Visual Description: Ancient math nerds.
VDITO = DIVOT, NAYHD = HANDY, NARMAT = MANTRA, NEYRTS = SENTRY — Giving us: DIVHDAAET
Clue/Question: When the new abacus came out, customers were ready to – – –
Answer: HAVE “ADD“ IT
(A brilliant stinky pun! I love it! When I was a kid, the math nerds all had pocket protectors. Then, they all had pocket sized calculators. I have no idea what they use today. But, in ancient Rome, I’m sure they all walked around with their abacuses!
Our favorite word-nerd, David L. Hoyt, did not just give us one new clue word today, but two! Both “mantra” and “sentry” will need to be added to the ralis95 world famous clue word database. I’m confident that the big boss man is up to the task! I saw “sentry” right away, but I had to come back to solve “mantra”. Three of the four jumbles came up as new, with only “nayhd” having definitely been used before. The answer letter layout was a fine nine letter jumble. The quotation marks, and the leading nature of the clue/question, gave me the answer.
Wonderful historical cartoon. Jeff has squeezed in some popular Rome attractions into the background. Fun tunics, togas and sandals too. A fabulous Friday Jumble! Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
Images courtesy of Google
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
Hey Unc, Happy Friday to ya..I had to go back to mantra as well, had to put letters in circle to figure out (is that cheating?). GO BILLS!! Wimpy
I call that backing into the word, Wimpy! I don’t consider it cheating, just kind of a last resort. Go Bills! — YUR
Sorry if this is a duplicate post. I forgot to “log in.”
I also got SENTRY right away but had to back into MANTRA and that took extra time because this final answer was not immediately obvious either. But I got the final answer first, and knowing the position of the two A’s was a big help in unscrambling MANTRA; there aren’t a lot of places those four consonants can go.
Was I complaining about a lack of new words recently? No, just noting it, but in any event, I’m over missing new words.
ALL TOLLED (sic) this puzzle took a well-above-average solve time for me and was the first time in a long time I had to back into a regular word two days out of three. Well played guys.
I had to “back into” MANTRA as well! It’s probably not a word that Bob Lee and Henri Arnold would have used back in the day, but we move forward with modern words like SUSHI and MODEM and, now MANTRA.
Well, I didn’t have to “back into” mantra, but I did have to skip it and come back to it. You guys know the difference. I didn’t go on to solve the final answer and then figure out what letters were needed/missing to get to mantra. Definitely NOT a word Bob Lee and Henri Arnold would’ve used! Ya know . . . saying things like that makes us sound old! LOL! — YUR 😉