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| manly, beach, softly, jovial, join them.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.
18 comments:
"B.M.O.C."
With his manly physique in the pool
and his jovial manner of leading the team,
our water polo captain was the hit of the school
as he softly nursed his flask of Jim Beam.
~ OMK
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P.S. A Rhyming Response to Today's Solution.
It's what we call a favorite bon mot of the British Revolutionary War general, the man nicknamed "Gentleman Johnny."
ANS.--A "Burgoyne Gem"!
The studs and he-men are on muscle beach,
Posing to show off their manly physiques.
The beach-bunnies love the hunks of meat,
But except for air-heads, it's poets they seek!
The scrawny, the stocky, the dweebs and nerds,
The darkly disturbed, those with jovial words!
With speech they charm, write odes to beauties!
(And their earning potentials make good booty!)
Let the muscle_heads flex and prance around.
The techies and writers make firmer ground!
Come time for commitment (or serious nookies),
The bunnies will join them and forsake bullies!
Jinx!
I'm surprised--we nearly tripped over one another!
I see I was too hasty though, neglecting one word. Allow me to repair it.
Change "pool" to that word, making the first line end with "on the [word]."
The the final two lines should read:
"Our water polo captain was difficult to teach
because he spent so much time softly nursing Jim Beam."
~ OMK
"Courtship and Teaching"
Kim considered Stanley a peach.
She had met him on the beach
and was charmed by his gentle speech
which he used when he had to teach.
He spoke softly to his students
and taught them with much prudence
but permitted no impudence.
His jovial and manly style
did never the youngsters rile
and so teaching awards did pile,
and gave him an excellent file.
Yes, Stanley was a real gem
and so Kim her love did not stem
and married her beau in Septem
and had all the students join them.
Fantastic, Misty!
Four (count 'em, four!) levels of rhyme in three outta four stanzas--and three rhymes in the outlier!
That is an amazing job. She deserves taking some liberties to achieve it. We needn't be too strict about proper word order--or which syllable to accentuate.
And when she switches clue words outta the line-ending positions, she is only changing her own self-imposed practice.
Most intriguing (and my personal favorite) is chopping September to Septem! I think we should make that a permanent change, her gift to everyday English.
And BTW, this Stanley character seems a real pedagogic prize! How could Kim not fall for a teacher like that?
Owen ~ A very fine entry today.
I loved the cataloging of the beach-hugging types in the second stanza. And who could object to the moral in the end? This was first class work. Thank you, good sir!
~ OMK
Many thanks for the kind words, Ol' Man Keith. I hadn't planned to go off my grid this way today, but ran into problem when I could find no words to rhyme with MANLY or JOVIAL, and that left me pretty much stuck. But surely SEPTEM deserved a harsh critique--or a clever one by turning it upside down, as you so kindly did. So again, many thanks.
So, OMK, I had to look up Jim Beam before I could respond to your (always) brief but very clever and complex verse. So your fellow is a student active on the water polo team at school? How on earth did he ever get a hold of a bottle of whiskey? Your correction suggests that he didn't drink it in the pool--so what happens when he flunks all of his classes because he's too smashed to pay attention in class? Lots of fascinating issues to raise with just four lines!
And then along comes Owen's delightful poem, making it clear that young women aren't stupid and can appreciate poetic boyfriends. Well, that would be especially true if they could read your terrific poem!
Glad you cracked the mystery of Jim Beam, Misty.
That was my (occasional) drink of choice in grad school. No, I didn't drink it (not much) as an undergrad.
But I wonder that you were surprised that the team captain could get whisky. It is never too hard for underage undergrads to get booze if they want it. And athletes--even water polo stars--are humored in our schools. It is generally rumored that coaches will intervene with profs on behalf of the poorer scholars.
Our own university is especially proud of our water polo champs. Of course it is pure fiction that any of them are drinkers. Or not simply outstanding students...
~ OMK
Well, my liquor innocence may have had something to do with attending Catholic High School and, initially, a Catholic Girl's College--where the only permitted vice was smoking in the rec room during our evening visits there--which started me on ten years of smoking (ugh). So no Jim Beam for me, ever. But I do now enjoy a couple glasses of Merlot at dinner time.
Recovered from his shock, Chet reflected on the year.
He had been reluctant at first to join them, the usual fear
Of asking for help seemed so unmanly. At first he balked.
Many a time in those first few months he almost up and walked .
The suggestions in the Big Book were no day at the beach
Cleaning house , making amends all seemed out of reach
But the joviality in the rooms , the welcoming camaraderie
Not to speak of the delicious cake at the celebrants parties,
All this kept kept Chet coming and perhaps he did surmise
That in addition to new-found self esteem, Lois might be the prize.
His Sponsor John knew that speaking softly not the stick
Was the best approach to win Chet's trust and perhaps that did the trick
WC
Well Misty, if Jim Beam is a mystery then Chet's need for AA must be too. We just talked about how virtually everyone has known a Chet or Lois in their family or their travels.
And you are progressing nicely and I see you're listening to your sponsor, OMK. Today your verses flowed and I agree with Keith, SEPTEM was genius.
I see the combo of 1 and 2 got Owen and OMK onto similar trails. I thought the hunks looked ridiculous strutting around but they did attract the bunnies.
Also, I'm finding there is one more thing more boring than talking crossword talk. My poetry.* I got out of the house this morning but had to get back in bed. If I could just dump this cough
WC
**Ergo I greatly appreciate your encouragement on my latest endeavor. Especially Sandy who will drop in just to make a make constructive comments.
Hopefully in Thursdays long one it was clear that CHUCK got the medallion and poor Chet had to get over the shock.
Thanks for clarifying, WC; I get that Chuck stole the glory Chet wanted for himself.
Today's verse takes Chet a little further on his journey. We see how the right sponsor makes an enormous difference.
Fingers firmly crossed for Chet!
I sometimes think the reason the bunnies hang around the hunks is because female intuition can spot the neediest. The big guys' rampant narcissism cries out for attention, doesn't it?
How desperate & lonely they would feel if after 1,000 reps of sit-ups & curls NOBODY cute even said Hello...!
~ OMK
Well, Wilbur, it seems to me that Chet's progressing pretty well. Not to say he hasn't had doubts, of course. John seems like the ideal sponsor. Tell me, is he quite typical? I'm sure that newbies could be scared off by a stern sponsor.
Sandy, AA Central services has quite bit of literature (a lot it on the web) and one booklet is on sponsorship. The Big Book talks about it too) .
Somewhere between stern and CODDLEing is the ideal. They say only 1 in ten make it.
The key for the sponsor is "Does this guy* want it? Is he willing to do the work? One of my peeves is telephone sponsorship. The meetings and meet-ups are the key.
** On the female side I'm sure things are different. Same principles.
OMK, Sandy, Misty and anyone out there following the saga there's a denouement.
"Chuck" was a friendly guy, a bit of a kook. He would talk about the ten foot rabbit who accompanied him around *. I never saw him make coffee, cleanup or make any meaningful contribution. Several years later on that same date he was at another meeting. I grabbed a spare chip , gave a nice talk and said "Congratulations Chuck on your ?th anniversary ". He was as thrilled as I was dumbstruck earlier. I had vowed never to care about my own anniversary. I had grown in the interval.
WC
*And you all know where he stole that one from
Wilbur, you sound like a true success story.
Wilbur, your Chet poem today was so wonderfully encouraging, it just warmed my heart, and I just loved it! Thank you also for all your wonderful comments to the overall discussion your poem prompted. And I hope you can get some rest after your busy and productive day!
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