Sunday Jumble Spoiler – 02/20/22

Visual Description:  Ballroom shoes vs. slippers.

SITNIS  =  INSIST,  MARLOC  =  CLAMOR,  TLMELA  =  MALLET,  FMNUIF  =  MUFFIN,  DEHULD  =  HUDDLE,  TTIENN  =  INTENT   —   Giving us:  SSCLMAEFIHDDIEN

Clue/Question:  He made up excuses for why he didn’t want to take Tango lessons to – – –

Pre-Answer:  Two Words  “(3-letters)-(5-letters)”  (7-letters)

Answer:  “DIS–DANCE“ HIMSELF

(A wonderfully stinky pun!  Playing up the ever popular stereotype of women wanting to go out dancing, while their husbands just want to stay home.  See, there is more than a little truth in most stereotypes!  LOL!  My wife is the dancer in our family.  But I don’t let her go out dancing with her friends.  Actually, she never asks, because she has a cousin who lost his wife to a dance instructor.  She was a sweet kid too.  I always liked her.  Such a shame that dancing led to the destruction of her marriage/family.

New clue words today?  Uh-uh!  But half of today’s jumbles were coming up as new, for me.  The ones we’ve definitely seen before were/are “sitnis”, “marloc” and “fmnuif”.  None of the jumbles stumped me this morning.  The answer letter layout made for a fantastic fifteen letter jumble.  The way the clue/question was phrased helped me to see HIMSELF.  And, from the SCADDIEN I was able to see the pun on DISTANCE . . . in “DIS-DANCE”.  Very good.

Great cartoon of the middle-aged couple, with different agendas.  She’s in her party dress and dancing shoes, while he’s all comfy in his favorite chair and slippers.  If he wants to make her happy – and keep his marriage – he’ll give in to her, and take those dance lessons.  If he’s smart, he’ll “accidentally” step on her toes so often that she’ll never ask him again!  LOL!  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google

Happy birthday to Ian Brown of Stone Roses!

Sunday Cryptoquote Spoiler – 02/20/22

“There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few we can solve by ourselves.”   —   Lyndon B. Johnson

(How can anyone not like a quote that extols the virtues of cooperation and teamwork?  Love him, or hate him, LBJ knew how to get people to work together . . . for the common good.  Of course, the world was a substantially simpler place back then, and he didn’t have to contend with the immediacy of the internet and social media.  But still, it would be a breath of fresh air if we could just get back to that mindset of working toward some middle/common ground . . . and just loosen the binds of our recalcitrance.  Too many of us have lost the concept of the “common good”, and it has resulted in a kind of stagnation, and a weakening of our country.  As #16 said, nearly 164 years ago, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”  It appears that history is repeating itself . . . again.  And, because we do not live in a vacuum, there are people out there who are more than happy to exploit this weakness.  I seriously doubt that Vladimir Putin would be so brazen if he was dealing with a more unified United States.  Maybe I’m wrong, but this is one man’s opinion.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

Happy birthday to Coy Bowles of the Zac Brown Band.  (I’m not a big Country Music fan, but I can give a little.  This sounds like a song that LBJ would have liked.  Simple pleasures.)