Monday, September 14, 2009 (DT 25973)

This puzzle was originally published Monday, July 6, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

There were a couple of significant events today. First, the National Post returned to publishing a Monday print edition today, whereas all summer it had published only an online digital edition on Monday.

Second, the Post made a giant leap ahead in the sequence of puzzles - jumping from DT 25917 which appeared on Friday to DT 25973 today (skipping the 55 intervening puzzles). This takes us from the puzzle published in the UK on May 1 to the one published on July 6. Regular readers of this blog will know that the Post occasionally makes such a jump. This is made necessary because the Daily Telegraph publishes six puzzles per week while the Post publishes only five. Consequently, the length of the interval between publication in the Telegraph and the Post gradually lengthens and, from time to time, the Post skips a number of puzzles to shorten this lag.

I found today's puzzle to be moderately difficult. I did complete it, although after solving about half the clues I was forced to pull out my Tool Chest with its many puzzle solving aids. I also thought that I understood all the wordplay - until Tilsit's review showed me that I missed a nuance in one clue.

Today's Links

I found two questions on AnswerBank discussing today's puzzle. They (together with the clues to which they relate) are:

• AnswerBank [DT 25973]-a: 7d
• AnswerBank [DT 25973]-b: 1a

Tilsit's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25973].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

4d A muscle unaffected by lifting (7)

A ROTATOR is "a muscle that enables a limb, etc. to rotate" and, therefore presumably, is not involved in lifting actions. Until I read Tilsit's review, I had totally missed that "unaffected by lifting" is also a clue that the solution is a palindrome.

Signing off for today - Falcon