MOBIL = LIMBO
FNTEO = OFTEN
ONIEID = IODINE
PROTYH = TROPHY
CARTOON ANSWER:
WHILE STROLLING WITH A FRIEND, ROBERT FROST RECITED HIS NEW COMPOSITION. IT WAS – – –
IMOOTNIONETRPY = POETRY IN MOTION
Happy Thursday, Jumble geniuses! There was only one tricky clue word for me this morning and the poll down below verified that I wasn’t the only that had a problem with it. IODINE has stumped me numerous times in the past and it’s just one of those words that never jumps out at me no matter how many times I’ve seen it. We last saw it in gameplay on 11/16/18 which made it our most recently used word but that fact didn’t help one bit. Actually all of the clue words featured today were familiar old friends from 2018 with the exception of OFTEN. I had to search long and hard for this one and finally found it in a puzzle dated 01/10/11. With all of my clue words complete, I turned my attention to the cartoon and the final anagram of the day.
On the surface, today’s cartoon seemed to be a simple drawing of two men walking in the woods. The panel shifted into more complex territory once the dialogue and sentence were read. We discover that the man on the left is a young Robert Frost and he’s reciting a bit of a new poem to his friend. The scenery that Jeff provided in his drawing accentuated the verse perfectly and a little research on the poem itself lead me to discover that the image we see today is based on a true event.
The year was 1912 and Robert Frost and his wife moved to England after a failed attempt at starting a farm in Derry, New Hampshire. While abroad he met and became friends with a fellow named Edward Thomas. Thomas was a writer and poet as well and the two would often take long walks in the woods.
Frost and his wife returned to New Hampshire in 1915 and he sent Thomas a copy of his now famous poem entitled “The Road Not Taken.” Thomas took the poem seriously and personally and it is said that it may have impacted him so much that he decided to enlist and fight in World War I. Two years after joining, Edward Thomas was killed in the British offensive on the western front during the Battle of Arras.
The main focus of today’s drawing is obviously the relationship between the two men and the split in the road that they happen upon. Although we’ll never know if they turned left or right, Jeff added one tiny detail on the left side of the path that was almost too difficult to see. If you look closely at the last tree, you might be able to spot a shadowy figure that looks like a small deer!
The final solve was an anagram consisting of 14-letters which is the largest one we’ve seen this week. The visual clues and the avoidance of the word “poem” in the sentence allowed me to find POETRY almost immediately. The rest of the answer was quickly found after sifting through the remaining letters for an easier than expected finish.
I just have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed today’s cartoon and it’s always a pleasure when the subject matter is based on real places, or as we see today, famous people. It adds that little something extra that transforms the game from a typical puzzle into an educational experience. Have a terrific Thursday, and I’ll see you tomorrow!
Jumble Answers 
Good Morning, Mike. I THOREAUly enjoyed it too! Have a great day! 📚🙋🏻
Enjoy the sunshine, Angela! Saturday might hit 80! 😆👋🏻
We’re sans sun here so far today…but I am hearing the same forecast for Saturday. 🌞🙋🏻
You have a lot of WHIT MAN! Sorry for the very POEr joke!
Yikes! How’d I miss those??? And major players to boot! Bravo, 👏🏻👏🏻 Clay, Bravo! Both keepers…(which I intend to do)! Thank you …both for the Shout Out and the puns…and your POE is by no means POEr! It just might be “THE SLEEPER”! 😉🙋🏻
🎶 POETRY IN MOTION…See her gentle sway…A wave out on the ocean, could never move that way…🎶 “Poetry in Motion” Johnny Tillotson 1960 http://tinyurl.com/y2963fwe
📚 I wasn’t big on Robert Frost, although I liked his work,
Since I related more to Nash, I looked more for the quirk…
I took the courses, all of them, quite OFTEN mesmerized,
And often felt in LIMBO with all the compromise.
“A poem about a TROPHY”, instructors would request,
And we were given mere minutes to answer the behest…
One minute they’d want drama, another comedy,
The clock would tick, your mind would swirl…it all was 123
I once did the Three Stooges…my choice was Larry Fine,
His injuries endured from Moe? I squeezed in IODINE!
I studied many poets, and I gave it my devotion…
And determination helped me through the POETRY IN MOTION 📚
I don’t recall the Jumble ever DEAHLing very much with POETRY. But back on November 26th, 2017, http://tinyurl.com/y573ou75 we did have a puzzle about a Poetry competition, VERSES VERSUS VERSES. Besides that though, nothing STRANDs out. So this has been a long time CUMMINGS, a welcome diVERSEion…And despite my saying that I wasn’t WILDE about Robert Frost, this featured work, “The Road Not Taken” has always been a favorite.
Our cartoon today…set in the WOODS of England, circa 1914. Robert Frost, http://tinyurl.com/y3jdkzzm the illustrious American Poet, at left, is seen with his close friend and confidant, the British writer Philip Edward Thomas. http://tinyurl.com/y3tsbd9k With Frost living in England during the years 1912-1915, he and Thomas took many walks together through the REEDs, having many deep, THOREAU conversations. And Jeff is making us privy to one such conversation, where Frost is overheard reciting the famous, oft-repeated line from his much acclaimed poem, “The Road Not Taken”. http://tinyurl.com/yyevjo6z So much has been written about this narrative over the years, saying that it’s one of Frost’s most misunderstood poems, and I’ve taken part in many a debate, from both sides of the ROAD. But Frost himself often said that the speaker was based on Thomas. In Frost’s words, Thomas was “a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn’t go the other”. Somewhere we all may have found ourselves from RHYME to RHYME…Anyway, with the line REEDing so prominently in the dialogue, and David stressing that they’re STROLLING, while using the word “composition” in place of “Poem”, our solution is practically SPELT out for us…and there’s nothing adVERSE about it…This is definitely POETRY IN MOTION! Good one, David! Very well WRITTEN!
Eye candy? With the entire panel shaded green as our characters enter “INTO THE WOODS”, the only splash of color is Frost wearing a brown suit, WYLIE Thomas is in black. But if you look real, real closely, way at back, behind the last tree on the left…WOOD you believe THAYERs a tiny antlered DEER? Great little touch, Jeff…so enDEERing! So, there you have it folks, DUNN! Have a great day, Everyone!….And I’ll repeat…METAPHORS be with you! 📚🙋🏻
Good morning. Thanks Mike for all the information. Enjoyed all the hidden treasures. Trophy took just a little bit longer to get then Iodine. It’s amazing how it just pops into your head after awhile. It was the same with the cartoon. I’m starring at the letters for maybe ten minutes when all of a sudden the answer just appeared. Another cleaver finish for the boys. Until tomorrow stay well.
You’re welcome, Paul. I’m happy to see that IODINE didn’t cause you any problems. Enjoy your Thursday!
In previous years, awarding of the TROPHY for best student chemist was OFTEN held in LIMBO, pending the outcome of the IODINE analysis test. This was a tough one for me, Angela!
Well you could have fooled me! First rule…Never tip your hand! 😂😂 I think you did a great job getting these words to make some sort of sense…you’ll notice I haven’t ventured past my original entry! I’m still mulling it over! 😉 It’s a great sentence, Chuck, don’t sell yourself short…👏🏻👏🏻 Kudos! Hope your morning’s going well…📚🙋🏻
Good morning again. Loved your song choice Angela and your use of the words. Forget about the road not taken. How about the door not taken !! You get to an entrance and one door is locked and the other unlocked. Now it’s a 50/50 chance you will pick the door that is not locked. Well how about it being 98% sure you pick the locked door. Or,they only need 3 out of the 4 winners to play the next game of bocce Guess who usually sits out that game. I once picked the 2 seven times in a row. I fixed that problem. Replaced the 2 with a 3 but still managed to go low. Didn’t matter whether I picked or left the last card for myself. I’m 98% lowest. I got lucky when I picked my wife,but then again when we first met she was 11 and I was 13 and she ran back into her house and told her mother she just met the boy she was going to marry. Doesn’t matter if it was Faith or of choosing,it was a long and fruitful blessed ride.
Good Morning, Brooklyn! How you doin’? What can I tell ya, Paul? If I had a nickle for all the ROADS I should have taken? I’d be on Easy STREET! But then again, if I had a nickle for all the wrong doors I’ve chosen? I’d pobably OWN Easy Street! 😂😂 LIFE! But you want to know what I think? I think you’re a Winner no matter what. Just the way you look at things, and the way you’re always so upbeat and positive no matter what the hell is going on around you? That’s the sign of a true winner. And of course you got lucky when you met your wife…She was Italian! We Italian women don’t play!!! 😂 Altho from what you’re saying here, it looks like you had no choice, Paul…She already picked you! 😉 And from the way you speak, it’s still a love affair in your heart. You both get lucky…You’re a beautiful soul, Brooklyn, and you never fail to make me smile…(and sometimes shed a tear)! Thanks for the Shout Out, I love the song too. It’s always been one of my favorites…I still play it all the time for my Littles, especially when I’m teaching them to make rhymes…I think they may think I wrote it! LOL! 😂😂 Hope you’re having a great day, Paul! And thanks agon…😘🙋🏻
Iodine also got me this morning but poetry in motion led me back to iodine.Iodine gets me every time,too many vowels for this math guy.
LOL! Like me trying to decipher Geometry! 🙄 We all have our weaknesses, Prof! 😂 Have a good one! 📚🙋🏻
Mike…FYI: You may have skipped a page with Often, because it was used a few times last year. Twice in September, on the 17th, and the 27th, and again on June 30th. Before that, It appeared twice in each of the years 2015, ’16 and ’17, and shows up again on November 22nd, 2014. It would be great to have an alphabetical list. I’ve dropped David a line about possibly getting one….Fingers crossed…🙋🏻
Wow another vote here for iodine. All those vowels did me in and I know this isn’t the first time that iodine has stumped me. Got the cartoon answer easily. My favorite Robert Frost poem is “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” : “These woods are lovely dark and deep but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep”
Hi all – Just a quick post for a quick solve. I saw IODINE, but for me TROPHY took the extra look.
“He had to apply IODINE OFTEN after his repeated attempts to win the LIMBO TROPHY”.
Have a great day everyone!
I had to go out early, but succeeded in renewing my driver’s license with two days to spare, using my new factory-refurbished eye. 👀 🙋🏻♂️
Just thought I’d chime in regarding the difficulty in solving IODINE. It actually stumped me this morning. I play the puzzle every morning when I wake up to make sure there aren’t any mistakes in the online version (and sometimes there are). I’m usually working by 4 AM every morning so I get an early start compared to most people. IODINE even stumped me this morning and I made the puzzle! When I made that video for you talking about how I choose words, and sometimes I choose words that I consider difficult to solve, regardless of how many times they have been used in the past…IODINE is a great example of this! AND IN RELATED NEWS…A friend of mine created a program for me to find more new words that we haven’t used yet. I now have a bunch of new words thanks to him. They still need to be carefully vetted, but based on what I saw, I think you’ll see more new words starting in about the five weeks. There are quite a few, but not as many as I would have thought. There are a fixed number of words in the English language that only unscramble into themselves, and thanks to my friend and his computer program, we may have identified them all. So look for a slow stream of new words added to Jumble starting in a about five weeks, I don’t want to burn through them too quickly so going to mix them in little by little. Thank you everyone for playing Jumble and for giving such fun jobs. Jeff and I love making Jumble and it sure makes us very happy to know that you enjoy it so much.
Looking forward to it, David. Natkh Oyu! 🙋🏻
Robert Frost had a complicated relation with his Higher Power, God. Many fellow poets and writers believe there is strong influence of his spiritual beliefs in most of the works by him.
The roads we choose to travel at critical points
of our lives affect greatly, sometimes for generations, a large majority of us fallable human beings*
Be safe and Blessed!!
PS ” In Motion ” is almost always better than
no motion at all (either physical or
mental)
This puzzle hasn’t changed on the Jumble web site. It’s still the one from this date. Does anyone know why?
No clue, MAF. Sorry!