Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Alex Jiang

Constructor: Alex Jiang

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium (Easy, but for one very disruptive obscure answer)

THEME: none

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)

• • •

Well, that's one way to gain difficulty, I guess. Can't say it's my favorite way. I am almost certain I've seen the name LUDOVICO EINAUDI before, when I've been on the Apple Classical app—I know there's some modern Italian pianist whose name I've seen near the top of the "Top 100" or "Popular Today" list, one of those names I ignore as I search for Schumann or Schubert or Ravel or Chopin etc. I think he plays the type of piano music that people like to use for calming mood music. "Contemplative" is the word Apple uses. It's very background-y. Very ... film score, actually. Kinda like George Winston to my ears (I'm listening right now), though Winston got categorized as "New Age" and I don't know that anyone would call Einaudi that.

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:

Front ends of all the long Acrosses, that's gotta be good, right? Ha ha ha, wrong. From here I was able to get precisely nothing. I had to go creeping, Down by Down, across the top, hoping for help. Luckily, RISES ONYX GAS all went in fairly easily, so I was able to get a toehold, and that "X" from ONYX was super helpful, as it got me APEX, which confirmed ... well, it confirmed COUPLE, which was not, in fact, right (9D: You and me both! = PEOPLE), but once I was able to work COCAINE in there, COUPLE went to PEOPLE and I was good to go (8D: The solution referred to in Sherlock Holmes's "seven-percent solution"). Eventually managed to escape the top section, but only after I'd worked it down to a single square: LUDOVICO EINAU-I crossing A-ENINE. This is the one and only time I have been grateful that a clue told me outright what letters were inside it. Usually I find that stuff too hand-holdy, but today, man I was glad to have confirmation for that "D" (14D: DNA compound whose name includes the letters D, N and A = ADENINE). It's probably the letter I would've guessed, but I would Not have liked merely guessing.

From there on out, things got easy. Very easy. Comically easy. I slid down that rightmost diagonal section like wheeeeeeee...

... forming the equivalent of a giant "?" with my filled-in letters—a fitting symbol for my response to LUDOVICO EINAUDI ("?"). The leftmost diagonal section went down almost as easily, and then ... world upside-down. Which is to say, my experience with the bottom section couldn't have been more different from my experience with the top. Opposite sides of the grid, opposite experiences. Literally, polar opposites. While I struggled with every single one of the three long answers up top, down below, I no-looked Every Single One of the long answers down below.

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).

[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.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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