All hints are in the comments!

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

4 Jan. 2022

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|Smiley face| _scoff, guide, futile, intact, inflated egos.
Image(s) 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:

Ol' Man Keith said...


FLN: Misty ~ That’s why I don’t always mention your “mills.”
I know the extra challenge you’ve imposed on yourself, so I agree some leeway must be allowed.
I do sometimes re-word a mill—privately, for myself—just to be sure there is another way to phrase a line.
I think it would be too pushy, though, for me to post my version.
____________

Today’s Jumble:

Indy*-Rated Legos
It was futile, holding side glides intact
using scotch tape. The track guides just cracked.
~ OMK
___________
*
At the Indianapolis 500, cello-tape is rated “high” for temporary repairs for everything from toy modular brands to auto alignment rails.

Misty said...

"Easy Courtship"

The bride took considerable pride
in marrying her tour guide.
Throughout the time they dated
his ego was never inflated.
He had style and a charming smile,
and his efforts were never futile.
On their honeymoon they took off
and there was nothing to scoff.
The packed their luggage intact
and their voyage nothing lacked.
Their spirits did beautifully chime
and they had a wonderful time.

Sandyanon said...

I approached this jumble late last night, and even with all the letters, my sleepy brain couldn't crack the solution. Knowing what it is this morning, I can see at least a small part of the reason: The relevance of the long word alone to the cartoon is pretty clear, but both the animals and the children seem perfectly agreeable and unpretentious, and happy with their situation. So the expression as a whole seems to me to be off the mark. Maybe more pretentious statements from the animals would tie them to the solution?

Nitpicking again? Probably.

Misty said...

Sandy, I agree with you.
I got all four Jumble words but just couldn't get the solution. And when I looked it up, I felt there was nothing in the comments of those toys that suggested the excess pride.
I think cartoon and solution were not a great fit today.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Sandy ~ It could just as easily be a partial phrase in which the long word precedes “goes.”
Hmmm.
Goes? But goes where…?
The cartoon can’t answer, so we only reach today’s solution by eliminating wrong possibilities.

Misty ~ Suspense! Is the bride played by Joan Fontaine?
This feels like the opening of a 1941 Cary Grant movie.
Maybe she is Irene Dunne.
The phrase, “Throughout the time they dated…” leads me to expect the other shoe to drop!
~ OMK

Misty said...

Well, Ol' Man Keith, I had your various comments in mind today, hoping I could produce a newer, more off-beat Jumble verse, but it just didn't work. I need to rhyme the Jumble words, and they and the solution suggested a narrative theme to me which turns all my poems into little stories. That just seems to be the way it works for me.
But I'll keep trying, and moves like having you re-word mills for me might be helpful and wouldn't offend me at all.

Misty said...

OMK, I posted my message above in response to your first message of the morning, and before I saw your recent one in response to my verse. I'm afraid I never saw the 1941 Cary Grant movie--produced three years before I was born. So, no, as I said above, it's all just a matter of finding words that rhyme with the Jumble ones, and then coming up with a narrative of some sort. And in my case it's almost always positive and cheerful--never serious or realistic, as yours sometimes are.

Am always amazed how you manage to fit almost all of the Jumble words into a three-line production. And I do have a bit of trouble getting it, probably because I'm not familiar with the scenario being described. But it still makes an ingenious and clever and aesthetic verse.
_____________

On another subject, I miss Wilbur and Owen, and wish they would check in with us once in a while. Wish there is something we could say or do to encourage them.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thank you, Misty. I appreciate your note on my little verse. I had fun with that one, getting the words into two lines. The title gave me the most trouble, so that's why I made up the footnote.
Believe me, my reference to the Indy 500 is entirely fictional. The real goods are in the couplet, where "side glides" and "track guides" are based on the kind of runners that our kitchen cabinet drawers use.

Yes, I too wish Owen & Wilbur would put in more regular appearances. You and I are feeling a heavy duty right now, keeping the page alive. I have enjoyed exercising my brain this way, but I don't want it to become a burden. I don't want to be fearful of letting down our side.

I accept your invitation, above, to show some of the "re-word"ed mills.
Please understand that I sometimes do these variations for myself--to be sure I understand the responsibility you face in choosing to place the J-words in rhyming position--at the ends of lines.

Here are just a few of the changes I came up with for "Jilt."
In the first, I felt free to alter the tense. I know that is something you try to avoid. But if I understand Owen correctly, he might prefer that we use a variation or different tense of the words--seriously! His idea is to embed them more deeply and not hit hint-seekers over the head with them!

Anyway, here is where that freedom took me:

"Willy was a proud Scot, and he jilted
any lass who wouldn’t go out with him kilted.
(He feared feeling gelded, though his sporran be gilded!)"

Maybe that is too far from where you wanted to go?
So here is one closer to your practice of keeping the exact word.
I tried also to keep to your story:

"A sensitive guy, Willy would jilt
his girl, but to assuage his guilt
he’d turn around and buy her a quilt."

And if you're not locked into the quilt, or the AAA stanzas:

"Willy's girl felt him growing cold. “Don’t jilt
me, please!” she posted. Alas, alack! he ghosted
her—and without a single pang of guilt."
~ OMK

Ol' Man Keith said...

Sorry, Misty. TCM just ran the Cary Grant/Irene Dunne movie, Penny Serenade. In it he plays essentially the same character I remember him playing that same year in Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion. The year hardly matters; these classic films are with us always.
In both movies he charms & marries a woman who suspects his darker side may ruin their lives.
So when I read of your guy being so nice during the courtship, I just thought you were placing a similar time limit on his good behavior.
~ OMK

Misty said...

Loved your versions of Willy's story, Ol' Man Keith--clever and funny and a lot less sentimental than mine. So don't hesitate to send me your versions, if you have ones. If I ever get any of your poems, I'll try to do the same for you.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I mistook my own notes, forgetting "Scoff" while thinking "Scotch."

To correct today's poem, here's my re-write:

"I could only scoff; it was so futile,
totally inutile,
holding side glides intact
with tape. The track guides just cracked."
~ OMK