Visual Description: “Dugout Doug” the smug.
GNNIEE = ENGINE, SLANMO = SALMON, NYARPT = PANTRY, RELENK = KERNEL, TSRAGI = GRATIS, GEEEMR = EMERGE — Giving us: NESLNPAYKRLGAIEGE
Clue/Question: MacArthur’s “I shall return” is one of the best military quotes of all time, – – –
Pre-Answer: Two Words (9-letters) (8-letters)
Answer: GENERALLY SPEAKING
(Ask most Filipino historians about General Douglas MacArthur and you will receive a less than glowing assessment of the man. He was a very intelligent man who graduated at the top of his class at West Point Military Academy, with rugged good looks, and a very strong sense of entitlement. He had a huge ego, similar to General Patton. He was very photogenic, and a bit of a drama queen. He cheated on his first wife, the rich socialite Louise Cromwell Brooks, with a Eurasian actress from the Philippines. That ultimately led to his divorce from Louise. He later married another rich socialite, Jean Marie Faircloth, and together they had a son, Arthur. MacArthur was buddy buddy with Philippine President Manuel Quezon, and was made “Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines” while drawing his Major General’s salary. This double dipping made him the highest paid soldier in the world. Later Quezon gave him the title of Field Marshall, in a rather grandiose ceremony, which was actually MacArthur’s idea, not Quezon’s. He retired from the U.S. military in late 1937, staying in the Philippines, but was recalled to active duty in July of 1941, a few months before the Japanese December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor. On that day, MacArthur effectively sat on his hands, even though there were requests for him to attack Japanese positions on Formosa, and nine hours later the Japanese bombed Clark Airfield and destroyed most of our Far East Air Force. This opened up the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, his retreat with his forces to Bataan and Corregidor, and his eventual escape to Australia. But U.S. and Filipino soldiers had to endure the Bataan Death March. MacArthur also accepted this crazy payment from President Quezon of $500,00.00 – today’s value would be more than $7 Million – a month before fleeing to Australia. And, there’s plenty more. Let’s just say I’m not a fan of the man.
We’ve definitely seen all of today’s clue words before. Four of the jumbles are coming up as new, but we’ve seen “relenk” and “geeemr” before. For a couple seconds I thought that “gratis” was ragist. Not a real word! The answer letter layout was a stupendous seventeen letter jumble! Excellently cryptic. The cartoon and its dialog set up the final answer very nicely.
I always enjoy Jeff’s historic occasion cartoons. On March 12, 1942 MacArthur leaves Corregidor, and there was NO speech. On March the 20th, the day he got to South Australia, he did make a speech in which he said: “I came through and I shall return”. Folks in Washington wanted him to amend his speech to “We shall return.”, but he said Uh uh! MacArthur was a very effective military leader, some might even say a genius. But he wasn’t exactly a “team player”. Can you folks say ego-maniac? Of course you can. LOL! Be well and be good, friends.) — YUR
Images courtesy of Google
Happy birthday to Sam Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet! (Definitely inspired by Led Zeppelin!)
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