| ivory, clout, ambush, weasel, (the) core issue. |
| detect, fickle, cattle, coarse, infamy, taught, get the drift of it.
Image from the Internet.
The opening poem contains all the words (or variations of them) from today's Jumble.
Comments are welcomed! And couching them in Poetry is definitely NOT required.
Do not explicitly reveal any of the actual answer words until after closing time, but embedding them surreptitiously in comment sentences is encouraged.
ReplyDeleteJ4
I may be wrong, Owen, but maybe both "E"s in the 4th word are needed for the solution. Anyway, that's the only way I could solve it. I'll keep watching for you to correct me.
"A Core Issue [in Old Russia]"
IN Czarist Russia the imperial police
enforced their rule with the knout,
a short whip with an ivory handle.
With a baton these packed real clout.
In the waning days of the monarchy
the Okhrana (secretly funded)
pulled nasty tricks to catch rebel bands;
the curfew and ambush trapped hundreds.
In lieu of being taken by them,
most folk would rather catch measles.
They viewed themselves as patriots, these cops,
but the proles saw them as weasels.
~ OMK
"The Winner"
ReplyDeleteThe candidate we chose to endorse
was frank, if, at times, a bit coarse.
But his strengths were clear to detect
when his record we had checked.
Many lessons he had taught
in the contests he had fought.
He avoided every pickle
with great candor, never fickle.
In the battle over cattle
he succeeded not to rattle.
With no infamy in his past
we were sure that he would last.
Citizens to him did drift
finding him an election gift.
And now the voting has been done
And we are proud that he has won.
Misty! ~ Good job!
ReplyDeleteThis message was applied later
to celebrate a candidate who,
though far from perfect,
was not a reject.
He may not have been best
in dealing with cattle,
but he was no rustler,
nor even a hustler,
and he rarely was rattled.
He took us over the hump
and out of our slump.
Best of all, he was no Trump.
We picked him out of the crowd,
and--surprise!--
he really made us proud.
~ OMK
Ol' Man Keith, what a terrific response to my verse--much cleverer and more fun than my original one.
ReplyDeleteYour first verse today was clearly inspired by the first Jumble--which is not available to me. But I enjoyed it very much--and, of course, your second one even more so. One of these days I'll have to see if I can respond to your Jumbles with a verse. We'll see.
My goodness, we sure don't get much company on a Sunday, do we, Ol' Man Keith?
ReplyDeleteWell, at least I'm thankful that you're such a faithful Jumble partner--thank you for that.
And you, dear Misty.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Owen will check in later on. I recall he did last Sunday. I am curious to know if it is my mistake or his error in not including both "E"s from that fourth word for the J4. (The word is "Weasel," and the solution I found--as in my poem's title-- is "The CORE ISSUE.")
I don't really know much about the Czarist secret police. But the 2nd clue word for the J4 is "Clout," and I immediately made a mental rhyme with "knout." And that in turn reminded me of a speech I once spoke in a play--Misalliance, by Shaw. I played Gunner, and gave an impassioned oration about how "girl students in Russia ... let themselves be cut in pieces with the knout!!"
Strange, isn't it, how we find our themes...?
~ OMK
____________
PS.. I made up the bit about an "ivory handle."
Mea culpa. I misspelt weasel as weasle, and positioned the circles based on my error.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you checked in with us, Owen.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't believe the strange words you know OMK--"knout"? Wow!
Yes, the knout. Then again English Bobbies were adept with the Billy Club.
ReplyDeleteI was reading a book early by Connelly, "Dark Sacred Night". I got started on CC about ten. CC went very , very slowly.
As I probably don't need to tell y'all.
J 6 went relatively quick. Had family but realized there was no L.
No time for poetry.
I see you both got into politics on the J6. I get the drift.
WC
I didn't get home with the newspaper until after six. Slept until ten. Ate and started solving CC. Got stuck and solved six J's.
Finally grok'ed that part with RBI and RING for match site(I thought he wanted a dating app).
Then I quickly got the riddle-solution.
And now it's after one EDT.
WC