Sunday Jumble Spoiler – 08/06/17

Visual Description:  Excavating for a mine?

PARTUB  =  ABRUPT,  XREEIP  =  EXPIRE,  THIGCL  =  GLITCH,  TONGET  =  GOTTEN,  GELUNF  =  ENGULF,  DOHSAW  =  SHADOW   —   Giving us:  PTEPIGIHGTNGUSAD

Clue/Question:  The archaeologists once dated and couldn’t help – – –

Pre-Answer:  Four Words  (7-letters)  (2-letters)  (3-letters)  (4-letters)

Answer:  DIGGING UP THE PAST

(Wow!  Quite a site.  I guess they both had a lot of dirt on each other.  The strata of their earlier relationship seemed to be full of shards of painful memories.  And, it doesn’t look like they’re willing to bury the hatchet. 

All of today’s clue words are old favorites.  Five of the jumbles did come up as new though.  They have definitely used “partub” before.  The answer letter layout was a rare find!  I thought that DIGGING was pretty well hidden.  But, whenever there is a P and a U in the answer letter layout, and one of the answer word slots is two letters, UP is almost always a given.  And of course,  the clue/question and the great cartoon led me to uncovering the answer.  Great cartoon of Mediterranean ruins.  Greek, or Roman?  A little hard to tell which.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR