Greetings! Looks like you’ll be hearing from me more often, as I have stepped into to take over the blog from Jeffrey. He did a great job and I just hope to keep up the great work he’s done previously.

“Egads!” is the theme of this week’s puzzle: the themers are common phrases but you treat the “e” before the last word as if it is a prefix for something online (think “e-commerce”) then you get the punny answer to the clue:
– 18A [Poorly punned in an online chat?]: ILL EQUIPPED
– 23A [The latest online rants?]: CURRENT EVENTS
– 35A [Online quests for coal?]: CARBON EMISSIONS
– 45A [Nothing to vote on in an online meeting?]: LACK OF EMOTION
– 51A [Last in a quintet of lands in an online world?]: FIFTH ESTATE

I found this puzzle slightly more difficult than usual – it took me 9:43 and my average for Barb’s puzzles is about 7:30. There were a few awkward-for-me entries (don’t think I’ve ever seen 20A pluralized; the cross at 48A and 49D had me baffled for a while, and I have never heard 60A before), and some of the Canadian content tripped me up.

Canadian content:
– 1D [Lisa Laflamme’s network]: CTV – I had no idea who Lisa Laflamme was and initially put CBC in (of course).
– 4A [Halton-to-Durham region in Ont.]: GTA – I had no clue on this until I got a couple of letters – I figure it’s Greater Toronto Area? – so was glad to learn something.
– 9D [Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er ___”]: BOI – While not a huge fan I had heard of this Canadian musician and this song title, though I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the song.
– 30D [PayPal kin unavailable in Canada]: VENMO – I don’t know Venmo wasn’t available in Canada. Now I do.
I may have missed some other Canadian content – feel free to point it out in the comments!

On a deadline and had some other stuff crop up so cutting it a little short this week. I’ll usually comment on other clues and fill, and might try to add some more analysis of the puzzle. Please let me know in the comments if there’s anything you’d like to see in here and I’ll consider it.

Tip of the day: Back up your music files on an external hard drive rather than just relying on the CDs to be the back up. Otherwise it may take you several weeks to re-import your music library…