Hi all!
Jeffrey here.
“It’s All Good” is this week’s puzzle title and each theme answer takes an ordinary phrase and adds an “OK” in the middle.
17a [Vet foursome tasked with pet petting?] – STROKING QUARTET. String quartet.
28a [Where White House staff are the most socially aware?] – THE WOKEST WING. The West Wing.
43a [Lockups for lovers?] – SWEETIE POKIES. Sweetie pies.
55a [Where shoppers buy goods with subway coins?] – TOKEN CENT STORES. Ten cent stores. Now we call them dollar stores. Inflation.
Canadian content:
24a [CBC podcast “___ Asks Why”] – TAI Poole. He is in grade seven.
34a [CARP mems.] – SRS. Canadian Association of Retired Persons – seniors. Ok, so yesterday I got information on applying for my Canada Pension Plan (CPP) in the mail. I hadn’t requested it, I guess they just send it to presumed soon to be seniors. Get off my lawn.
35a [Airport named for a ‘60s prime minister] – PEARSON. That is the Toronto airport. Montreal has the Pierre Elliot Trudeau airport. And Vancouver International Airport is named after the great Prime Minister Gordon International.
49a [“Black Velvet” singer Alannah] – MYLES.
10d [U.S. cousin of CBC Radio One] – NPR.
29d [Carling O’___ (onetime brewer)] – KEEFE. Now part of Molson.
39d [Singer Jordan with a cheeky first name] – SASS.
42d [The Jays’ stadium name, once] – SKYDOME. Ok, no lie, I was watching a Blue Jays game from the Skydome (now called the Rogers Centre) while solving this puzzle.
Tip of the Week:
This puzzle has several abbreviations you see online that are helpful to remember:
1a [Email-sending initials] – SMTP. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
10a [Online smut alert] – NSFW. Not safe for work.
58d [Web hits generator, in tech-talk] – SEO. Search engine optimization.
Ok, that’s it. See you next week!