Thanksgiving Break

Introduction

As I am taking a bit of a break over the Thanksgiving Day long weekend, there will be no blog for the next few days. I am, nevertheless, providing links to the solutions on Big Dave's site for the Daily Telegraph puzzle published today (Thursday) as well as for the one that I expect may be published tomorrow (Friday). However, since the National Post skipped a puzzle today, it's difficult to predict what they might publish tomorrow. Of course, there is no Daily Telegraph puzzle in the National Post on Saturday (when the Post provides a puzzle by Cox and Rathvon) and the Post will likely not publish on Monday, it being a holiday in Canada. I hope to be back on Tuesday with my regular blog.

Daily Links

Thursday, October 8, 2009 (DT 25937)

This puzzle was originally published Monday, May 25, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

The National Post has skipped DT 25936, which was published Saturday, May 23, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph.

Tilsit's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25937].

Update: Tilsit says, "I presume this is a cryptic definition ... It seems a bit weak to me." Although this is not necessarily a truly great clue, I think his assessment may be a bit harsh. The surface reading is intended to suggest a movement that is distracting. Since one meaning of disperse (defn. 5) is "[in] physics said of particles: to become evenly distributed th[r]oughout a liquid or gas" (which is the opposite of being concentrated), in a cryptic sense "disperse" could be interpreted as "move to break concentration". A similar interpretation could also be applied to the situation where law enforcement officials disperse a crowd (a concentrated gathering of people).

Friday, October 9, 2009 (DT 25938)

This is my expectation of the puzzle to be published; however, since the Post broke with its normal pattern today (Thursday), I could well be wrong in my call.

Update: My crystal ball performed admirably and my forecast proved to be accurate.

This puzzle was originally published Tuesday, May 26, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Gazza's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Telegraph Crossword Blog [DT 25938].

Signing off for today - Falcon