NUEGL = LUNGE
NWEHI = WHINE
GUCTAH = CAUGHT
TAIGRU = GUITAR
CARTOON ANSWER:
WHEN THE ROBOT EXPERIENCED ABDOMINAL SURGERY, IT WAS – – –
NGEWHNCUTGIR = GUT-WRENCHING
Happy Tuesday, Jumble fans! The clue word choices for today’s puzzle were an interesting mix but not overly challenging. All of the anagrams were new but the words they produced were recycled favorites. GUITAR eneded up taking the most time to solve which made it my pick for the most difficult anagram of the day. We saw it exactly one month ago where it was jumbled as IGRUTA, but it still tripped me up. CAUGHT is the oldest word in the quartet and made its last appearance in gameplay on 1/20/17 where it was scrambled as GUCATH.
It’s day #2 of Guest Jumbler Week and today’s panel is courtesy of Dave Whamond. Mr. Whamond is the creative genius behind the “Reality Check” comic strip and was born in Edmonton, Alberta but grew up in the small northern Canadian town of Whitecourt. His strips provide a wacky vision of the world that exposes the hidden hilarity in ordinary circumstances which is exactly what we see today.
The setting for today’s piece is an operating room where we encounter three characters. The cartoon sentence informs us that the robot is undergoing abdominal surgery and we see a female and male duo performing the necessary repairs. Under the bright lights of the operating table we see that they’ve swapped their scalpels for wrenches in an attempt to remedy the situation, but what caught my eye was the fact that the robot was wide awake and watching the surgery take place!
There were a few other details that Mr. Whamond added to make his drawing visually appealing. We see a small bolt flying out of the robots “chest” cavity which was probably the cause of his discomfort. The head mirror on the male surgeon added a touch of realism to the piece, but what I was most impressed with was the dog robot that was looking into the operating room from behind the circular window in the rear of the panel. Was this robot the significant other of the patient bot? Even though robots don’t have feelings (yet), it was a well placed detail that gave the panel some emotion during a tense situation.
The final solve was an anagram consisting of 12-letters and created two words that were separated by a hyphen. Looking at the layout, I noticed the word CUT spelled out perfectly but it was too obvious. I saw the ING ending next so I decided to cross it out in an attempt to reduce the amount of letters I was working with. Still thinking about CUT, I saw the G next to it which brought GUT to mind. The rest of the answer flowed naturally for the finish after remembering the visual clue in the cartoon. Today’s cartoon was a hoot and the answer was definitely not a gimme. Have a terrific Tuesday, and I’ll see you tomorrow!
Jumble Answers 
Good Morning, Mike. Hope you have a great day! 🤖🙋🏻
You too! 👋🏻
Tks! 👋🏻🙋🏻
🎶 I want a ROBOT man to hold me tight…One that I can count on every single night. He wouldn’t run around like other guys, I wouldn’t have to listen to his alibis…Little ROBOT man to call my own, I’d never have to worry that he wouldn’t phone…He’d never dance with anyone but me! I’d just have to wind him with a ROBOT key…Yeah, just hope I can depend upon a ROBOT love…I mean, because I can depend upon a ROBOT love…🎶 “Robot Man”- Connie Francis 1960
https://tinyurl.com/yazxusfm
🤖 Dave Whamond I’ve known many years, since first he CAUGHT my eye…
When I was shopping for the kids…some new books that I’d buy…
It started off with “Oddrey”, I thought to take the plunge,
The kids just fell in love with her…now from the shelves they LUNGE.
I’ll never hear a WHINE from them when reading time is near,
Like soft strums on a GUITAR, Whamond they like to hear…
His whimsy and his humor appeals to any age,
You open up a book of his, and love it’s every page!
If you have kids and want to see books in their fists a’clenching…
Try some of his…your sides will ache..but nothing that’s GUT-WRENCHING! 🤖
Our words all Sweet Repeats, I immediately recognized GUITAR, since it was just seen on October 13th, only a month ago today. Anagrammed that day as IGRUTA, it caused some disCHORD with a few Jumblers that morning, but no one so far today. In fact, the only word catching anyone this morning is CAUGHT, the oldest of our words, having last appeared on January 20th, 2017. Ok..Let’s move on to the NUTS and BOLTS of today’s puzzle…
Today’s Guest Jumbler, DAVE WHAMOND has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I’m familiar with his work from Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest any many more publications. And as I mentioned above, from his many, many children’s books. Living in Canada, his talent even brought him to teach at the Alberta College of Art and Design for almost 10 years. So, I welcome his appearance here today. And I feel we share a certain bond of sorts, since like me, he loves scrambled eggs, as well as Cadbury ones, his favorite country is Italy, and he has that squirrel named Ralph in his comic. And well, most of you know about me and squirrels! And Ralph is a family name…So…😉 This offering, from his comic REALITY CHECK, is typical Dave Whamond. Quirky, silly, but always thought provoking! Today, finding ourselves in an OPERATING ROOM, we see a ROBOT, who I’ll call ROCKY BOT-BOA, undergoing Stomach surgery. A Doctor in white, and a Nurse in green are seen METALling around inside him, wielding huge WRENCHES. I can’t help but think that this must MEGA HERTZ since he looks awake. Will this be his ARMORgedden? Or are all ROBOTS operated on like this…sans the anesthesia? Can he DIODE is this normal? I don’t know, this is a first for me..but I can SENSOR problem here…And I couldn’t help but notice the lack of dialogue…There’s no Small TORQUE at all…But, Dave did leave the DOOR WIDE OPEN for us on this one…That BOLT being WRENCHED out of Rocky? Well if that isn’t GUT-WRENCHING, I don’t know what is! NUT bad, Dave W…NUT bad at all…
Ok, eye candy… The panel’s awash in a blue shade…There’s three SURGICAL LAMPS overhead, and the middle one is showing lines of illumination…Enlightening. We see an intricate network of NUTS and BOLTS inside Rocky, and his ACTUATOR. The Nurse has an emblem of some sort below the tie of her Scrubs, but I can’t identify it. It looks a little SCREWy…And at the door, in the window, there’s another image…Another ROBOT looking in? Is that allowed? Maybe he just couldn’t RESISTOR urge to peek? Someone who gets a CHARGE out of being in CONTROL? Is it a DOG BOT? Or maybe it’s Ralph?
Anyway, WIRE I spending so much time trying to figure this out? It’s not like I’m making any CACHE from this…I think I’ll just let it RUST in PIECE today…I was never that much into HEAVY METAL anyway…Have a great day, Everyone! And don’t let anyone ever PUSH your BUTTONS…🤖🙋🏻
No problem for me whatsoever,the 4 anagrams and final solution were an instant solve with gut jumping out to me.Must be the presence of my newspaper hard copy instead of the online puzzle version.
That’s my preferred method of doing the puzzle, Chuck! Have a good one. 🙂
Hi Everyone,
Like you, Mike, GUITAR slowed me up again today, and I also had to back into CAUGHT.
I missed the flying bolt and dog robot, so thanks for pointing these fun details out.
I’m not familiar with Reality Check, but I thought today’s puzzle was excellent. I see the comic strip from yesterday is carried by one of the papers we get – The Buffalo News.
You’re most welcome, Caroline. I know that I’ve seen that particular strip at some point but it’s not printed in my daily newspaper either.
With all this talk about comics, I was particularly saddened to hear of Stan Lee’s passing yesterday. 😥😥😥
Good morning. Thanks Mike for an interesting post. Loads of information. Angela,Had never heard the song before but you picked a perfect winner and thanks for a wonderful assortment of poem,puns and unknown facts regarding the artist today. Every day is a learning experience with the both of you guys. Today’s jumble gave me palpitations. For the life of me I was unable to get the last two words and finally decided to call my friend Marie. She had no trouble on the words but was stuck on the cartoon. After finally deciding to give it my full attention, I got the answer at first glance. The picture was the clue with the wrenches being in view. Cleaver and cute. Until tomorrow stay well.
Agree on the wrenches in view along with his gut being a giveaway for the final solution.
It’s funny how that works sometimes, Paul. I was also stumped and had to do some sleuthing to figure it out. It was a clever answer worthy of a laugh when all was said and done. Have a great day. 🙂
Hey Brooklyn. The song had my friends and I laughing this morning, but I agree…it’s perfect for the puzzle! Thanks for the Shout Outs, Bud, I was happy to see who it was today, since I’ve been reading his books for years. But palpitations? We can’t have any of that..Next time just call Marie earlier! 😉 Have a good one, Paul! 🤖🙋🏻
When his GUITAR began a high-pitched WHINE, the rock star CAUGHT the mic and made a LUNGE to get off-stage.
No problems with scrambled words, but the solution took longer than I usually spend on a Tuesday.
Another masterpiece, Earl! I had a thought that you would use GUITAR and WHINE just like you did but was at a loss for the other two. Until tomorrow! 🙂🙂🙂
Hi all – The last two words would have been hard except that the combo GHT gave away CAUGHT, and I just got GUITAR from having seen it before. Then the answer appeared because of GUT.
If that robot dog has the traits of a real one, I think he wants to break through the door and scarf that delicious oil-covered bolt off the floor.
Mike, I think it’s possible that the robot is not awake but we can’t tell because he has no eyelids. Like a sleeping fish?
Angela, I know some Connie Francis songs, but you really pulled that one out!
And the robot is ROCKY BOT-BOA and he’s having stomach surgery? Maybe it’s a gastric band procedure, and the surgeon is installing a BOT-BOA-constrictor.
Have a great day, everyone. Looks like the air quality is slowing improving today.
You could be right, Steve. Another thing that I just noticed was the lack of an operating table, and the woman looks like she’s on a step stool. Overall great cartoon, though. Enjoy your morning! 🙂
Steve…I had the Lous rolling in the aisles! We laughed until it HERTZ! And only 1 of them remembered it..How cute? How campy? How 1960!! Makes you think of those Beach Blanket movies, right? It was a good early morning laugh. BOA constrictor? Good one! 👏🏻👏🏻 As for the DOG BOT..or Ralph.😉 for a fleeting moment, Snagglepuss came to mind…BOT I quickly EXITted the thought..Could just be the proFILE! BOT I am still wondering what that squiggly thing is on the Nurses’ scrub…DRIVING me a little NUTS! Hope you’re having a good one, G! 🤖🙋🏻
Guitar tripped me up last time and today as well. I got all the other words and the cartoon answer as well without any problem and finally got guitar after further pondering. I’m not familiar with this comic strip either but thought the puzzle was very clever. And RIP Stan Lee. My son has collected The Amazing Spider-Man comic books since he was a boy. He was truly a creative genius. Have a good Tuesday everyone.
I always enjoyed his cameos in the Marvel movies. The theater would erupt in applause for the brief moment that he was shown. I’ll never open another comic book and not think of him… 😢😢😢
It’s ironic, Angela, that Stan Lee and co-creator Steve Ditko of Spiderman were both answers in the November 4 New York Times crossword puzzle. May Stan rest in peace..
EEKK! Chuck…I have the last 3 weeks still lying here on my desk! You made me look! 11 and 37 down! Football season always makes me FALL behind with my puzzles, it’s hard to get them all done. But I’ll forgive you….But you’re right, what a coincidence. I have one of my nephews walking around with the black arm band here today. The kids crushed. For a while there we couldn’t get him out of his Spider-Man costume for weeks…This may cause a regression, poor Baby. (He’s 15)! 😉 I’ve enjoyed seeing Stan on the Big Bang Theory, and I see that the cast has paid tribute to him on line and on Instagram. I’m sure they’ll work his passing into an upcoming episode….”With great power, comes great responsibility”.. Go (sic) gentle into that good night, Stan…you’ve earned it…💔🙋🏻