Jumble Solved – 06/07/24

Visual Description:  In the beginning!

DIWHT  =  WIDTH,  ZLAEB  =  BLAZE,  CURSPE  =  SPRUCE,  ENESEZ  =  SNEEZE   —   Giving us:  WDLZEPRUEZE

Clue/Question:  When the “Scramble” debuted in newspapers on Jun 7, 1954, readers – – –

Answer:  WERE PUZZLED

(But . . . only at first.  Soon they were digging it to the most, Daddy-o!  Happy 70th Birthday to our beloved Jumble, folks!  And we owe it all to a comic book artist named Martin Naydel,  the creator of the word game that was originally called “Scramble”.  Just a bit before my time.  I became a fan during the Henri Arnold and Bob Lee years.  And, for a while it was Mike Argirion and Jeff Knurek.  Then David L. Hoyt replaced Mike in 2011, and it’s been Jeff and David ever since!  Me???  Well, I’ve been posting Jumble “Spoilers” on this blog since spring of 2008.  It’s been a nice run.  But just like the past creators, I won’t be going on forever.  Eventually, I’ll be hanging up the old keyboard.

All familiar ralis95 Jumble clue words.  Three of the jumbles are coming up as new for me.  But Hoyt has used “curspe” in previous Jumbles.  No head scratchers for me today.  The answer letter layout was an enigmatic eleven letter jumble.  Wonderfully cryptic.  But I came up with the final answer immediately.

Great cartoon of the first day that the “Scramble” appeared in the newspaper.  The cartoon looks like a portly sailor and his pet parrot.  Not sure what the clue/question might have been, but the clue words only provide an H, an O, a C and an E.  The only word that could spell is ECHO.  It’s difficult to read but it looks like he might be saying:  THIS SPEAKS EVERY LANGUAGE.  So ECHO makes sense!  Wonderful Jumble.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR