Sunday Jumble Solved – 05/28/23

Visual Description:  The demon seed!

SSITIN  –  INSIST,  SMCOIA  =  MOSAIC,  ULHPLI  =  UPHILL,  SRONPE  =  PERSON,  RYEONR  =  ORNERY,  NMRAAT  =  MANTRA   —   Giving us:  NTOSAHISONNEYATA

Clue/Question:  The sound of his fingernails on the chalkboard was – – –

Pre-Answer:  Four Words  (1-letter)  (5-letters)  (4-letters)  (6-letters)

Answer:  A NOISE THAT ANNOYS

(A wonderful stinky pun!  But probably one that only our older readers would get.  Do yinz remember the scene in “Jaws”, when the town is holding a meeting to figure out what to do about the great white attacks?  Everyone was panicked, and talking all at once, and captain Quint just slowly raked his fingernails down the blackboard.  To say it got people’s attention is quite an understatement.  Everyone immediately STFU!

All six of today’s clue words are already on the world famous ralis95 clue word database.  Yet, all six jumbles are coming up as new for me.  One through five came to me immediately, but “nmraat” had me stymied.  I had to back into MANTRA.  It’s a good thing that the first thirteen letters of the answer letter layout was enough for me to see the final answer.  Knowing now that I needed the ATA got me to singing the familiar tune.  Even completed, there was nothing obvious about the answer letter layout.  I think it was the spacing of the final answer slots that clued me in.

Today’s cartoon could almost be called a period piece.  I don’t think that many schools use chalk/blackboards anymore.  They mainly use whiteboards, with dry-erase markers.  I always thought that chalk was pretty cheap.  Probably cheaper than those markers.  But I guess today’s teachers don’t want to deal with full erasers.  I remember teachers assigning us kids the chore of cleaning the – chalk – erasers.  I don’t remember if everyone took their turn, or if they used it as a form of punishment.  Did they ever link the inhalation of chalk dust to any lung problems???  Still seems like it would be cheaper, to me.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google

 

Jumble Solved – 05/27/23

Visual Description:  BM (Before Merriam.)

NIEMC  =  MINCE,  NHOMT  =  MONTH,  BROIFD  =  FORBID,  GPOIEN  =  PIGEON   —   Giving us:  MNEMNTFOIDIGEN

Clue/Question:  When Noah Webster published his first dictionary in 1806, it was a – – –

Answer:  DEFINING MOMENT

(Exceptional odoriferous pun!  Glorious jumbles.  Great clue words.  Grand final answer.  It wasn’t until the 1840s that the Merriam brothers bought the rights to Webster’s dictionary, to give us Merriam-Webster.  But young Noah got it all started back in 1806.

All four clue words are on the ralis95 clue word database.  But all four of the jumbles are coming up as new, for me.  The first three were cake, but “gpoien” was a toughie for me.  The answer letter layout was a forceful fourteen letter jumble.  Admirably cryptic.  But I thought that the clue/question was very leading.

I always enjoy Jeff’s period cartoons.  Noah would have been about 48 in 1806, so I don’t think that the other two are his parents.  So, maybe it’s his wife and his publisher?  We have to give the artist creative license in these matters.  Fun Jumble.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google

Cryptoquote Solved – 05/27/23

“Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead.”   —   Nora Ephron

(Nora was responsible for some of the most popular movies of the 1980s and 1990s.  I particularly liked the movie “Michael”, starring John Travolta as the title archangel and an all-star cast that includes:  Andie MacDowell, William Hurt, Bob Hoskins, Jean Stapleton, Robert Pastorelli, Richard Schiff and . . . my favorite, Teri Garr.  It was easy to suspend belief watching this movie.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

Jumble Solved – 05/26/23

Visual Description:  Knights errant?

RRNEU  =  RERUN,  SMEAU  =  AMUSE,  FESLUU  =  USEFUL,  CLEINH  =  LICHEN   —   Giving us:  RRASEEFLCEN

Clue/Question:  The men who volunteered to reenact medieval warfare on horseback were – – – 

Answer:  FREELANCERS

(Gotta love it!  People really seem to love this “romantic” time period.  The times of heraldry and chivalry.  We have an annual Renaissance Fair around here that has been going on for over 40 years.  And, there’s that chain theme restaurant called Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament.  There are 9 of them in the U.S. and 1 in Canada.  We celebrated my son’s – 8th or 9th – birthday with one of his school friends, at one not too far from us.  Considering it was dinner and a show I thought that the price was fairly reasonable.  But life in the middle ages was tough even for the privileged.   Medicine/healthcare was very primitive back then, and when you couple that with really poor hygiene – when folks started using perfumes – a lot of people succumbed to disease.  And, the majority of folks were dirt poor, and there was little law protection.  Not the best of times.

All four clue words are on the world famous ralis95 clue word database.  All four of the jumbles appear to be new though.  I had the hardest time figuring out that “cleinh” was “lichen”.  I had to back into it.  Fortunately, there was just enough in the first eight letters of the answer letter layout for me to see the final answer.  The cartoon knight calling his lances “spears” was a BIG hint to the final answer.  But overall the answer letter layout was an earnest eleven letter jumble.

Fun cartoon of the jousting reenactment characters.  I like the king and queen in the gallery viewing the tilting proceedings.  Jousting was a dangerous “sport” exhibition, with some of the participants getting severely injured, and even killed.  A step up from the old gladiator games, but full of pageantry.  Fun Friday Jumble.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google

Cryptoquote Solved – 05/26/23

“Open your eyes, look within.  Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?”   —   Bob Marley

(All of us could do with being a little more introspective.  This quote is a lyric, and comes from the song “Exodus”, by Bob Marley and the Wailers, from way back in 1977.  Bob died nearly four years later, at the tender age of 36, from a rare form of malignant melanoma, which had spread to his brain and lungs.  But his music lives on.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

Cryptoquote Solved – 05/25/23

“You can’t get spoiled if you do your own ironing.”   —   Meryl Streep

( . . . or laundry, or vacuuming, or just about any other household chore.  Housework kind of sucks!  I always liked Meryl Streep.  Still do.  She’s never been a big hot, hoochie mama kind of actress, but she has a classic beauty that never seems to get old.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

Jumble Solved – 05/25/23

Visual Description:  Interviewing the great one!

KLCEF  =  FLECK,  MIREP  =  PRIME,  ORPWED  =  POWDER,  LONCAA  =  CANOLA   —   Giving us:  FEKPRMOERCOA

Clue/Question:  He was the NBA’s “MVP” six times, which made Abdul-Jabbar the – – –

Answer:  “KAREEM“ OF THE CROP

(Kareem may, or may not, like this pun, but I cannot get myself to call it “stinky”.  The guy is just SO awesome.  As a kid, just entering my love of sports years, I can remember when he was a college phenom, playing for John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins.  It seemed like UCLA was always winning when I was a kid, but with Lew Alcindor – his birth name – they won three consecutive national championships!  And, he won three most outstanding player awards of the NCAA tournament!  When he got drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks I immediately became a Bucks fan.  The announcer for the Bucks back then was the best I’ve ever heard.  “Basket by Alcindor!”  They also had the great Oscar Robertson and Lucius Allen, who had played with Kareem at UCLA.  Right around the time the Bucks won the 1971 NBA Championship they finally started to use his new, adopted, Muslim name of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.  There used to be a kind of reluctance to acknowledge these religious based name changes back then.  Muhammad Ali went through the same thing for a while.  The announcers would continue to call him Cassius Clay out of some kind of spite.  Anyway, Kareem was also very active in civil rights, along with Ali and the great – recently departed – Jim Brown.  But, Kareem is not just a gifted athlete with multiple records and accolades, and a champion of civil rights, he also amazed people with his general/broad knowledge playing Celebrity Jeopardy!  Besides being a 7’2″ tall NBA Champion, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is simply a giant among men.

It’s looking like Hoyt is giving us yet another new clue word today, in FLECK.  It is not on the ralis95 clue word database.  All four of the jumbles appear to be new too.  The answer letter layout was a terrific twelve letter jumble.  Deliciously cryptic.  It kept me guessing, until I rewrote all the vowels and then consonants in alphabetical order.  It was only then that the quotation marks dawned on me.

Great cartoon of Kareem being interviewed.  The interviewer looks a little like Deborah Roberts.  Deborah is married to everyone’s favorite weatherman, Al Roker!  Did you know that there are alternate spellings of the name Kareem?  There is also Karim, Karym, and I know a guy who spells it Koryem.  I guess there could be more too.  But it is definitely not a stretch to refer to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the cream of the crop!  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

PS.  Not to take anything away from LeBron James, but of all the points he has scored, 6783 came from 2261 3-point shots.  Only 3 of Kareem’s points came from a single 3-point shot that he made!  The 3-point shot wasn’t even a thing in the NBA for the first 8 years of Kareem’s career.  Of course, the bulk of Kareem’s points came from his patented sky hook, which was virtually impossible to defend.  And, of course Kareem dominated in rebounds and blocked shots.  Kareem’s additional five inches made a big difference in those categories.  Two great champions from two different eras!   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google

Jumble Solved – 05/24/23

Visual Description:  Day one doorman.

PHEDT  =  DEPTH,  ELLAG  =  LEGAL,  YLIEKL  =  LIKELY,  VGRENO  =  GOVERN   —   Giving us:  ETLEELYVRN

Clue/Question:  His new job as a doorman at the high-rise building was – – –

Answer:  ENTRY LEVEL

(Hey!  Ya gotta start somewhere.  Right?  Have you ever noticed that in businesses and careers you start at the bottom, and work your way to the top.  But in music – and in baseball – you take it from the top, and you finish at the bottom!  Very strange, no?  For a long time this confused me in baseball.  Well, the English language –  and the entire world – is just full of contradictions.  What are ya gonna do!  You live and you learn.

Today, all four of the clue words are already on the – world famous – ralis95 clue word database.  Three of the jumbles appear to be new.  But we’ve definitely seen “phedt” in at least one previous Jumble.  None of them gave me any trouble this morning.  The answer letter layout was a terrific ten letter jumble.  I’d say it was cryptic enough.  But the cartoon and the clue/question set it up for an obvious answer.

Fine cartoon of a long-time tenant/resident of the apartment building/condo/hotel, and the brand new doorman.  Boy, those Jumble guys are into everything, aren’t they?!  Good looking poodle too.  Although, I’ve never been a fan of the haircuts that they give them.  They’re too foo foo.  When I was a kid I always got a kick out of doormen, with their snappy uniforms, and their abilities to hail a cab.  A wonderful Wednesday Jumble.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google

Cryptoquote Solved – 05/24/23

“I am not a person to be pressured  –  by anybody or any nation.”   —   Indira Gandhi

(She was a tough woman.  She kinda had the forerunner of the David Koresh – Branch Davidian fiasco – in Waco, TX, with Operation Blue Star, in the Punjab region, in June of 1984.  But it was even deadlier, resulting in disputed casualties of some hundreds, to some thousands of Sikhs.  As a result she was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards a few months later.  It’s hard to believe, but this seems to be the first of her quotes used for a Cryptoquote.  So, we welcome Indira Gandhi – posthumously – to the Cryptoquote Club today.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

Jumble Solved – 05/23/23

Visual Description:  Sightseeing sibs.

MYREH  =  RHYME,  DTLIA  =  TIDAL,  RAYWML  =  WARMLY,  TOESOH  =  SOOTHE   —  Giving us:  METIWAOT

Clue/Question:  When the twin sisters arrived at the clock tower that houses Big Ben, they were – – –

Answer:  TWO AT A TIME

(Okay.  Alright.  Always appreciate a good destination Jumble.  Even when the pun is little on the lame side.  But at least there is a kind of freshness to it.  I can’t remember this phase being used for a Jumble answer before.  I could very well be wrong though.  I’ve been posting the answers for a little over 15 years, but the Jumble has been around for about 69 years, so who knows!

David L. Hoyt has been on a roll lately, with the new clue words!  Today he has given us TIDAL.  I did not expect it to be a new word, but it isn’t appearing on the ralis95 clue word database.  All four of the jumbles are also coming up as new.  I had just a little trouble with “myreh”, but I had a lot of trouble with “dtlia”.  I had to write out six different combinations before seeing that LADIT was TIDAL  in reverse.  Not sure why I didn’t see it immediately.  I got no beef with the tides.  The answer letter layout was great eight letter jumble.  I saw A TIME right away . . . and then there were TWO.

Wonderful cartoon of the sisters – they didn’t necessarily have to be twins – sightseeing in Jolly Old London.  It looks like they just stepped off a double-decker sightseeing bus, right down the block from the Elizabeth Tower, renamed from the “Clock Tower” in 2012, to commemorate the diamond jubilee of – the dearly departed – Elizabeth II.  I’ve been there, and it’s pretty cool.  Fun Jumble.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google