Greetings everyone – Jeffrey’s out this week on a ”double-super-top-secret mission” so Brian Tetreault here stepping in again as pinch hitter – or, since the baseball season is over for the Orioles 😥 maybe substitute is the proper term. I have a French-Canadian last name and heritage but am American so bear with me as I parse the Canadian content in this week’s puzzle. Feel free to leave corrections and complaints in the comments.

“Job Sharing” is the theme of this week’s puzzle, with job title entries “shared” with potential alternate occupation clues to amusing effect:
– 18A [Courtroom judge?]: BARTENDER – Not sure this one works as well as the other themers.
– 24A [Polygraph technician?]: FICTION EDITOR – Seeing as the reliability of polygraphs is questionable, this one is particularly apt.
– 38A [Fishing tour guide?]: CASTING DIRECTOR – This one lands perfectly.
– 50A [Marine biologist?]: SCHOOL TRUSTEE – Maybe “Fish farmer?” would have worked as well.
– 57A [Staffing manager, at times?]: FIRE CHIEF – A little awkward, but I got it and was amused.

Canadian content:
– 6D [Leaf’s longtime hockey rival]: HAB – I knew this as I have a Canadian friend who is a huge Habs fan. But I needed Wikipedia to tell me it’s “short for ‘Les Habitants’, the early farmers of Quebec.” So my ancestor Louis who came over in the 1600’s could have been a Hab!
– 32D [Party letters on an orange sign]: NDP – I did not know this, and the crossing with 43A required me to make a (lucky) wild guess at the final letter
– 40D [The “I” of CNIB]: INST – I did not know about this fine organization, but am well aware of their US counterpart as it’s headquartered in Baltimore and I lived just a few blocks from their building for 10 years.
– 42A [Surname of a certain crossword creator : ) ]: OLSON – hey!
– 43A [Van. Summer fair]: PNE – Although I lived in the Pacific Northwest for several years and visited Vancouver often, I was unaware of this – will add it to my itinerary next time I’m in the area.
– 66A [Red Chamber mem.]: SEN – I was today years old when I learned “Red Chamber” is the informal term for the Senate of Canada.

Other stuff:
– 3D [Reply to “What was your first clue?”, maybe]: ONE ACROSS – I usually dislike self-referential clues/entries but this one made me laugh.
– 17A [Gag app for suds drinkers]: IBEER – I was unaware of this app and will not download it as I prefer my beer real.
– 19D [New-sounding role for Reaves]: NEO – This is probably the best clue for this entry I have ever seen. It’s almost a cryptic clue, which my wife has been trying to get me into solving. “Role for Reaves” is the clue and “new sounding” is wordplay for Neo – nifty!
– 24D [Actress Edie of “Nurse Jackie”]: FALCO/28A [“The Sopranos” fiancee who gets offed]: ADRIANA – Nice crossing these two entries – though 28A is a spoiler for the 3 or 4 people who have not seen the show (I’m on my 4th time through the series).
– 35D [PVR setting datum]: START TIME – I had no idea what a PVR was but sussed it was some sort of “recorder” so the answer came relatively easily.
– 36D [“…giftie gie us, _____ oursels as ithers …”: Burns]: TO SEE – Needed all the crosses for this one.

Tip of the week:
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