Jumble Spoiler – 07/06/12

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Official Seal Websafe Colors (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Visual Description:  A barmaid taking a young man’s order at Jeff’s Bar & Grill.

AGGUE  =  GAUGE,  NODPU  =  POUND,  SARATY  =  ASTRAY,  OBYANT  =  BOTANY   —   Giving us:  GEPOARTAN

Clue/Question:  After examining the customer’s ID, the waitress said, ‘Thank you for your . . . “

Answer:  “PATRON–AGE“

(This one woulda been great for an Unclerave’s Wiseguy of the Day contest!  But, I’m not feelin’ it, and I’ve got plenty to do, today, anyway.  So, you guys lucked out!  I hate the word “gauge”!  I always want to spell it “guage”.  What the Hell is the “U” doing in there, anyway?  You don’t pronounce it.  It’s totally useless.  Get rid of it!  Who do I complain to???  Overall, the clue word jumbling was great, today!  Okay, I saw “pound” right away.  But, “botany” took me a little time.  I first tried “boyant”, as in “buoyant” – another useless “U” – but I kinda knew it looked a little funky.  But, my big problem was in getting “astray”.  I had to write out 16 combinations before it hit me.  The funny thing is I had just been thinking about my wife’s sense of stray-dar.  You know how some people – especially women, for some reason – have a sense of gay-dar.   They kind of instinctively seem to know if someone is Gay.  Well, my wife has stray-dar.  She knows – in an instant – when I find a woman attractive, and there is the remotest chance that the woman is attracted to me.  The sense is so strong that she actually knows of the attraction way before I even do.  It keeps me honest.  But, I think the DOD, or Homeland Security, would love to modify and develop her sense of stray-dar, for purposes of national security.   I wonder how much they’d pay her???  I think that David L. Hoyt did a superlative job with the answer letter layout, today.  I’m betting that, even without an Unclerave’s Wiseguy of the Day contest, that there are going to be a good number of queries to today’s answer.  Did you guys notice Jeff pulling an Alfred Hitchcock?  Hey!  Do I get a discount if I patronize Jeff’s Bar & Grill?  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

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Cryptoquote Spoiler – 07/06/12

 

Dan Rather delivered a great talk at sxsw on the media, the internet, and asking the “hard questions” Also note this is a Creative Commons Attribution photo so if you need it, please use it, but please also give credit! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.”   —   Louis Brandeis

(And, as a result of this quote, Dan Rather decided – for a short while, at least – to sign off his newscasts simply by saying:  Courage!  Hey.  You don’t believe me?  Look it up!  It’s right there, under Famous One Word Sign-offs That Failed to Catch On!  I think he was trying – so hard – not to sound like he was trying to sound like Walter Cronkite, with his “And, that’s the way it is”, that he went the one word route.  Actually, he’d already been the anchor on the CBS Evening News, for about five years.  But, it was too serious, and kind of an obscure word, to use during peacetime.  If he hadn’t used it, back in 1986, it probably could have worked very well starting on the evening of September 11, 2001.  Oh well, Dan.  I’m sure you meant well.  Rutabaga!)   —   YUR

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