diversion

“I agree, but what choice do we have? Food, clothing, shelter, cultural diversions . . . it all seems quite necessary to me.”

“I am afraid those sword-wielding thespians will be here any moment. Can you create some sort of diversion? It may buy us the time we need to escape.”

But these convoluted John le Carré diversions are not engaging, and the attempts to enrich the characters are clunky.

Scipio countered with veterans of superior training and experience, who sowed chaos among Hannibal’s soldiers and elephants with well-timed blows and diversions.

It was a diversion from the familiar routine of picking which team would win.