| || graft, human, mostly, tirade, "four-sight".
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.
11 comments:
Multiple vision; Brian Epstein used to be called Four Eyes, until he got contact lenses. Not really!
Really easy clues, and a B solution.
I guess Epstein really "made" the Beatles, transforming them from foul-mouthed punks into gentlemanly (more or less) mods. Me, I always loved listening to them, not watching them.
It's late. Time to sleep. Nite!
What did you think of yesterday's solution, Sandy?
I quite enjoyed the literal/figurative play between the roofing guys.
But I wasn't sure whether that was your cup o' tea....
As for today's, I enjoyed your skirting around the answer in your visionary first line.
~ OMK
LA's ex-City Councilman Mitch Englander provided the theme for today's minor opus:
"14 Months in Sight"
City Councilman Englander, indicted for graft,
tried weaseling his way to acquittal.
He backdated his checks, from fore to aft,
so's they'd look like an innocent remittal.
Failing with that, he made a pitch for pity.
"I'm only human," says he, "I'm weak.
I've a family to support, and I'm paid by the City.
Those bribes merely dampened my beak."
The mostly underpaid Feds hardly melted.
The DA's tirade was cold, positively chilly.
His jury of peers wanted him gelded,
but they settled with finding him "Guilty!"
"Probation!" he pleaded, "My 'rep' is covered in slime."
But the judge made sure he'll be doing hard time.
~ OMK
To err is human, so they say,
But graft, alas, is the Republican* way!
Do it for greed, do it for party,
Do it mostly to feel like a smarty.
In the chambers of legislatures
Tirades unleashed at duplicitous nature!
But on golf courses, foursomes unite
To call out "fore!", and whack out of sight!
* If you're a Republican, feel free to read "politicians" here. But I'd like to believe there are at least some honest ones out there.
PS, if it's not plain, "whack" is a euphemism for "deal nefariously".
My goodness, what an amazing array of commentaries and political poetry this morning--very interesting and impressive. Many thanks, Ol' Man Keith and Owen, for getting our Thursday morning off to an exciting start!
"Right Sight"
Greta was dating a crew-man
who was not a respectable human.
He was guilty of graft
but he only laughed
when she told him she knew,
and he said that's not true.
"I've never been paid,"
he claimed in his tirade.
But she trusted her fore-sight
and did what was more right.
She abandoned him mostly
and now he's just ghostly.
OMK, I thought yesterday's solution was pretty clever wordplay. I always hope for puns in solutions, though, and didn't see a pun there, since, although the idiom is very common, the literal phrase doesn't really make sense. Homophones are my bag!! Like today's.
I thought it rather telling that all three poems today interpreted "graft" to mean political corruption. Most dictionaries list that as a third or fourth definition, well down the line after the attachment of cuttings to plants, skin sectioning, etc.
It must say something about our current social climate.
Owen, your poem is first-rate as it is, no need for any party substitution. True, some Dems engage in financial hanky-panky now & then, but the GOP seems to have won the (rigged?) lottery (or taken the cake?) in recent years.
On the larger scale, J'ever notice how all the presidents who leave office in disgrace are Republicans?
And J'ever notice the guys who run up massive deficits are Republicans?
I sigh for the party of Lincoln.
Sandy ~ Gotcha. homophones trump homonyms. (Oops. Pardon the verb.)
Misty ~ I see your "crew-man" (Stage crew? Rowing crew? Curling crew?) refuses to divulge his name.
Shall we call him John Doe?
But that brings up an image of Gary Cooper, so we'd better not. Maybe just Mr. Roe, which would at least suggest an occupation.
Anyway, the guy is well ghosted by Greta! She is probably an independent--like me & George Washington.
~ OMK
I had ? (Something) else for Tirade and was missing letters on the riddle-solution. So I looked it up and then realized TIRADE had my missing letters.
Now I have a new problem. I left my TB-Times insert behind with all the solved xwords and J's.
I'm not solving those J's again.
Btw, I thought of that meaning for GRAFT too.
Thanks for all the commentary and poetry. Sorry I missed you yesterday.
Btw, once you get the VAX will it change your daily routines?
I never saw that def. for WHACK before.
WC
WILBUR! There you are!!
Go back and check out yesterday's Bernie pic!
IATYQ, I haven't changed changed my routine, but I've only had the first shot.
Now it seems to be a race to get the 2nd shot before we need the Booster against the South African version.
Aargh...
~ OMK
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