Jumble Answers for 12/13/2018

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WRAPN = PRAWN

LASIA = ALIAS

BRGIEG = BIGGER

SLEUUF = USEFUL

 

CARTOON ANSWER:

WHEN THE SPIES SECURELY PLACED THE HIDDEN LISTENING DEVICE, IT WAS – – –

 

 

ANASBGGUSU = SNUG AS A BUG

 

Happy Thursday, everyone! Today’s puzzle began with a brand new clue word in PRAWN. The remaining three were all recycled favorites from earlier this year. BIGGER was the only new anagram of the day but the “double letter trick” of coupling the G’s together quickly brought it into view. Both ALIAS and USEFUL tripped me up this morning with USEFUL taking a bit longer to figure out. It was the same anagram as the last time we saw it on 7/15/18, but the double U’s threw me off just enough to make it my pick for the most difficult anagram of the day.

At first glance, today’s cartoon looked like nothing more than a couple of maintenance workers installing a smoke detector. The cartoon sentence changed all that and we learn that the duo are actually spies! They’ve just installed a hidden listening device in the detector and the shading in the top left corner of the panel indicates that it’s either very late at night or early in the morning. Looking closely at the room, there are minimal details suggesting why these spies have targeted this location. It looks like a typical office with a four-drawer filing cabinet on the left and a desk with a computer on the right.

Taking a closer look at the spies, I noticed that they were both dressed in all black clothing. The only difference between the two was that the man had a hood attached to his top. He also had an earbud in his ear with a small coiled cord dangling from it. The female on the ladder is holding a red drill in her left hand while maintaining her balance with her right. We see a small case on the ground with different foam cutouts for their tools. In the middle is a cutout for the drill and just below that is one for the listening device/smoke detector. Scouring the panel for any last details, I happened upon one that really surprised me. If you look closely at the facial hair of the male spy you’ll notice that it appears to be a disguise!!! Well done, Jeff!!!

The final solve was an anagram consisting of 10-letters. With the cartoon sentence mentioning a “listening device”, BUG instantly came to mind. “A” was the obvious one letter word with AS and SNUG coming into view from the remaining letters. That’s all I’ve got for today, so enjoy your Thursday and I’ll see you right back here tomorrow!

36 thoughts on “Jumble Answers for 12/13/2018”

  1. Good morning. Thanks Mike,you see so much more in a picture than I ever would. Can’t seem to train my mind to really study it and let everything sink in. I look but don’t really look,if you know what I mean. Today’s jumble was a pleasure from beginning to end. The creators nailed it with that cute cartoon answer. I had no trouble with the words. They were all first looks. After looking at the letters the cartoon answer came within a minute. Until tomorrow stay well.

    • Your solve was much better than mine, Paul. I struggled on a couple of the words and almost wrote down ASAIL instead of ALIAS! I’m glad you enjoyed the write-up. 🙂

  2. 🎶 There’s a man who leads a life of danger…To everyone he meets he stays a stranger, With every move he makes another chance he takes…Odds are he won’t live to see tomorrow…SECRET AGENT man, SECRET AGENT man…They’ve given you a number, and they’ve taken ‘way your name… 🎶 “Secret Agent Man” – Johnny Rivers 1966 https://tinyurl.com/yaanqc64

    👀 Today you have to wonder with surveillance all around
    Is anybody’s privacy not public domain bound?
    Of course so much is USEFUL, we applaud the safety riches
    But ever think Big Brother got much BIGGER than his britches?
    But I guess this is different, these are spies who have an ALIAS
    An obviously other kind of listening…there’s various
    With little bugs small like a PRAWN, they listen and they look
    Next thing you know some unsuspecting duck has his goose cooked!
    The bottom line today is, it would take a mass unplug…
    And since those days are long gone, we just live SNUG AS A BUG! 👀

    Rushing like the dickens! Doing this while standing on line at the checkout! Words, easy, breezy, and the answer a well known phrase. And a given, too, with the BUG being planted. Quick and clever, David!

    Eye candy? The man has a hood and a KANGAROO POCKET at the front of what seems to be a sweatshirt, which often come with those features. And I guess the POCKET would come in HANDy for a spy! You know if he had to JUMP up and do something real quick…And both the male and the female seem to be sporting some sort of device OVER their ears for the listening devices, because if you look closely, neither ear showing is normally shaped. His is oval and bulbous, and hers’ seems serrated. But I can’t put my finger on it…Are they like cups of some sort?…Or is Jeff just once again pulling the wool over our EARS!
    So, There you have it Folks, Done! Have a great day, Everyone, and watch your back! 👀🔦🙋🏻

    • Thanks Angela for a good laugh on your song choice.Also enjoyed listening to it again. You’re right about Big Brother watching. You can’t do anything today without some camera catching you. From the highway to the streets we are all under surveillance. Makes you think that the movie Judge Dredd is not far off. Pretty soon you’ll get a summons in the mail for littering because you dropped your candy wrapper to the ground. Unfortunately that’s the price we have to pay for terrorism throughout the world. Bad or good it’s here to stay.

      • Hi Brooklyn..Good Morning. Glad I could tickle your funny bone! 😂 TBT, I don’t mind the cameras at all. Not a day goes by that we don’t see on the news how the police are able to capture all these cretins out there in the streets with their use. We need them all over. Good point tho, with the littering…😉 And yes, it is our way of life now, there’s no turning back…But as you’ve said, unfortunately, terrorism is the way of life now too, so what choice do we have? So, “they” take our pictures, and probably trace our emails, and most likely listen in on our conversations…Small price to pay for being safe, right? Anyway…thanks for the shout out, and in case you didn’t see it, I got back to you last night about the Oh Henrys and the Bocce creep..the sweet and the sour! 😂 Have a good one, Brooklyn! 👀👀🙋🏻

  3. When trying to develop a BIGGER PRAWN, an ALIAS might be USEFUL in keeping the effort quiet and hidden from competitors.
    Back to getting no e-mails. Confounding.

    • You’re shrimply the best, Earl! I’ve been saving that one all morning long… 😂😂😂
      And sorry to hear about the email troubles. Have you tried unsubscribing and then signing up again?

  4. Good Morning, Mike.Sorry, in such a rush, I failed to say. I’m standing here still editing! Have a great day…👀🙋🏻

  5. Prawn looked like the word but I wasn’t familiar with that word.Also alias looked like asail to me but working back from the solution I readily saw the errors in my ways.

  7. Hi all – Got the words. The double letter trick worked on both BIGGER and USEFUL – if they’re separate put them together; if they’re together, split them up. I always see ALIAS because I used it so often in my job — as a UNIX programmer, not a spy! Had to write the letters to get the answer, which the two G’s gave away.

    Here we see a team following in the footsteps of Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. Poor guy, she’s the brains, and he’s only a prawn in this game. I hadn’t noticed that the man’s beard and mustache were false; thanks Mike. It confirmed my suspicion that he smuggled that device snug as a bug under his rug.

    What I did notice was that the woman, who’s actually doing the drilling, is the one not wearing safety goggles. Eye protection, guys!

    Have a great day everyone.

    Really like the song, Angela. I looked up Johnny Rivers and there’s some interesting stuff. An Italian born in NYC, moved to Baton Rouge, given his name by disk jockey Alan Freed, toured the South opening for comedian Brother Dave Gardner, still touring today!

    • Good EYE on the glasses, G! 👏🏻 Is it starting to seem like Jeff’s been leaving things out here and there? You know, the BYE candy? Just to see if we pick up on it? I think there were a few the past week…I have to go back and look. And a special Shout Out to you, for Boris being the PRAWN in the game! 👏🏻👏🏻 😂Kudos, good one! I did a LOL! Tks for the Shout Out, but Italian? NYC? We all know about JR’s background here…I think it’s 3rd grade curriculum! 😂 Hope you have a good one, G…👀👀🙋🏻

      • Thanks for the SHOUT out! 😂
        So they teach you about Johnny Rivers, but not John Sebastian, both NYC-born musicians? I thought maybe it was because Rivers was Italian, but it turns out Sebastians’ classical musician father was also! 🙋🏻‍♂️

        • YW. Well deserved. Why do you think people in NY wouldn’t know Sebastians’ background? 🤔🙋🏻

    • Thank you for the kind words, Betty! I thought the clue words were the most difficult part and the surprise answer was a piece of cake. Enjoy the day! 🙂

  10. Sorry for the late response. Here’s the “TOW” THE LINE explanation from two days ago…The reason why I didn’t put quotes around “TOW” in the “TOW” THE LINE puzzle is that I totally screwed up. As dumb as this will make me look, I didn’t actually know that the origin of the phrase was TOE THE LINE. I thought it was TOW THE LINE to begin with so I didn’t think it needed the quotes. Everyone is correct for sure in that it should have been shown as “TOW” THE LINE. No doubt I botched that. I read all about the expression TOE THE LINE. I really should have known that. Thanks for keeping me on my toes! Much appreciated.

  11. I originally thought ASAIL too, as in “…he set asail in his boat,” but soon found out there’s no such word. Now here’s a question for David (or anyone) that I’ve always been meaning to ask, though it must have been asked before: Has there ever been an instance where Jumble has ‘goofed up’ and allowed more than one dictionary word to be formed from the letters provided?

    • Hi, Ed! First off, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. It’s always great to hear from others in the Jumble community.

      As for your question, yes it has happened before, but I don’t recall it happening during Jeff & David’s run. If you google “Jumble Parachute Book” you’ll find that on the cover of the book is an anagram of TULSEH. The book shows the answer as HUSTLE but it could also solve as SLEUTH.

      Hope to hear from you again real soon! 🙂

  14. Thanks for taking the time, David Hoyt, to explain your side of the story. One can EASILY see that either word would make sense in that situation!!

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