Tom

I quickly identified that this puzzle contained rebuses, but it took me a long time to figure out that they were double rebuses. I finished thirty minutes beyond my average time, but felt a great deal of satisfaction for having completed it. A true challenge.

Solving the theme clues and discovering the clever wordplay of the constructor gave me more joy than I have ever had completing a crossword. Beautiful!

My immediate entry of the crossword go to, ETTA, for 21 across gummed up the northeast corner for me. I kept ignoring my wife's insistence that maybe it's wrong until she finally wore me down and I deleted it. It all fell into place after that. A lesson learned.

I would never refer to REFS as "Playcallers?" This clue/answer stumped me until I got the other crossings.