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| giant, catch, decode, shrank, changed hands.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.
Solution makes perfect sense in the accepted idiom. But I can't figure out, for the life of me, how it has any other halfway real meaning.
ReplyDeleteGood thing I'm not a jumble editor, isn't it!
Could the Sox finally catch a break?
ReplyDeleteDavy must be careful, can't make a mistake.
The coach had decoded the catcher's signs
90 feet was the distance between the two lines
It seemed as if his lead at first had shrank to just six feet
Could he steal second, Roberts was known to be fleet.
The pitch is thrown, the runner's off, they'll catch him if they can.
A cloud of dust and there standing on second is a giant of a man.
Now the pressure was on the Yanks, the advantage had changed hands.
The ever dependable Mueller's up, there's a murmur in the stands
(To be continued)
Sandy, that's the vernacular from a baseball point of view
ReplyDeleteAnybody recognize the place and time?
History's in the making
WC
Meaning 1 changed hands = changed ownership
ReplyDeleteMeaning 2 changed hands = changed whose hand would be wearing the glove.
"Changing Teams"
ReplyDeleteTo catch a giant is no simple task.
Ask any Brobdingnagian-trapper you know,
heroes named Jekk or Jacques--mainly Jack--
and they'll tell you
it's a big do,
a major change in his status quo.
In one infamous tale Jack had to decode
the formula that kept André so huge.
It took all Jack's knowledge of genes,
and plenty of math, till it finally seems
Jack shrank him to the size of a ventriloquist's stooge.
For it seems when you've cracked it,
the code is no more than a fraction
of what scares you
and dares you
to think you're not what you short it,
however you happened to've bought it.
~ OMK
New & Improved
ReplyDeleteFor what I meant to say,
a better title would be
Changing Sides.
~ OMK
OMK, was that an allusion to the famous wrestler Andre the Giant? Or to an earlier giant naned Andre?
ReplyDeletePerhaps for whom the wrestler borrowed the name
Re. Today's CC...Anybody else read Bartleby the Scrivener?
Anybody else work in an office with a Bartleby around? eg an efficient oddball . Our guy saw a picture of Betsy and said " How'd the likes of you marry such a beautiful woman?"
Thinking he was insulting me but the effect was just the opposite
WC
W.C.~ Interesting postings & questions, Wilbur!
ReplyDeleteYou set a nice tension in your poem. You provided just enough data for a non-aficionado like me to Google & get the 4th game of the 2004 Al championship. Quite a steal! Dave Roberts wasn't just speedy; he had timing and cunning, essential assets in such a "pinch."
Yes, I know the Melville story. The unlikeliest hero of all.
You never know what lurks behind the facade, eh?
No, I wasn't referencing a particular giant. I just needed two syllables a reader would recognize as a giant's name--and that's the one we all know.
~ OMK
Wow! Wow! Terrific Jumble poetry this morning, Wilbur and Ol' Man Keith, with all the Jumble words beautifully worked in. A real treat--thank you both!
ReplyDelete"Betting"
ReplyDeleteThe rewards of the bet were so giant
that Frank played all rules compliant.
He was engaged, and needed to catch
big funds to support his love-match.
So he tried hard to decode
all the signs that the betting showed,
and two or three times he changed hands
in the hope of making some grands.
But just as his hopes somewhat shrank
he won, and ran off to the bank.
The game had not been a prank,
and Frank was now filled with thanks.
Ok, Owen, so we are to see both an idiom and also a literal meaning? Guess I subsumed both under the idiom and failed to see them as separate. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteLucky (literally!) Frank...
ReplyDeleteHe owes you his thanks, Misty, for giving him a good run for his $$.
It must have helped his case that he was playing to "support his love-match." That put him on your side, right?
Now at least he can afford to buy her a ring!
~ OMK
Yes, Ol' Man Keith, that's exactly what I hope Frank will do with the money he got from his betting: by her a lovely ring!
ReplyDelete“Frank, I think I got ya beat,” said Mike.
ReplyDelete“I've a Dead Man’s Hand!—Aces up!”
Frank’s stomach churned. Mike was right.
Frank had two pair too, but only Tens on top.
Mike reached for the pot. Too eagerly?
“Wait!,” said Frank, a bit quick to douse
Mike’s joy. “One more ten--I got three!
I believe that means I’ve got a Full House.”
And so it was that Frank, the loser,
proved he wasn’t a dime a dozen.
He wasn’t a bum; he wasn’t a boozer.
He was a real sport, and now--a husband!
~ OMK
Do you know that the Gambler's Anonymous folk have the hardest time saying "Clean "? The latest temptation are the bit coin derivatives.
ReplyDeleteI invested in Merrill lynch and futures were suggested. I saw a dangerous road in that business.
I knew a guy that just couldn't shake the gambling bug.
Then again some like Frank get lucky but do they quit while ahead?
It seems no. And....
OMK I see you're experimenting with different styles. What do you call it when the rhymes occur within the lines as in loser, boozer. But I see they were standard after all.
WC
Ps, how'd everything go with friend from 50 years ago. Did you exchange Shakespearian quotes?
ReplyDeleteOl' Man Keith, I loved the way you turned Frank's story into a much more complicated gambling poem. Terrific! I'm not sure I understand the game, but I love the verse! Thank you for that great follow-up!
ReplyDelete