Cryptoquote Spoiler – 05/24/21

“Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.”   —   Thomas Hardy

(It seems – as I get older at least – that I am more disappointed than surprised by change.  Like with the WordPress changes.  I’ve always liked to keep my Spam file clean/empty, but this new version of WordPress allows me to delete only 20 spam comments at a time.  Very annoying when there are a hundred to three hundred spam comments, which WAS fairly large, but not a daily occurrence.  It takes FOREVER!  Sunday I arrived to 1.9K spam.  I got rid of 100.  Right now it’s at 12K!  There is NO WAY I can delete 12,000 spam comments at 20 per shot.  It also takes a stupid long time between every Delete to bring up the next 20.  I am all for change when it makes for things being more efficient, and easier to use, but the WordPress changes they have put in place are positively moronic!  I guess we’ll see what happens if I just let nature run its course.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

Happy birthday to Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes!  (Brother Chris always reminded me of Mick Jagger.)

Jumble Spoiler – 05/24/21

Visual Description:  Doing homework in the kitchen.

NYUSN  =  SUNNY,  GULHA  =  LAUGH,  FECEAD  =  DEFACE,  CTEKOL  =  LOCKET   —   Giving us:  SNLAHDACOET

Clue/Question:  The young student looked up the word “FIST” in the dictionary which was – – –

Answer:  CLOSE AT HAND

(Ah!  A figurative AND literal pun!  All depending on how you pronounce the word CLOSE.  The S sound, or the Z sound.  It’s nice to see a kid actually using a physical dictionary, and not just Googling the word, to find various dictionaries, for the definition, and clarifying the spelling.  I wouldn’t be surprised if some kids didn’t know what an actual dictionary looks like.

No new clue words today.  Three of the jumbles are coming up as new for me.  But we’ve most definitely seen “gulha” before.  No stumpers for me today.  The answer letter layout was an efficient eleven letter jumble.  I though it did a fine job of hiding the final answer.  I went with HAND first, then tried to decide whether the two letter word was TO or AT.  But seeing CLOSE resolved that minor issue.

Great family scene cartoon.  I went to the Chicago Tribune site and the USA Today site, but neither of those gave me a cartoon big enough – even when clicking to enlarge – to make out the detail of the design on Dad’s t-shirt.  They really weren’t any better than the one in my newspaper.  It doesn’t seem like it’s relevant to the puzzle, but probably just a little inside joke.  I loved the little puppy dog dozing in the corner.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google

Happy birthday to Vivian Trimble of Luscious Jackson!