| || above, swish, pellet, sturdy, "watts" up?
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.
10 comments:
I would be pretty upset too, if my electronic bill tripled. Fortunately mine stays pretty much the same each month, even with more time spent in-home during this pandemic.
And I enjoyed this really easy jumble, with a clever homophonic pun as the solution. You would think there might be a difference in the initial sound of the first word, but actually I think most people end up pronouncing both versions the same way.
My electric bill is always way too high, but I know we are quite frugal in our use. I suspect there is some weird drain, maybe an illegal tap, but the company offers no resources for investigating.
There used to be a difference in the initial sound, at least for those who cared to speak "correctly." We used to aspirate the "h" before saying the "w." But that rule is considered old school now--like saying "February" with the "r" before the "u."
Both rules gone with the wind...
I still make a distinction in the vowel, pronouncing one with the sound in "up," and the other with the vowel in "cot."
"Knots Up"
His large knife swished through the sturdy vine
as pellets and darts rained from above.
Tarzan peered up at his foe, the swine,
who'd tried to crush him & his beloved,
Jane, with the vine-knotted boulder
he rendered no good with a quick 2nd cut.
He grunted to Jane as he rolled her
to safety. Then with a coconut
he conked his enemies' chief,
causing them to surrender--w/ no further grief.
~ OMK
Swisher Mack he was called, he had an eagle eye
But he warmed the bench like Wilbur and here's the reason why
Though sturdy of build Jimmy was stuck to that seat
For truth be told, Swisher was born with two left feet
He could reach above the rim of that we needn't quibble
But alas,with the pellet in hand, Swisher couldn't dribble
But he wasn't bothered by absence from the starting lineup
His greeting to one and all was "Hey dude, what's up"
WC
The tennis match was heating up,
Contending for the Winner's Cup!
To serve, one tossed above his head,
A racquet's swish, the pellet sped
Across the net, to the sturdy foe
Who hits it back, then to and fro!
Keeping it up for the world to see
Players exerting watts of energy!
How many Jumbleers does it take to change a light bulb?
hwta glith lubb?
While trying to come up with a poem, I considered using pallet, which is close, but not related, or pill, which may be related, but so distantly that it didn't really suggest the clue word.
One of the reasons I like using the Jumble words is that they are usually so random that just trying to connect them seems to write the story without me. And they come from different levels of the language. #2 and #3 are commonly known words, but I'd bet you haven't uttered them in the last year unless you have a hobby of basketball or shooting. On the other hand, #4 you might well have used in a wider variety of contexts. And being a preposition, #1 you may use almost daily.
I worried a bit about whether my second and third Jumble words were correct. But when I got to the solution, I realized they were! Yay!
Then it was fun to see them turn up in the three delightful poems. I was especially happy to see the solution in Wilbur's last line. And Owen, I completely agree with you about the way Jumble words often hint at, and even dictate, what a good poetic theme might be on that day.
So with all this poetry, I'll skip writing one this morning, and instead comment on Sandyanon's suggestion for more cartoon discussion. Liked seeing the cranky face on the young woman, with a modern cell phone in her hand, as she looked at her electric bill, with the envelope on her desk. Liked the way the two room-mates were given different outfits, hair, one with glasses, one without. The cartoonists clearly give their images a lot of thought.
Roommates? I assumed wife & husband. The one in black looks like a male to me, tho looking again I guess it might be female. Jeff has shown interracial couples before, so it wouldn't be anything new or controversial for him.
You may be right, Owen. And, if so, then the cartoon might have a bit of a feminist theme as well, with the wife making the phone call to complain about the electric bill, while the husband just worries about the lighting in the house.
Good to see Wilbur's new versification--and with a sports theme too!
He gives his "Swisher" a real human touch. Two left feet? And identifying him as a bench warmer named for himself!
Owen's notes on the value of randomness in our poetic efforts are most helpful. The clue words add another level of the discipline I find absolutely key to good poetry. This is not to say that "free verse" has no place, but that even w/o traditional sanctions, we need to find or create our own ruling elements.
Personally, I like to deal with the clue words as early as I can.
In today's chapter of the Tarzan saga, I was happy to handle all four in the first sentence (1st two lines). That's not always possible, of course.
If I can't fit the solution into the body of a poem, I will try to do it in my title. My favorite mode of hinting is a rhyme.
I always enjoy Misty's take on the cartoon. I wondered who the two were in today's offering, and she solved it by calling them "room-mates."
In replying to Sandy's thought about the first sound of the solution's first word, I thought about how often I actually pronounce the "h" before the "w" in "what." I think I do it about half the time.
It is the vowel sound that still makes the difference between the two words.
Conversational English is the language we picked up in our childhood. We sometimes alter this as we grow up and are taught "correct" speech. The rule is changing now for "wh" words. Different dictionaries offer them with or without the "h" phoneme.
I've been listening a lot lately to classical music as I do my exercises.
I wonder which evolves more quickly over the generations--our speech or our music?
~ OMK
I posted before seeing the exchange between Owen & Misty over "room-mates."
Both may be right.
Unless, of course, the guy is a visiting friend. He seems to be in the dark.
~ OMK
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