All hints are in the comments!

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Dec. 14, 2019

|| || cable, vivid, gather, inhale, have a big head.
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.

19 comments:

OwenKL said...

"The day has come," the Knave declared,
"When entertainment must be shared!
Prime channels are nothing but pay T.V.
Weren't airwaves and cable enough to see?"

So the Knave of Hearts, he gathered some tarts
From a nudie bar that was in those parts,
Filmed some vivid scenes, really steaming!
The set up a channel and started streaming!

Almost before he had a chance to inhale,
The F.C.C. was jumping on his tail!
He argued that he needed such high-class Art,
Since the other guys had a big head start!

Sandyanon said...

So I checked out your jumble post to make sure I'd have the right arrangement of bubbles for the solution, then went to the Tribune site and what do you know, they had the right arrangement too. Actually, once the letters were there, the solution was pretty easy. As puns go, I'd give it a C-.

Then I read your poem. Very timely. (and you're really sneaky clever at incorporating solutions into your poems.) I have a couple of premium channels, but no streaming services -- as yet. Cable is pretty expensive by itself. I'd love to dispense with it, but don't know of any other feasible way to get a really wide spectrum of channels -- though I'm definitely not fond of Spectrum, hoho.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Sandy ~ FLN:
I appreciate your crediting Owen's poetic hint toward the solution, but if I understand your note to me you were looking elsewhere for the answer to the solution before reading the poem. Correct me if I'm wrong about that.
If that's what happened, I wonder why you didn't go directly to the poem to take advantage of his hint. I enjoy the thought that our small, self-elected circle usually provides all the hints we need.
~ OMK

Sandyanon said...

I know that it's very easy to be misunderstood in writing, and I often berate myself for not having been more explicit when I am misunderstood. But OMK, I honestly thought I was being explicit in my last two comments.

I like to solve jumbles on my own, so I try not even to look at Owen's poems until I've done so. That's what I did with today's -- not look. I looked at the cartoon on this site because the Tribune has recently not included some given words in their solution blanks, such as a given "the". And I had read Owen's descriptions of problems on other sites. And I trust Owen's depiction to be accurate.

I look on the jumbleanswers site for a solution only as a last resort. THEN I come to this site and read Owen's poem only for appreciation, not help. It's just my preference, OMK. I like to find the clues and solution in his poems when I already know them because, for me, I can appreciate them more thoroughly that way.

Now I have no doubt been boringly detailed and explicit, but I hope, at least clear.

Misty said...

Woohoo! Woohoo! After struggling with the crossword puzzle this morning, I came to the Jumble and got all four words almost instantly, and the solution came in a flash! Woohoo! And nice to see it in the last line of your poem, Owen. A great relief to what might have been a tougher weekend morning. Have a good one, everybody!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Yes, you were even more explicit this time, Sandy.
I see that I did interpret you correctly the first time. It turns out we have different understandings of the way in which we avail ourselves of the help on this site. My take is quite different. Maybe I'm misreading the title of this page, but I thought the idea was for us to seek or provide hints here. Thus, others who are having trouble might be helped in one place, not by seeing the blunt, naked answer, but by one or two additional hints--without having to seek those flat-out answers from different sources.
Clearly you are entitled to your method. Sorry to see we are in disagreement, but as "they" say, it's what makes the world go round. (Along with love and a combination of astrophysical forces.)
~ OMK

Sandyanon said...

Wow, did I put your back up, OMK? Sure didn't mean to. Hope I misread the feeling behind your words.

Please understand, I do, very occasionally, go to Owen's poem for help, but my own personal challenge is to do it without any help if at all possible. Even more rarely, I throw in the towel completely and go to an answer site in lieu of the poem.
So it's:
On my own
Owen's poem for help, rarely
An answer site, very rarely.

P.S. Whether rightly or wrongly, I read Owen's title to mean that hints are permissible, but surely not required.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I am not upset, Sandy. You have your way, and I have mine. I admit to some disappointment--and a bit of confusion. I certainly understand your wanting to solve the Jumble on your own. And that you sometimes use Owen's poems as a next line for hints. But why just "sometimes"? Why at other times shoot elsewhere to get the answer first? That is what confuses me. I think I am still missing something.
I mean, you're entitled to do it now one way & now another, but can you see why it is perplexing?
~ OMK

Ol' Man Keith said...

And I suppose I feel a bit more stake in this since I began offering some rhyming hints a while ago. I want to contribute to easing the path to solutions for others, but we are a very small group, and if there is no point...
~ OMK

OwenKL said...

As I originally envisioned it, this site was to be what Keith described -- a place to subliminally implant the answers to the Jumble so that they would pop into mind quickly, or to look for them if you had already tried but were stumped. And also a showcase for my poetry. But in practice, I think it has become more of what Sandy describes. A new game in itself, trying to catch the hidden words in the poem, much like those Highlights Magazine drawings with the hidden objects. And a showcase for my poetry. In the hidden word game, knowing the words in advance is necessary.

BTW Sandy, did you find the Jumble Answers site because of my mentioning it here once?

Wilbur Charles said...

OMK, regardless, your rhyming hints are another part of the entertainment. My posts are bland descriptions of my solving effort.

I had to work at the two 6's but gotem. Riddle-Solution was quickly apparent.

Another great poem. And I am the same as Sandy. I would look for the OMK hint but I try to avoid Owen until I solve.

But I'll get the answers from Owen's poem not an answer site. He does hide it.

I think ERATO has deserted me.

WC

Sandyanon said...

Yes, Owen, you have a link to jumbleanswer.com listed along with some others.

And I go there when I feel that the solution is so far out of reach that I just want to get the answer and move on to enjoying the poem.

Perhaps what you're missing about me OMK, is that I really love to read Owen's poems purely for pleasure, and it blunts the pleasure a bit when my first readthrough is a hunt for hints.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thanks, all.
I've let it go. Surely there is room for all. Hopefully, over a period of time there will be more readers & more commenters, so that the patterns of any one person will not tilt the balance. I hope there will be more hinters, enough so that this site may become the go-to place for those who are seeking some pointers, if only to keep the game alive a little longer.
Today is a tough one to rhyme anyway. Who wants to try?
Did you ever notice how few rhymes there are for the common English word, "have"?
~ OMK

Misty said...

I try to enjoy everything on this site, including Owen's poems, Ol'Man Keith's clever rhyming clues, Sandy's and Wilbur's comments, and the cartoon itself, on which I often comment. Diversity is fun, in my opinion.

Ol' Man Keith said...

No takers, eh? The trick is to try for more than just an end-rhyme, but to match as many words in the solution's phrase as possible--as well as the proper rhythm throughout.

Well, today's is a toughie. I was going to skip it, esp. if I could entice anyone else.
Here's my default response:
"My friend Alois operates a hybrid breeding farm. He has a goat whose plumbing is bizarre enough to calve a pig, said to be his most freakish 4H prize-winner."

Sorry...
~ OMK

OwenKL said...

"George Washington slept here" is a phrase you see at a lot of tourists spots back East. I never saw it growing up on Oregon, tho. Maybe because we didn't have any mattresses by his favorite mattress company, Higg. I don't see that sign in New Mexico, either. George Washington never slept here, because all our beds are single-size, which is what results when you halve a Higg bed!

OwenKL said...

"in Oregon", not "on Oregon". Boy, something went wrong with my feed. I didn't see any of the posts after 4:00 (whan Keith said he wasn't doing a rhyme today) until after I'd written my last comment. Sorry if I stepped on your toes again, OMK.

OwenKL said...

*** ALERT ***
For the Sunday J6 Jumble

The glitch strikes again! This time it's an apostrophe (or as president Trump calls it, a hyphen) that's missing at the end of the first 5-letter word. It is supposed to be
O OOOOO'O OOOOO OOOO.

The J4 is a single word, so no chance was given for the glitch to manifest.

Misty said...

Love you Jumble hint today, Ol'Man Keith--so glad you came up with this clever one!