Cryptoquote Spoiler – 03/03/20

“Let us love Winter, for it is the Spring of genius.”   —   Pietro Aretino

(Poet, playwright . . . and blackmailer?  He called himself the “scourge of princes”.  And, he’s been called The World’s Greatest Hustler!  He has also been called a bisexual libertine, and it looks like he used his *encounters* to fuel his blackmailing.  This appears to be the first of his quotes to be used in the Cryptoquote, at least as long as I’ve been posting these spoilers.  So, we welcome “the Devine Aretino” to the Cryptoquote Club today.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

Jumble Spoiler – 03/03/20

Visual Description:  Has it been THAT long???

CEREH  =  CHEER,  TCEFH  =  FETCH,  TOTTAO  =  TATTOO,  NLNEIO  =  ONLINE   —   Giving us:  HERETTTTOLE

Clue/Question:  Her students were learning cursive and following her instructions – – –

Answer:  TO THE LETTER

(A mildly stinky pun.  Ah, the lost art of cursive, or more simply:  handwriting . . . as opposed to printing.  It was a common part of education in elementary school when I was growing up.  It seems that a lot of schools abandoned it for a while.  But, I hear it is making a comeback.

All of today’s clue words are already on the ralis95 clue word database.  However, all four jumbles appear to be new.  I didn’t really struggle with any of them, but it actually took me a couple of looks to see the simple word “cheer”.  Funny.  The answer letter layout was a fine eleven letter jumble.  But, with all those Ts and Es, and the way the answer slots laid out, the final solution was no problem.

Great cartoon, but . . . what the heck?!  It makes it look like they haven’t taught cursive since the days of “Little House on the Prairie”.  Teach looks like a turn-of-the-century school marm, and there’s a feeling of a one-room schoolhouse about it.  Jeff kinda had to make the blackboard more of a whiteboard, but that’s just the limitations of cartooning.  I liked the tri-chalk holder.  Remember those?  Today, you’d be hard pressed to find a blackboard and chalk.  They all use whiteboards and erasable markers.  The only thing that Jeff left out was the eraser!  A little funky, but fun cartoon/Jumble.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google