Develop emotions (for) / FRI 2-14-25 / A little unwell? / Accepts defeat, in slang / Where the ka and ba reunite, in Egyptian mythology / Symbol of social status in ancient Mesopotamia / Classic Gustav Klimt painting made during his "Golden Period"

Constructor: SARAH Sinclair

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: hmm ... I mean, no, not technically, but there is, as Led Zeppelin once say, a whole lotta love (for Valentine's Day, I presume) 

Word of the Day: matoke (44D: Its national dish, matoke, is made from green bananas => UGANDA) —

Matoke, locally also known as matooke, amatooke in Buganda (Central Uganda), ekitookye in southwestern Uganda, ekitooke in western Uganda, kamatore in Lugisu (Eastern Uganda), ebitooke in northwestern Tanzania, igitoki in Rwanda, Burundi and by the cultivar name East African Highland banana, are a group of starchy triploid banana cultivars, originating from the African Great Lakes. The fruit is harvested green, carefully peeled, and then cooked and often mashed or pounded into a meal. In Uganda and Rwanda, the fruit is steam-cooked, and the mashed meal is considered a national dish in both countries. [...] East African Highland bananas are one of the most important staple food crops in the African Great Lakes region, particularly for Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, and Rwanda. Per capita annual consumption of bananas in Uganda is the highest in the world at 0.70 kg (1.5 lb) daily per person. [...] East African Highland bananas are so important as food crops, the local name matoke (or more commonly matooke) is synonymous for the word "food" in Uganda. [...] Matoke are peeled using a knife, wrapped in the plant's leaves (or plastic bags), and set in a cooking pot (Swahili: sufuria) atop the banana stalks. The pot is then placed on a charcoal or wood fire and the matoke is steamed for a couple of hours; water is poured into the bottom of the cooking pot multiple times. The stalks in the bottom of the pot keep the leaf-wrapped fruits above the level of the hot water. While uncooked, the matoke is white and fairly hard; cooking turns it soft and yellow. The matoke is then mashed while still wrapped in the leaves or bags and often served on a fresh banana leaf. It is typically eaten with a sauce made of vegetables, ground peanut, or some type of meat (goat or beef). (wikipedia)

• • •

This puzzle is driving me crazy. Either there's something brilliant that I'm missing, or it's maddeningly ... incomplete? Suggestive without being fully thematic? It's obvious that there's some Valentine's Day **** going on here. I don't know that I would've noticed it had I not thought about the date, but once I *did* notice it, the "love" stuff seemed to be Everywhere, from the central CATCH FEELINGS to ... well, jeez, look around. THE KISS, ONE LOVE, CANOODLE, "SO SWEET!," AMOUR, ROMCOM ... SARAH's name is even in the grid, which is starting to make me wonder, "Is this a crossword proposal?" Like, is there a coded message somewhere in here, asking someone to marry her? Someone named LLOYD? LEELA? I see WOOS? I see IDOS?! I mean, "ARE YOU IN?" is crossing her dang name! What am I supposed to think? TODATE or not TODATE (anymore, but to get married instead), that is the question. See, you start thinking "Love" here and you just can't stop—it's everywhere. But also, you (I) feel like a crazy person, reading it into everything. I'm even looking at TAKES THE L and wondering if the "L" is "Love," looking at I'M DOING OK and wondering if the "OK" is supposed to evoke the dating app OK *Cupid* (hello, Feb. 14!). If there is a metapuzzle here and it has some kind of key or solution, I haven't found it. Is love just A GAME? Does it have you IN A TRANCE? I really want to figure this puzzle out, but then I think it's unfigureoutable. 

I'm gonna have to look to see if there are constructor notes, which I hate doing (puzzles should stand on their own without special pleading!) ... hang on ... [checks constructor notes] ... well, sigh, nope, no answers there. I mean, yes, it's definitely got Love-y stuff in it, but it's technically still a themeless. I'm so used to solving tough metapuzzles (at other outlets) that I really really Really thought this one was going to have some ... final answer, something coherent that it was suggesting or spelling or ... something. Kinda disappointing that it's just kinda sorta Love-y. I think this is probably why the puzzle felt a little on the weak side (for a Friday themeless). Hard enough to get a 70-worder clean when you are simply looking for the best fill—when you are also requiring much of that fill to fulfill certain semi-thematic criteria ... well, you're just not going to get the very best outcome, from a pure puzzle-solving standpoint. Which is why I wanted the payoff of a real theme. But then I didn't get it. So I end up betwixt and between. Commits to neither theme nor themelessness, and leaves us in a weird no-man's-land. Bah. 

OK, let's put love aside. What's love got to do with it? Love, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! No wait, that's war. Anyway, treating this puzzle as the themeless that it *technically* is, I thought it had some bite. Wasn't just a pushover. I actually had to fight reasonably hard to push up into that NE section. The endings of the long Downs were doing Nothing for me. Eventually the "chart" part of 12D: They might involve a Snellen chart got me to think EYE TESTS, and from there, I had the traction I needed, but still, NOSE RINGS? No idea. And ADSENSE, ugh. I'm familiar, now that I see it, but I can't think of a more unwelcome bit of fill (OK, I can think of some, but not a lot). The very clue, [Google platform for web monetization], makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Is there anything less mellifluous than that? Did their AI search algorithm write that clue? Dead behind the eyes, that one. No "Love" have I for that answer. But I loved KITTEN CHOW because I love kittens and I loved CATCH FEELINGS (a very common, very modern phrase—one that I could never use with a straight face, but one that the youngs seem to like, or at least sing about) (36A: Develop emotions (for)). I really love the clue on MEDIUM RARE (26D: A little unwell?)—the meaty misdirect on that one is perfect. And the most important album of my adolescence, the one I bought with my own money and taped and played on my Walkman nonstop in 1982, was All Four One by the Motels, so even though it's the opposite of a "Love" song, I appreciated the (oblique) "Take the L" reference (8D: Accepts defeat, in slang = TAKES THE "L")

Two authors I didn't know at all today. LLOYD and GAIL both wrote things I've never read. The LLOYD Alexander books, "The Chronicles of Prydain," actually sound like I might like them (or might have liked them, if I'd known them when I was twelve) (16A: ___ Alexander, author of the fantasy series "The Chronicles of Prydain"). But those two authors and the NOSE RING were all total stumpers for me today (11D: Symbol of social status in ancient Mesopotamia). No idea about Audra McDonald's Ragtime role either, but SARAH was easy enough to infer. Didn't love the duplicated "IN" phrases (IN CASH, IN A TRANCE), and really don't love the clue on IN CASH (32A: Completely fluid). Isn't the term "liquid?" If it's cash and the metaphor is a non-solid, I think "liquid." Not "fluid." 

["I'm not crazy, I'm just ... [A little unwell?]"]

Bullets points:

• 50A: Fútbol stadium cry (GOL!) — pretty sure this is misspelled. My experience is you need at least six if not seventeen "O"s to capture the actual "cry":

• 24A: Nice chunk of change (TIDY SUM) — this answer is lovely. Nothing to say about it, just wanted to shout it out.
• 33D: Where the ka and ba reunite, in Egyptian mythology (AFTERLIFE) — "ka" is the life force and "ba" is the personality and soul. There's a whole explanation here. It's all news to me.

See you next time. And Happy Valentine's to all who celebrate.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]