume RANKS are just the rows. I know a chessboard is 8x8. [...Looks it up...]. Yes, horizontal rows. You could just say "rows," you know.
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20 comments:
Easy-Medium to Medium for OFL ... except for the ways it's not
Easy. Very easy for a Saturday.
Overwrites:
ELvIN before ELGIN at 22D
honDA before MAZDA at 31A
PApaya before PAWPAW at 34D
Only the one WOE:
LUDOVICO EINAUDI at 16A. Never heard of him, didn't even know where to put the space between the first and last names. He was the reason I was surprised to get the happy music.
The term "rank" in chess comes from warfare. Reminds me of one of the greatest lyrics in rock-music history, from "Us and Them" by Pink Floyd:
"Forward!" he cried from the rear, and the front rank died
And the generals sat, and the lines on the map moved from side to side.
Had the total opposite experience as OFL with this one (did it last night). 22 minutes, so probably "Medium" for me for a saturday. I was able to struggle and fill in the top and start working down the diagonals without too much trouble. Then I was able to get the bottom 3 grid spanners without too much trouble. But TAKIS, TURNBULL, AWNS, PORKY (as clued) were all WOEs for me. So that SW section just above "WEB" was not easy. pAwnS before RANKS (as was intended, I'm sure) tripped me up for a while too. Wound up running the alphabet for the Australian PM (?Burnbull? Cornbull?) before I finally got to T and got the happy music. Anyway, it was a fun puzzle, especially enjoyed the clue on DANCES, the LAGER/PORTER cross, the PLUM in PLUMTUCKEREDOUT. Fun, fresh puzzle! Thanks, Alex!
I didn't and don't know LUDOVICO EINAUDI, never heard of him until today. Same with ELGIN Baylor. But the crosses on both were fair enough that neither stopped me. But they pissed me off. Mostly LUDOVICOEINAUDI, which was just a bunch of letters, mostly vowels.
Agree with @Rex about the bottom stack, and the bottom of the grid definitely played easier for me than the top. And still my time was under my Saturday average, although it felt more medium than easy for me. I do like the shape of the grid, for whatever that's worth.
Totally agree with OFL today. Fairly easy except for the Natick of Ludovico (on which, I must admit, I cheated with IMDB ... I know, my bad!). The only other snafu was PAWNS for the chessboard octet. Loved PLUM TUCKERED OUT. Haven't heard that one for years.
Well done, Alex Jiang! Well done.
Other than having to back into LUDOVICO’s entire name - this was fairly straightforward and fun. The tri-stacks are daunting at first glance - but they fall quickly and open up all that short stuff in the middle. The bottom three spanners are outstanding.
I Am Loved
TAKIS is showing up quite often lately - must be fee based. Liked MIMOSA, BE GOOD and the LAGER - PORTER pair. Had a delicious masala DOSA for lunch on Thursday.
Saviour Machine
Enjoyable Saturday morning solve. Pair this with Lester Ruff’s Stumper today and you get a solid workout.
I Wanna Be ADORED
I still don’t quite understand the clue for ADORED; can someone please explain why “found “?
Another hand up for never having heard of what’s-his-name. Saw Nomadland but don’t remember anything about the music, and the other stuff he did is a stack of WOEs for me.
My solve was a bit different from Rex’s. I found no traction in the NW, got the downs in the NE, had no idea what sort of PROGRAM that student had or who the heck EINAUDI might turn out to be, but it was not too hard to just continue downward. Filled in the bottom, with some hesitation around the cross of a junk food brand not sold in my region and a sportball player I never heard of, then finally finished up the NE with my old buddy LUDOVICO. All that and yet more than three minutes below my Saturday average, so not bad, not bad.
agreed. Medium. NW and SW were tough
PPOJ (Paolo Pasco On Jeopardy) report – day 3.
Sporting a bow tie and his engaging smile, Crosslandia behemoth Paolo handily won his third Jeopardy match yesterday, leading and building that lead throughout, thanks to his wide range of knowledge. His secret weapon may be quickness in his buzzer technique, but time will tell.
In “I Lost On Jeopardy” (1984), Weird Al’s listing of the Jeopardy prizes was “a twenty-volume set of the Encyclopedia International, a case of Turtle Wax, and a year's supply of Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat”.
In contrast, Pasco’s winnings to date -- $79,741. Go Paolo!
Oh, that bottom stack! Look at those three answers! PLUM TUCKERED OUT, well, therein lies beauty, idiosyncratic beauty that makes me proud of our language. AS LOOSE AS A GOOSE, so playful that it’s perfect even if geese aren’t always at eese (as it were), and WELL ITS NO WONDER, gorgeous and classy.
Then on top, the composer/pianist with the sing-song beauteous vowel-rich name, who I had never heard of, and whose fill-in gave my brain the Saturday workout it craves, passed the Tussle Test – mwah! Not to mention CLOSED ECOSYSTEM, a lovely term I’ve come across, but not often, and how nice for it to stop by for a visit.
All this encased in an elegant grid design never before seen in the Times puzzle, and despite its low word count and meager black square count – it’s cleanly filled!
A proper Saturday, with color, fight, and delight. Amazing and exciting that it’s a debut, and more please, Alex. Please. Thank you for a sterling and splendid outing!
Nice.
I assumed ranks referred to the number of types of pieces (kings, queens, knights, etc.), although now I see there's only 6.
Had more trouble with the bottom than the top, despite not ever hearing of this musician. AOKAY really threw me off, since it's usually AOK, and thought it might be FLAT TUCKERED OUT. Had to google to get TURNBULL and sort it all out.
The star of the show for me was PLUMTUCKEREDOUT. That gave me the bottom stack after some work. Didn't like WELLITSNOWONDER, especially the WELL.
I measure the difficulty of a crossword by the number of mystery clue/entrys it has. Nine today, low-average for a Saturday.
Needed cheats to get the RUTABAGA/LUDOVICOEINAUDI cross. My main error was assuming Bruce Wayne was an actor who had played Batman, which if true would have left Lynda (Carter) as the equivalent Wonder Woman actress. Movie/TV fantasies aren't my specialty, obviously.
Never seen or heard composer's name before. I had zero idea if I had it right till I hit the button. But it solved quick. So I guess easy.
Hey All !
Well, my RANKS were RooKS, giving me ToKIS for TAKIS, and the HUoAN Province for HUNAN. I knew something was askance with HUOAN, but ROOKS seemed too right to change. Ah me, Finished With Errors (FWE).
LUDOwhozzit was unknown, but all the crossers worked, so wasn't really a problem.
Wanted vOL for MOL (volume) for 46D, still unsure what MOL is short for.
SE/SCenter/SW had a few writeovers, mOdelo-PORTER, BEhave-BEGOOD, slanT-JOUST, sAtAN(!)-JAPAN, PApaya-PAWPAW.
Nice grid that took some brain working to get, no lookups for me, although I did have those errors. Getting the X and Z early had me looking for the Pangram, but no Q's, and of all things, no F's! Seriously? Poor F 's.
Hope y'all have a great Saturday!
No F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
A very mixed section to this one. The top stack was kinda technical and dry with an indecipherable component in the center, while the bottom stack was relatively easy to get and pure fun. Had to Google some names in this one but didn’t mind the brain exercise. Got hung up with honDA for a while but the crosses led to MAZDA.
Well, LUDOVICO EINAUDI was the easiest answer for me today. I took one look at the clue - no way I’m going to parse together every cross and hope for something that looks like it could possibly be somebody’s name, so a quick 10 second consultation with Mr. Google and problem solved (the only difficulty was remembering the spelling while I keyed it in). That, fortunately opened up that entire section and I was able to discern the other two grid spanners up north.
Similar to Rex (and I suspect many, if not most of us), I found a much more pleasant environment as I worked my way downstairs.
The clue answer combination for OKRAS looked pretty sad (and forced) with them both being plural - I don’t fully grasp the POC concept, but if ever there was a time to just add another black square and leave it at EVE and OKRA, that was it.
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