| viper, gassy, nicely, ablaze, easy as pie. |
| shrewd, iconic, shrill, expert, normal, defuse, learned his "lessen".
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:
She who would be Mother Eve, but wasn't yet a mother,
Had had a tiff with Father Adam, who wasn't yet her lover.
She'd asked him nicely as she could, wasn't being sassy,
But did he have to burp so loud; could he stop being gassy?
She went to see a friend of hers, sinuous Vicky Viper
To commiserate that males were worse than a babe in diaper!
Vicky said her counterpart, she kept in a sexual haze
By wiggling her hips, but 'twas food set his eyes ablaze!
Eve wondered if that could be key to turning on her guy.
As easy as exotic fruit? So she cooked him a banana pie!
But that was an erotic fruit, the audacity made God gasp!
So He evicted all from Eden -- He kicked Eve out on her Asp!
There are ways to complain that will get you listened to
The shrewd way to do it is to think it thru.
You can take the iconic route with a protest sign,
Chanting o'erly shrill, or try something more benign.
You can quote from an expert, like Lincoln on the Web,
Cautioning not to swallow the words of each celeb.
Or try to sound normal, and stable, and sane,
To defuse all the rancor that's preventing any gain.
Sometimes the cause is great, but be wary of the passion
That would light his fireworks in destructive fashion.
Some have learned from history, it wasn't worth the candle
To light rockets to lessen ills, releasing worse to handle!
Hoo-RAH!
Happy to see you back, Owen! A welcome return to your own page, and with two outstanding poems. You are in fine fettle, old friend.
FLN Misty ~ I am properly chastised. Allow me to shift gears, to adopt a milder paean in what I shall call my...
Ode to W.C.
For Misty's sake, I'll keep it prim.
I'll dance inside, ne'er shake a limb.
My seat I'll keep,
Nor raise a peep,
But hymn in silent praise for him.
~ OMK.
J4
Joe knew the snooty bartender looked down on imbibers of bourbon and any alcohol that wasn't up to the mark of his favorite scotch.
Joe didn't give a damn.
He slammed his fist down on the bar and proclaimed, "Gimme any whisky, damn it, even one as sleazy as rye."
~ OMK
Really glad to see you back, Owen. I enjoyed both of your poems, but especially the second one. It seems to echo some of today's issues. I did check out the artwork you posted on FB, and I'm very glad you have two ways of dealing with depression -- both very creative.
As for the jumbles, the j4 wasn't a problem, and I appreciated the easy, punny solution. The second clue on the j6 gave me a bit of a pause, but not for too long, and once all the letters were there, the solution worked out readily. I chuckled at it too. Would that I could imitate him!
How wonderful to have you back, Owen, and what a positive, inspiring, helpful message! Bless you--you managed to get our Ol'Man Keith back to producing a lovely prim hymn.
J6
A Little Known History
Few people today know that George Washington’s German cousin, Georg Faschingstein, was the oberst in charge of a troop of mercenaries positioned directly opposite Washington’s men.
Even fewer know that George and Georg met secretly under cover of holiday truces. The general, crossing the river between them, had a private motive for these meetings. Knowing his cousin’s predilection for strong drink, he aimed to take advantage of the jolly holiday moods to persuade Georg to become a “mole” or spy for the revolutionary cause. Their first meeting, noted in George's diary, was prior to actual combat, on Christmas 1775, when Georg swilled nearly “3 jugs of nog.”
They met again on New Year’s Day and on Washington’s birthday.
George’s confidence grew, for in his diary he wrote, “By mardi gras, I shall have turned this Hessian!”
There are no further notations. But history records that on the next Christmas Day, George re-crossed the Delaware with considerable success.
~ OMK
How do you come up with these amazing stories, Ol'Man Keith? I was intrigued by this one but could find no George Faschingstein, although apparently Washington had a cousin named Sir William Washington. It wasn't until I came to your gloss that I figured you made it up--brilliant!
I got bogged down after getting #2(finally) with the riddle-solution. Even coming here and reading Owen's poem and OMK's gloss I didn't have it.
Finally I learned the first word wasn't RELEASED nor LESSENED. I still was ASEA on the third. But I think I grok'ed: eg A cross word clue ____ more
So, with two brilliant poems thanks to Owen, who's return is so welcome here, I'll let Bilbo think about how to get into Smaug's lair. Also, I guess there was some late action FLN that I have catch up on.
I was wondering about using #2*6 in a poem or anywhere. I looked it up to see if it was a real word.
I bought a WSJ at Walgreens ($5.00 ouch) and apparently someone has written another founding father book, this one focusing on Monroe (not as brilliant as M&M but with sure, steady judgement.
Monroe got involved in 1812 War doing Intel in Maryland. And of course his famous "Ne touchez pas" Doctrine (or was that Eve?)
WC
Or to take a page from OMK's book (turning things around):
Johnny caught little brother Billy eating his candy and cried I"just learned there's less S'amores!"*
WC
From the web:"Do you ever feel like your Girls Scout Cookies just aren’t sinful enough? Ever think that maybe they could have just a little more sugar, fat and calories? Well, here’s your answer, simply combine a Samoa & a S’more and get a S’amore! "
FLN, my blushes. Btw, You missed a comma OMK. There's only one Owen, though.
Perhaps with all the ammunition supplied by the two J's I can come up with something later.
WC
Which comma was that, good sir? One of yours--or mine?
Misty ~ I am at least as surprised as you. These little anecdotes and occasional poems are new to me, so I find it interesting to follow the creative thread. Turns out to be a string of associations.
I usually start with only one element in mind. In this case it was to work backward from "Hessian," a near rhyme for "Lessen."
That made me think of the first thing any American kid learns in school about Hessians, that they served as mercenaries for George III (another George!) during the Revolution.
So next, I sought a German name phonetically near Washington. The "stein" suffix was a natural. There is no "Vasching," but from the back of my memory popped the word, "Fasching." When I found it was the equivalent of "Mardi gras," the idea of holiday meetings entered into the story.
That Washington crossed the Delaware and obtained his first real victory over Hessians on Christmas 1776 was a fact I didn't have to make up. That became the historical hook for my little tale.
~ OMK
Keith this is my , change.
"In a trance(,)
Like a pup, I'd happily prance!
Actually, it was Sandy not you who mentioned I was missing a comma in one of my Bilbo's. So, I'm "passing the comma.
Ok, in third word there's six letters. Dah. LESSEN. I can't transcribe worth a fig.
I thought it was LESSES. Oops, that's six too.
WC
Busy Sunday on the jumble site!!
Good call, Wilbur. It fits the old system for separating clauses. I can't recall whether I considered it, but as a rule I try to eliminate commas that we were once taught to use--if the sense is clear w/o them.
This one could frame the subordinate clause "like a pup." But now that I think about it I might just as well cut the comma after "pup" to let the whole sentence flow.
It's not easy keeping all the rules straight--esp. when it comes to poetry. Commas in verse are sometimes used formally--just like capital letters to start lines--and sometimes simply to mark oral pauses. When I made my suggestion to you, it was meant to keep the sound moving past the period at the end of your line.
~ OMK
Keith, your tale reminded me of Adam Weishaupt, said to be a doppelganger for George Washington, though in 1776 he was still creating the Illuminati in Bavaria.
My goodness, Owen, I forgot to mention that Faschingstein bought his army commission in order to squeak out of Bavaria just in time to evade pre-Illuminati hit men. He "wusste zu viel" about the Weishaupt scam & needed get away from the thugs to alert cousin George.
~ OMK
It was good to get away from the mouth of the cave.
The air was gassy, perhaps from the viper's breath
Or perhaps anxiety. Bilbo felt neither bold nor brave,
Perfectly normal. "Perhaps I'm just out of my depth."
For Bilbo had learned that Smaug was shrewd and cunning
Not that entering the cave would be easy as pie.
Just then, looking West, where the setting sun lie
It's light ablaze, Bilbo shouted, the dwarves came running
He'd heard too the sound of the iconic thrush cracking a snail
On the rocks. And yes, the moon soon grew faint and pale.
Bilbo thought of the lesson he'd learned at Elrond's home.
"Quick Thorin the key!". Soon was revealed the dome
Of the passage. They had found Smaug's back door.
But Bilbo knew he must soon defuse the dragon's ire
For he had heard the tales of the dragon's deadly fire
"If I can't outwit the beast then this hobbit'll be no more."
WC
Here is the background as revealed by Elrond at the Last Homely House:
Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks," read Elrond, "and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the key-hole."
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