JAG

Reading the early comments, I seem to be in the minority. But I didn't like this puzzle very much. I got the theme pretty easily (seen early with DINGDONGDITCH and SINGSONG_____). My problem is that the whole concept isn't very elegant. First because the answers can never look correct on the app. Second, because the repeated words won't look correct no matter what method or medium you use: DI/ONGDITCH, D[PHI]NGDITCH, or DΦNGDITCH. None of those look anything like DINGDONGDITCH. Maybe the whole theme is a technical achievement with respect to cluing, but it just looks clunky and kinda ugly.

One of the most fun puzzles I've done. Once I got the theme clue in the middle it was just pure joy building and building as I kept solving and seeing the theme play out.

I find it unbelievable that MAV shows up in almost the exact same spot with almost the exact same clue two days on a row. Other than that, this was a personal best time for Wednesdays for me.