Hi all.
Jeffrey here.
“The Key is Brevity” is this week’s puzzle title and the theme answers all include computer keys that are abbreviations for one of the words in the theme answers.
18a [Opposing forces on a “Smart” TV sitcom?]– KAOS AND CTRL. KAOS and CONTROL fought in the James Bond parody series “Get Smart.” They were not acronyms.
24a [One who does the math]– NUM CRUNCHER. Number cruncher. CPAs (like me) are sometimes called number crunchers, although numbers don’t seem very crunchy to me.
36a [Paris, Prague and Port-au-Prince]– WORLD CAPS. World capitals.
51a [Steve McQueen film set in a POW camp]– THE GREAT ESC. The Great Escape.
58a [Dimension in much time travel sci-fi]– ALT UNIVERSE. Alternate Universe.
Canadian content:
23a [“____ Mio” (aria once sung by Pavarotti and Bryan Adams] – O SOLE. Really? Really. (see below)
28a [“The spuds are big on the back of Bud’s ___” (Stompin’ Tom lyric] – RIG.
54a [ ___-Sky Highway (Vancouver-Whistler route)] – SEA-TO.
19d [Canadian comedian Jon ___] – DORE. From Ottawa.
34d [City with Canada’s largest mall: Abbr.] –EDM. West Edmonton Mall. I’ve been there once. It is…a big mall.
Tip of the Week:
I would have loved to see a Pavarotti – Stompin’ Tom duet. I can join them with 4 degrees of separation:
Pavarotti – Bryan Adams: O Sole Mio
Bryan Adams – Melissa Etheridge: It’s Only Love
Melissa Etheridge – K. D. Lang: You Can Sleep
K.D. Lang – Stompin’ Tom: CA-NA-DA (Cross Canada)
See you next week!