There are several other Jumble blogs, but the ones I checked all started off by listing the answers. In this blog, answers can be either hinted at or masked by burying them in comments. No overt spoilers!
The opening poem contains all the words (or variations of them) from today's Jumble.
Comments are the lifeblood of a blog!
Read the comments, and reply to them if you are so moved!
The invading creatures from Beyond the Void Helped Humans in ways they couldn't avoid! With a common enemy, nations ended all enmity. For once the whole globe was dancing in unity!
To show their power, the aliens destroyed Tokyo! (There was no scarcity of amateur videos.) In the center of town they left one lone pagoda, And two blocks away, a statue of Buddha.
With no means of avoidance, Earth surrendered. The invaders were firm in the terms they tendered. They left with 4 billion captive Earth Humans, Were they going as slaves, or to be stew men?
The result was that over-population was solved. A second gift in which the aliens were involved. Centuries later, the invaders returned in profusion, No war ensued -- half their leaders were Humans!
Well, the silliest thing happened with this jumble. I misread the letters in the first clue word and gave myself no end of problems trying to figure out an impossibility. The other words were no problem, and I saw what I thought must be the first word of the solution almost immediately.
I unscrambled the first clue word as "nifty", and that gave me a second solution word which could only be "decaf", as in coffee. Ridiculous, right? Well, after finally rereading the first clue word and unscrambling it correctly, the whole solution became obvious. And I felt like an idiot.
The poem had a really inventive solution to overpopulation, though I read it would have been only temporary. And how do you suppose those aliens could transport 4 Billion(!) humans? Maybe they had shrink/frozen sleep technology, so they could pack insect-sized humans in tiny containers for the trip? And I loved that their goal was not slavery or a food supply, but total integration. What a great civilization!
-- I was thinking of Joseph in Egypt -- sold into slavery, but managed to work himself up to pharaoh's right-hand man. So yes, taken as slaves, but humans have a tendency to persevere. -- Some sort of shrinkage would have to be involved. Outside of the story I was telling. -- Tokyo -- I intended to say either they had been giving warning to evacuate, or the destroy ray disintegrated only buildings. Tho that would still be hard on executives on the 64th floor. But the poem was getting bloated as it was, so I left that part out. When you're looking for slaves, it's not a good policy to massacre them first!
So slaves, but at least not food, which is what I interpreted "stew men" to mean. And you're quite right; 4 billion humans would be hard to keep subjugated.
I still wonder just how long it would take humanity to replace that 4 billion population loss. And add to it as well. Unfortunately not long, I imagine.
Well, I'm really glad I came to this site, because I thought I had a Jumble solution, though it looked weird to me because it started with the first Jumble word. When I read Owen's neat poem and your comments, I realized that this just couldn't be right, and went back to try again. This time I tried another first word, and Voila! I got it. Many thanks, Owen and blog friends, you're a huge help!
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| video, unify, scarce, pagoda, "avoid-dance".
The invading creatures from Beyond the Void
ReplyDeleteHelped Humans in ways they couldn't avoid!
With a common enemy, nations ended all enmity.
For once the whole globe was dancing in unity!
To show their power, the aliens destroyed Tokyo!
(There was no scarcity of amateur videos.)
In the center of town they left one lone pagoda,
And two blocks away, a statue of Buddha.
With no means of avoidance, Earth surrendered.
The invaders were firm in the terms they tendered.
They left with 4 billion captive Earth Humans,
Were they going as slaves, or to be stew men?
The result was that over-population was solved.
A second gift in which the aliens were involved.
Centuries later, the invaders returned in profusion,
No war ensued -- half their leaders were Humans!
Well, the silliest thing happened with this jumble. I misread the letters in the first clue word and gave myself no end of problems trying to figure out an impossibility. The other words were no problem, and I saw what I thought must be the first word of the solution almost immediately.
ReplyDeleteI unscrambled the first clue word as "nifty", and that gave me a second solution word which could only be "decaf", as in coffee. Ridiculous, right? Well, after finally rereading the first clue word and unscrambling it correctly, the whole solution became obvious. And I felt like an idiot.
The poem had a really inventive solution to overpopulation, though I read it would have been only temporary. And how do you suppose those aliens could transport 4 Billion(!) humans? Maybe they had shrink/frozen sleep technology, so they could pack insect-sized humans in tiny containers for the trip? And I loved that their goal was not slavery or a food supply, but total integration. What a great civilization!
Of course, they did destroy a whole city. Hmmmm.
"fear" not "read".
Delete-- I was thinking of Joseph in Egypt -- sold into slavery, but managed to work himself up to pharaoh's right-hand man. So yes, taken as slaves, but humans have a tendency to persevere.
Delete-- Some sort of shrinkage would have to be involved. Outside of the story I was telling.
-- Tokyo -- I intended to say either they had been giving warning to evacuate, or the destroy ray disintegrated only buildings. Tho that would still be hard on executives on the 64th floor. But the poem was getting bloated as it was, so I left that part out. When you're looking for slaves, it's not a good policy to massacre them first!
So slaves, but at least not food, which is what I interpreted "stew men" to mean. And you're quite right; 4 billion humans would be hard to keep subjugated.
ReplyDeleteI still wonder just how long it would take humanity to replace that 4 billion population loss. And add to it as well. Unfortunately not long, I imagine.
Well, I'm really glad I came to this site, because I thought I had a Jumble solution, though it looked weird to me because it started with the first Jumble word. When I read Owen's neat poem and your comments, I realized that this just couldn't be right, and went back to try again. This time I tried another first word, and Voila! I got it.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Owen and blog friends, you're a huge help!