Cryptoquote Spoiler – 12/21/18

“Don’t fight a battle if you don’t gain anything by winning.”   —   Erwin Rommel

(Some people DO seem to like to fight, just for the sake of fighting.  I’ll never understand that kind of aggression.  I’ve heard it said that there are really only two reasons for war:  religious and economic.  I suspect that even most of the religious ones come back/around to economic gain.  Such a shame.  With today’s quote, Erwin Rommel joins the Cryptoquote Club.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

Jumble Spoiler – 12/21/18

Visual Description:  The ties that bind.  (KNOT in a kinky way!)

BATHI  =  HABIT,  PHETD  =  DEPTH,  TUBEAN  =  BUTANE,  LTANUW  =  WALNUT   —   Giving us:  HTDTHUAEWAT

Clue/Question:  He checked the knots for tightness to see if they’d learned – – –

Answer:  WHAT HE‘D “TAUT“

(A classic groaner of a stinky pun!  It’s always fun when Hoyt goes with a homonym pun.  Today’s was another fine example!

All of today’s clue words are charter members of the world famous ralis95 clue word database.  Both “tubean” and “ltanuw” appear to be new jumbles, while both “bathi” and “phetd” have definitely been used in the past.  “phetd” reminds of fetid . . . like today’s pun.  The answer letter layout was an interesting 11-letter jumble.  It did a fine job of disguising the answer.  The quote marks and the apostrophe in the answer line were the key to solving this.

Fun cartoon of a scouting outing, in the great outdoors.  I liked the little pup tent in the background, and the fire pit.  Classic scout master garb, with the Smokey Bear hat and the knee-high socks.  It’s difficult to read the emblem.  I was wondering if these were Jumble Scouts!  A fun Friday Jumble.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google