Crocodile Tears In My Wild River…!!! (Photo credit: Denis Collette…!!!)
Visual Description: Crocodylidae cousins . . . cruisin’ through the cypresses.
APROE = OPERA, VAKOD = VODKA, DINNUW = UNWIND, GRINTS = STRING — Giving us: OAVANITRG
Clue/Question: The crocodile’s cousin was a . . .
Answer: NAVIGATOR
Image of an Absolut Vodka bottle, imported from Sweden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(I think that Hoyt is spreading himself too thin. This answer is just screaming for a hyphen! Without the hyphen you lose the double meaning. Yesterday’s IMPASSE was a little weak on the double meaning, as well. All the clue words were jumbled really well though. It always takes me a little time to get “opera”, and “vodka” took me a good long time to get! I got the longer words right away, today. The answer letter layout was a thing of beauty. And, Jeff did a great job on the cartoon. You can really tell the difference between the driver – the crocodile – and the cousin – the alligator/navigator. No new clue words today. That is all. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
Related articles
- Croc’s and gators (hadnoclue.com)
- Crocodiles’ jaws more sensitive than human fingertips (mnn.com)
- 33 Sets of High Quality Reptile Skin Texture (creativaclub.wordpress.com)
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
I was curious to see if you also thought this could have used a hyphen. I actually suggested having it hyphenated but our editors thought it was better not hyphenated. They tend to be a little more conservative with the hyphens and quotes than I am. It’s not a matter of me being “spread to thin.” Jumble is owned by Tribune Media and there are two editors who handle the puzzles after we turn them in and they have the final say on stuff like this. Sometimes they will make changes and Jeff and I won’t see them until they appear in the paper. Just thought I’d give you a little more info on the editing and decision process that goes on behind the scenes. Thanks!
Hey Uncle! I thought you might enjoy checking out some Jumble for the Classroom samples. These were made about 10 years ago and we never were able to do much with this concept but we’re going to take another shot at it. Here’s a link to them if you want to check them out. Thanks!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/112781646/Jumble-for-the-Classroom-Fun-educational-puzzles-from-the-people-that-bring-you-the-world-s-1-syndicated-puzzle