| || crest, hilly, frigid, hardly, left high (and) dry.
Image from the Internet.
The opening poem contains all the words (or variations of them) from today's Jumble.
Comments are welcomed!
Do not explicitly reveal any of the actual answer words until after closing time, but embedding them surreptitiously in comment sentences is encouraged.
When Europeans tried to climb
ReplyDeleteThe slopes of Mauna Loa
Thick thickets in the frigid clime
Kept them to foothills lower!
The natives had a trail well-trod
Right up to the crest
But arrogance, a malignant god
Said White Men knew the best!
Parties left to reach the height
Of lava and of snow.
Ran dry of water, and air was tight,
They hardly traveled slow!
When at last some reached the peak
Their measurements were off.
And so their victory was bleak,
Today's explorers scoff!
(I've just been reading up on attempts to climb Mauna Loa.)
#3 left me cold until I grok'ed the theme and reworked the remaining two letters. Duh. I had guessed it but didn't think it fit.
ReplyDeleteThere's no royal road to stupidity.* Throw in arrogance and stubbornness and one is left ...
FLN. I did the J earlier but was running around and my phone never charged right. This I read everything this morning.
When I looked at the cartoon I said, "That's a spoof of inane lyrics from second rate Rock. Lo and behold.
Both Owen and Sandy immediately recognized the group and song. Which got me thinking. ..
I'm always amazed at how much and how little folks in CC-land are familiar with. TV, Pop music and culture and sports.
And of course how much they know about the fields they are interested in.
Now... I did the Sunday Post xword (Birnholz) where Chaim Potok, Nora Ephron and Hale Irwin, and several others were clued. Diverse? Tell me about it.
And the first names were scrambled but the first had "The Chosen" in the clue so I grok'ed what Evan was doing.
WC
* I'm referring to the Mauna Loa climbers in Owen's poem
Btw, Hale is a golfer
ReplyDeleteOff to a meeting this morning, so just skimmed through the crossword. But had a quick look at the Jumble and got all four words immediately, and then the theme popped right up. The discussion of water by the cartoon figures helped a lot with that. Will try to comment more later.
ReplyDeleteGot a kick from the poem. I realized how much I enjoy the rollicking 4/3 rhythm, not uncommon in ballads.
ReplyDeleteThe ending threw me for a bit. I thought "some reached the peak" meant that they had. Maybe "At last some claimed they'd reached the peak" would serve better.
Yep, this was one of the easier jumbles, with the solution apparent from the get-go. Not a bad play on words, as the idiom is rarely displayed so literally.
Not an easy one to rhyme. hmm. "She hasn't yet suffered the weight of her loss. She'll feel bereft bye & bye."
~ OMK
I had a similar experience to Misty's FLN. That is, I looked at the cartoon and the solution came right to my mind. No need for the clues, but I unscrambled them just for completeness. The solution was so literally connected to the cartoon that it didn't strike me as funny or very interesting.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the poem's narrative. I followed Owen's link and read of the climbing attempts. Yes, I guess Menzies was pretty arrogant, but at least he did finally learn better -- pay attention to local knowledge.
Wilbur -- FLN you give me too much credit for recognizing the song. I just assumed the lyrics in the cartoon were real and googled them.
ReplyDeleteThe con man who flirted with the beautiful grifter caught both her deft lie and her eye.
Keith -- a party of White men did reach the peak eventually, but the link here tells how it was a comedy of errors that they did it.
Thanks!--an eye-opening read.
ReplyDeleteOwen ~ Neat, but cut "her." Less is more. Given your context, deft lie & eye is perfect.
ReplyDelete~ OMK
***ALERT***
ReplyDeleteIf you work the Jumble at Shockwave or Uclick, it's messed up again. The solution is
OOO OO OOO OOO OOO, not
O_O OO OOO OOO OOO.
There is no way to enter it that will get you a ta-da.