Visual Description: Class discipline.
ORTFN = FRONT, TRIDH = THIRD, JCEBTO = OBJECT, SNAFET = FASTEN — Giving us: FRTIDOBFAS
Clue/Question: When Nate had to stay after school, he was – – –
Answer: “BOARD“ STIFF
(A great stinky pun! With some other words, and some other letters the answer also could have been BOARD SILLY, BOARD TO DEATH, or BOARD TO TEARS. The pun comes from the bored play, and not necessarily the descriptive portion.
None of today’s clue words came up as new. Although three of the jumbles did. We have definitely seen “snafet” sometime in the past. The answer letter layout was a cryptic ten letter jumble. I did not pick up on the quotation marks right away, so this wasn’t an immediate solve for me today, so the answer letter layout did a good job of hiding the answer . . . from me.
Fine cartoon from our guest cartoonist, Lincoln Peirce. My newspaper does not carry “BIG NATE”, but strips with kids as the main characters are usually pretty funny. It was giving me kind of a “Nancy and Sluggo” vibe. That’s an oldie that I haven’t seen in a while. Although, I think it is still running in some newspapers. Lots of fun. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
Images courtesy of Google
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
UR, like you I had trouble with the solution (the words were easy). Part of my problem is having a “feel” for the humor and visual clues of Hoyt and Knurek. I had some trouble with the final solutions all week but today’s bothered me more than the first 4 days. When I did solve it, I “got” the BORED/BOARD pun but I could not fully “get” how BOARD STIFF match up with the cartoon. It was just a stretch too far for me.
Regarding Nancy and Sluggo, Their comic books were one series I read back in the 60’s. I still had a few copies in my large comic book collection I just disposed of (about 1.800). I found myself reading many that I had not looked at for decades. One that I found was Sugar and Spike (I had a near complete set). I was stunned how much meaning I missed as a kid as I read them again at 67. Did you ever read this title?
Especially when it’s a cartoon/artist with whom you’re not familiar with, Gary. I think you had to go to Nate’s expression just for the bored part. The “stiff” could have easily been “silly”, “to tears”, or “to death”. Once I got it, I liked it. — YUR
I can’t say as I have, Gary. Was the comic book 10¢ or 12¢? Some of the earliest ones I read – but doubtful I kept – were in that price range. — YUR