New York Times, Monday, July 8, 2019

I was sure I won Guess That Theme, the game that keeps early-week puzzles interesting. PAY GRADE, PUB GAMES interlocked … has to be PG 13!

Drat.

PANDG, the natural result of a PANDA's evolution (PANDA, PANDB, PANDC ...), serves as a dutiful revealer. It's not great in that P&G (Proctor and Gamble) is never written as PANDG except in crosswords, but it does serve to tie the themers together.

Initialism puzzles are so common that it takes a lot for one to stand out. One usual approach is to pack in as many as possible, trying to overwhelm solvers with sheer numbers. This one fits that bill, jam-packing in eight (!) phrases.

As a constructor, color me impressed with the execution. Ned did a top-notch job of executing on his concept, starting with interlocking two pairs of themers, and then overlapping or spacing out the rest. It's a mark of success that I didn't realize how many themers there were — there wasn't nearly as much AABA AGRI MDT stuff as I would have expected in the short fill. Although Ned had a ton of flexibility — there are dozens of PG phrases available — he made wise selections to facilitate ease of construction.

(I did wonder if PARTY GIRLS might offend some. I've rethought my stance on it, now that I have a daughter.)

The one knock: a lot of tough proper names. If you have ILIE in your grid, you ought to strive to reduce other entries that might similarly trip up newb solvers, like CAPP, NIN, ELLY, BAIUL.

Not the most exciting theme and the solver in me didn't get anything out of the ultra-high density. But this constructor gives a thumbs-up to the level of care and consideration Ned put into executing on a challenging grid.