Logic game with matchsticks / FRI 10-25-19 / Eponym of cathedral in Red Square / Object of some fantasy quests / What Scarlett saved

Constructor: John Guzzetta

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (I had just been napping, it's true, but I think this was a wavelength problem) (7-something)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: LEITMOTI...V? (10D: Recurrent musical theme) —

A leitmotif [YAY!] or leitmotiv /ˌlaɪtmoʊˈtiːf/ is a "short, constantly recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of idée fixe or motto-theme. The spelling leitmotif is an anglicization of the German Leitmotiv (IPA: [ˈlaɪtmoˌtiːf]), literally meaning "leading motif", or "guiding motif". A musical motif has been defined as a "short musical idea ... melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic, or all three", a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity. (wikipedia)

I'm often not quite my solving self when I try to take on a puzzle just after waking up, and waking up from a nap is generally worse, solving-wise, than waking up after a night's sleep, and waking up from a weird, unplanned, nearly 3-hour nap on the couch with Hallmark Christmas promos running non-stop on the TV ... apparently worse still. Nothing about this puzzle resonated. The NW felt like torture. GULP? Am I being sent to the principal's office in a comic book!? L-BOMB?! (3D: Something that might be "dropped" prematurely in a relationship, in slang) This is truly, horribly bad, in that it's an attempt to be hip and current but it's forced and terrible. I've never heard this stupid term in my life. My. Life. If you call "love" the L-BOMB, wow, I don't know what to tell you. There's the F-BOMB and then everything else can gtfo. Could not see PAC. Really couldn't see UNHIT. Zero idea about ST. BASIL (23A: Eponym of a cathedral in Red Square). No idea why a Chem major would take the MCAT any more than an English major would—all kinds of people go to med school, and "Chem" hardly seems like a classic pre-med major. Don't think of ON BALANCE as being "After" anything (13A: After weighing both sides). Clues on PLATEAU (20A: Reach a point of diminishing returns) and WHO CAN SAY? (17A: Question suggesting "Beats me!") felt very hard. My god, why wasn't the clue just ["Beats me!"]!? It's perfect just like that. Truly a wreck up there. NE not that hard, SW easy, but more issues in the SE with the horrible STABLED (??) (54A: Sheltered, as stock) (which I'm only just now realizing refers to farm stock and not Wall Street stock) and the to-me unrecognizable clue on WRIT LARGE (59A: Painfully obvious). I use the phrase a lot, but never in the sense of "Painfully obvious." Why "painful?" Using that phrase suggests that someone's trying to hide something, or disputing the actuality of something. WRIT LARGE is a neutral term. I just don't get the cluing voice. This has been true more and more and more with the NYT. This is an editing issue.


Felt like DRAGON EGG should be in the possessive (32D: Object of some fantasy quests). It's a dragon's egg. Dragon's egg. I keep saying it to hear how it sounds, and it's dragon's egg. [Weeks off] is a wicked clue for BYES as I read it as [Happening a few weeks from now]. Gah! My chilly person was super-fancy, wearing a STOLE instead of a SCARF. Absolutely undone by the "V" at the end of LEITMOTIV. Never ever reconsidered the "F," and then the cross, "WHAT GIVES?," wouldn't come into view and thus was no help (42A: "Seriously?"). Had EATS UP before LAPS UP—or, rather, considered LAPS UP, thought "EATS UP has more common letters, go with that" .... and then ended up back at LAPS UP (14D: Greedily consumes). The grid overall isn't great, but I've seen much worse. I'd be happy never to see NIM again (19A: Logic game with matchsticks), but there wasn't much else that made me want to shut down. Not a lot of GLITZ, but smooth enough. Not sparkly or lively enough for a NYT Friday (which are often my favorite puzzles of the week). As with sooooo many NYT grids of late, the fill is passable. Adequate. Fair. I feel like software has largely minimized if not eliminated the truly low-end grid, but software can't make good choices for you—can't give you good taste, or an eye for good fill let alone an ear for good cluing. So the bottom has been raised, but mediocrity is more abundant than ever. Which ... I guess is improvement, but with so few puzzles on the high end, so few puzzles making you go "dang, nice!," it's hard to be happy with this "improvement."

Explainers:

• TARA is a "Gone With the Wind" reference (36A: What Scarlett saved) (Scarlett O'Hara)
• TOM is from the cartoon "TOM& Jerry" (5A: Cartoon cat)
• SALEM is a city in both Oregon and Massachusetts (8A: City name in both East and West Coast states)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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