Form of algae also known as rockweed / SUN 12-31-23 / Crispy Japanese cutlet / Condo-organizing Kondo / Reality star Theresa of "Long Island Medium"

Theme answers:

• HERBIVORE (23A: Before midnight: Sloth, e.g.)
• POWER BROKER (25A: Before midnight: One with major influence)
• WATER BILLS (68A: Before midnight: Some household expenses)
• FOOT BATHS (62A: Before midnight: Devices with warm water and massaging rollers)
• GO BEYOND (87A: Before midnight: Surpass)

• HERBAL LOTIONS (36A: After midnight: Ointments infused with cottonwood or calendula, e.g.)
• POWER BALLADS (40A: After midnight: Journey's "Open Arms" and Guns N' Roses'"November Rain," e.g.)
• WATER BALLET (85: After midnight: Synchronized swimming)
• FOOTBALL GAME (77A: After midnight: Event for Cowboys or Broncos)
• GO BALLISTIC (109A: After midnight: Totally lose it)

Word of the Day: KATSU (124A: Japanese crispy cutlet) —

(n.) resuscitation of an unconscious judoka (merriam-webster.com)

JUDOKA (n.) — : one who participates in judo (merriam-webster.com)

This one felt pretty anticlimactic. Yesterday's lackluster confetti puzzle really did this puzzle a disservice. This is the much more substantial holiday theme. Yesterday, there were just 8 unchecked squares that spelled out CONFETTI, and then a weak revealer (PARTY) and then a bunch of individual black squares that "turned into" confetti when you finished the puzzle (assuming you solved in the app an not on paper). That puzzle was clearly New Year's Eve-themed, or trying to be, and CONFETTI was spelled out in giant circle or "ball" shape, that I speculated might (?) be an attempt to depict the ball that drops on NEW YEAR'S EVE in TIMES SQUARE. And now here we are, on the Actual Holiday, and you've got an Actual BALL DROP theme, but it all feels kind of belated. And no confetti. This one deserves confetti much Much more than yesterday's puzzle did. At least this one had an actual *theme* related to the ball dropping, and not just a post-solve pictorial element. Even so, even if you ignore the fact that yesterday's puzzle took some of the wind out of today's puzzle's sails, this one had some issues that kept it from landing perfectly. The main one was the theme cluing—seems like both "Before midnight" and "After midnight" clues should've originated from the same number, since both answers originate from the same place. Very weird / awkward to have the "After midnight" clue attached to the Across entry that is just the tail end of the "After midnight" answer, since the actual answer begins much earlier, before the BALL drops. So, yeah, weird to have the "After midnight" clues linked to "entries" like LISTIC and LGAME. Also, only one of these theme answer sets is truly perfect, in my mind: WATER BILLS / WATER BALLET—that is the only set where a. BALL is hidden inside the longer answer (that is, where it doesn't mean"ball," as it does in "Power Ball" or "Football")[UPDATE: oof, my mistake here, “Power Ball”is not part of either answer, just a trick my eye played on me]and b. the second Across part actually looks like a standalone (albeit unclued) word unrelated to the longer answer it's a part of (LOTIONS can stand alone, obviously, but it's the actual word in the "After midnight" answer, whereas the LET at the end of WATER BALLET looks like a standalone word but is totally unrelated to the longer answer of which it is a part). Nice, elegant execution of the theme on WATER BILLS / WATER BALLET. All the others just get by.

I do think the theme is both more ambitious and just generally better than yesterday's theme, and I think the "Before / After midnight" concept is pretty ingenious. The execution just felt a little clunky. And again, the Saturday premature NYE puzzle didn't do this puzzle any favors. Today's theme took me a little while to pick up because of the confusing way the thematic clues were numbered, as well as because SIN was sitting right underneath the theme answer whose clue was [Sloth, e.g.], and I was certain, *certain*, it was thematic—that somehow [Sloth, e.g.] with SIN right underneath it was part of the whole "It's Going Down" theme. Like ... if you look Down (one row), you can see a different meaning for the theme clue (!?). SIN would certainly make perfect sense for [Sloth, e.g.]. Anyway, red herring, and one that probably only I could see.

Seems like NIGHT (60A: "What hath ___ to do with sleep?": Milton) is a bad answer to have in a grid where your theme clues all have "night" in them. That was probably the hardest answer for me to get in the whole grid (and I teach Milton regularly—is that Paradise Lost quote*** famous? If so, it somehow eluded me).  Never heard of a BUG OUT BAG (39D: Evacuation survival pack). That reeks of overstuffed wordlist. The term is GO BAG. I'm not saying BUG OUT BAG doesn't exist, just that it seems far less common. I've heard GO BAG a lot. BUG OUT BAG, as I say, never. SEA OAK also seems like something you'd never know existed unless your wordlist told you (94D: Form of algae also known as rockweed). Impossible to imagine voluntarily watching even one second of something called "Long Island Medium," so CAPUTO!? (32A: Reality star Theresa of "Long Island Medium"). CAPU-no! No way on god's green earth. All crosses. Most of the rest of the fill seems fine. A little heavy on the preposition-ending phrases (EYEING UP, RANTS AT, NEW TO). Pretty sure the term is SAW LOGS, not SAW WOOD (10D: Snore, idiomatically). 

Time now for the last Holiday Pet Pics of the year (don't worry, I have enough to last many days into the new year (again, please, no more submissions this year). What do we got today? Puppies under trees!