Joe

PAEAN next to UNAGI next to an unknown W.N.B.A. player next to an unknown director, with a bizarre clue for AGED = a really difficult (and impossible for me) NW corner. Otherwise, the puzzle played nice and smooth.

Fun theme but poor execution with too much junk (ASSAM, KARO, FAA, ESE, NENES, NGOS, AGA, RKO, MOS, IVE, ESO, SRA, SUPE, UFC, OPI, RAITA, ETTE, MSS, AGEE, OGEE) plus the dupe of LETUP and LETON. Yuck. A whopping 34(!) 3-letter words that were, for the most part, bad fill really soured the experience. Plus the longer entries like ESOTERICA and SCIATACA just weren't that enjoyable. More time should have been spent on grid construction/layout IMO.

Was positive that 1-across was DENIM .. but was also positive that 1-down was BRAID .. but was *also* positive that 29-across was MINED. Fun when I caught on the trick. A few strange things in the grid like GOODOH(?) and EATOF(?) and AAHSAT(?) but overall fairly clean.

A lot of crosses I thought were unfair in this one: IONE crossing ASTLEY (is it ionA or ionE?) ORALE crossing KOLA (koNa is also coffee-related) SOBA crossing ABALARD (is it sobA or sobE?) (or maybe it's Erdoc instead of Ordoc?) PRATE crossing EREBUS (though nothing else made sense) I couldn't figure out the correct combination of letters.

The last square to fall was the RU in VITRUVIANMAN. Never heard this so could have been any letter for all I knew. On the crossing down, well, why would a doctor order a DOG or a .. DEG(ree?)? Stumped, I started admiring the theme and counting the eight squares it referenced. Ohhhh - I only have seven! The RU was then easy to place. A nice instance where the theme helped the solve. Fun, smooth puzzle - well done!

Like others, did not appreciate OPENENDER. That's not a real thing. Had SRS at first and then changed it to SDS to complete the cross, thinking this was an abbreviation I just didn't know. Nope - you just made up a word to make your puzzle work! Also didn't know about CBC so had CBS for a while. Overall, though, a fun puzzle with fair crosses. Enjoyed the clue for EXITPOLLS.

Congrats to this young constructor. Making a grid with five themes and one of them being a 13-letter entry right in the middle is always challenging but Harrison made it look easy. So easy this was a PR for me. Didn't get the theme so had to look the puzzle over afterwards and then realized what was going on. Would have been nice to have the word SHIFT in the SE corner (or something to that effect) to tie this all together, but that would also require some grid sacrifices. I didn't balk at EYELENS. Seems legit to me. Will be fun to watch Harrison's career!

Had to guess between EVADE and ELUDE as I didn't know those crosses. I guessed wrong at first (of course!) but luckily the rest of the puzzle was correct. Also had WORKER bee before KILLER bee. Fun puzzle and a good level of difficulty. Many thanks, Jesse.

Fun puzzle. Got a little stuck on the COPA/UPLIT cross. Had no idea about the song, and plopped in UNLIT because nothing else seemed to fit. That didn't sound right, though - usually people use a flashlight while telling stories around the campfire, rather than tell them in the dark! Glad I was able to catch it at the end. A new word for me.

Good Wed. puzzle. Played on the faster side for me. Had to run the alphabet to get the "C" in NSC/CANO. When that didn't work, I guessed correctly that ABC was wrong and the proper network is NBC (which of course makes sense now that I think about it). Ran the alphabet again and got the solve. Didn't know SEURAT or INGENUE but didn't even notice thanks to crosses.

Enjoyed this one. Figuring out the theme not only took some brainpower, but once figured out it also helped solve the tricky upper-middle section.

I really enjoyed the theme to this puzzle. I did not get it until the revealer and afterwards did my own sneeze reading the AH AH AH CHOO in my head. That was really nice. What I enjoyed less about this puzzle was the construction. I think it was a mistake to put blocks of 4 at the ends of the center row. Not only did that segment the puzzle, but it made for tougher fill that was not as snazzy or interesting. Stacks of 7 are tough to work with and usually not as lively. With a center word at just 7 letters, you can eliminate 3 of the 4 blocks which gets rid of those stacks, and then you can have some fun, longer downs to boot. Because of that choice in the center, this was a noticeably harder puzzle than a typical Monday. Still a very fun concept that was a lot of fun (and that's what puzzles are all about anyways!).