The clue words were quite a challenge this morning. RMNAAT and CNEUL were the two that I didn’t initially see, but they didn’t take all that long to solve after just staring at them for a few moments. I’d say MANTRA was definitely the harder of the two. All of our clue words have been previously used, and in the case of GRIMLY, it’s finally getting back into the game for the first time in about a decade.
The setting for today’s cartoon was a baseball game where we see a young pitcher getting a few inspiring words from his coach. It seems he’s struggling to throw a breaking ball which is defined as a pitch that drops or curves before it reaches the batter. The panel started to take on a completely different meaning after carefully sifting through the clues. My first indication that this was more than a baseball game was by noticing the word SCRAMBLERS written in cursive on their hats. Knowing a bit of Jumble history leads me to believe that what we’re seeing today is Jumble Jeff getting a few pointers from the creator of the Jumble, Mr. Martin “Marty” Naydel! The big tip-off was the barely noticeable number 54 on the sleeve of the coach’s shirt. That was the year that Mr. Naydel created the SCRAMBLE, and it wouldn’t become known as the JUMBLE until he changed the name a few months later. Since there have only been three cartoonists for the Jumble since its creation, Jumble Jeff would be the pitcher, Martin Naydel would be the coach, and I can only assume that Henri Arnold is the catcher. The first Jumble puzzle ever published was on June 7, 1954, which means the Jumble celebrated it’s 67th anniversary just 10 days ago. Here’s to many, many more years of “punny” puzzles, David and Jeff!
The final solve was an anagram consisting of 13 letters. Five of them were vowels and the remaining eight were consonants. The V stood out like a sore thumb to me. Since the cartoon sentence was talking about a specific type of pitch, CURVE just happened to pop into my head. With those letters crossed out LEARNING was quite visible in the remainder to bring this one to a close. I know Jumble Jeff has mentioned that when he first started drawing the Jumble, he tried to match Henri’s style which was always a struggle. I think that’s the LEARNING CURVE Jeff is alluding to here. Have a terrific Thursday everyone, and just keep MIGJBLUN!
RAVEN = Last used to 12/29/18 as VERNA
UNCLE = Last used on 09/02/20 as CUENL
GRIMLY = Last used on 10/21/11 as LRMGIY
MANTRA = Last used on 11/08/19 as NARMAT
LEARNING CURVE = Last used on 07/13/16 as REERIGVCNUNLA
VNARE = Used on 03/16/18
CNEUL = NEW ANAGRAM
RMYIGL = NEW ANAGRAM
RMNAAT = NEW ANAGRAM
VENUCLEGRIANR = NEW ANAGRAM
Hump day humped me! I couldn’t get the MANTRA nor the solution…………….
Fun J today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for me.
Low 90’s in SoCal. Fires are not too many today. A lot of shootings in LaLaLand.
Good Morning, Everyone. I hope this finds you well…🙋🏻♀️
🤷🏻♀️The LEARNING CURVE set by the English Professor had a few students GRIMLY crying UNCLE, especially the nervous, RAVEN-haired beauty, who made…”I’m so past tense” her MANTRA! 🤷🏻♀️
📚Her UNCLE sat there GRIMLY, trying hard to like the book,
But reading Poe’s “The RAVEN”, all his patience’s what it took…
He so wanted a GED, his MANTRA…”I deserve…
To get through this course unscathed…despite the LEARNING CURVE”! 📚
No Learning Curve needed today. With a mind as sharp as the eye of a Raven, my Mantra of “Jumble before breakfast” meant I never had to Grimly say Uncle. Always love the baseball puzzles. Looking at 104 degrees here on the Great Plains. How hot is it? It’s so hot that corn on the stalks starts popping. Be safe and be happy!
You always shuck and a-maize me, OO. I’m beginning to think you really are The Dude! Take care and be well. 🙂
Toughie today….no blind solve and struggled with 6 letter anagrams!! Finally solved those last two, took out the ING…then all was easy.
Hey Terry…Breaking ball, being a pitch that doesn’t travel straight, threw the word CURVE right into my MITTs…and “practice” in the dialogue gave up LEARNING…From there I was SAFE HOME! 😉⚾️🙋🏻♀️
You’re the wizard, Angela
LOL! Hardly, Terry. But I do enjoy studying the question, and more so the dialogue, to CATCH all the hints! Hope the day’s going well for you both!…Enjoy!⚾️🙋🏻♀️
Saw mantra,but wasn’t sure it was an acceptable word.Then curve looked like the 5 letter first cartoon word,but I had left out the ‘E’ from the circled letters from ‘uncle’,so was stumped by the ‘learning’ first word solve,despite the ‘ing’ being obvious! I guess the hot weather has dulled my early morning responses.
Good morning. Mig you had me checking my paper. Yesterday was hump day. That could explain the off day. I had to look up Mantra. I’m sure we had it before and I failed then. This old dog didn’t learn anything but once I got all the letters down and thinking like Angela, the answer came fairly quick. Next time I see Mantra jumbled I hope it doesn’t elude me for a third time. Until tomorrow stay well and stay safe.
Good Morning, Paul. Mig does the puzzle at night, and lives on the West Coast, so when he posted his comment it was only a little past 9PM on Wednesday night. But it does get a little confusing at times! 😉 And Mantra? Make a note of it…you never know when we might be “hearing” it again! And thanks for the Shout Out…(although I’m not sure thinking like me is always a good thing)! 😂 Hoping you’re well and staying safe too, Brooklyn. Enjoy your day…⚾️🙋🏻♀️
I rally didn’t recall having seen mantra before,but it did pop into my head as a possibility.
Good Morning, Professor. We had it in a puzzle back in November of 2019, but since it’s not that common a word, it may not easily come into memory. 🙋🏻♀️
Good morning again. Casey who’s Mantra was, “never strike out,”had a Grimly outcome when a Raven pitcher affectionately known as Uncle blew a fast ball past mighty Casey and struck him out. Take care.
LOL! Paul Enjoy! …https://tinyurl.com/wdb2j8bx ⚾️🙋🏻♀️
Paul…Sorry, it didn’t take. I’m trying it again…⚾️🙋🏻♀️
Hi all – I recognized UNCLE from seeing it in other word games. Then I had TARMAN and wondered whether there was a new superhero I’d missed, but two jumbles showed MANTRA. The answer was quick when CURVE fit the last word layout.
Very appropriate cartoon, with all the brouhaha about “foreign substances” in baseball currently.
I have some chores to do, so I’ll just send the usual good wishes to everyone.
That’s where I thought Jeff may have been going with it before noticing all the clues. Happy Thursday, Steve! 🙂
You too Mike! I hope you didn’t turn off the game before the Sox pulled a Yaz! 😂
That grand slam surprised the heck out of me — a 467’ bomb on a cutter. It was hard trying to get sleep after that! 😂
“UNCLE Fester hoped his LEARNING CURVE hadn’t been too steep as he GRIMLY chanted the MANTRA he recently practiced to protect the Addams Family from the ominous RAVEN.”
Another vote here for uncle and mantra which had to resort to pencil and paper to solve. Had an easier time with the cartoon answer – saw curve first and learning quickly followed. Thanks for all the Jumble history, Mike – very interesting. Wishing all of you a good day.
You’re most welcome, Betty. Seeing all of the Jumble cartoonists together like that really brought a smile to my face. I honestly haven’t stopped thinking about it all day. Jeff should be extremely proud of himself!
Wishing you a wonderful Thursday as well. 🙂
MANTRA took the longest today. For the answer, I saw curve right away. With the remaining letters, it took a bit before I saw the ING, and then a while more for LEARN to pop into my brain. Nice CURVEs.
Nice sleuthing, Dennis. It sounds like all you had to do was PENNANT it. On to tomorrow! 🙂
Jumble Answers 
The clue words were quite a challenge this morning. RMNAAT and CNEUL were the two that I didn’t initially see, but they didn’t take all that long to solve after just staring at them for a few moments. I’d say MANTRA was definitely the harder of the two. All of our clue words have been previously used, and in the case of GRIMLY, it’s finally getting back into the game for the first time in about a decade.
The setting for today’s cartoon was a baseball game where we see a young pitcher getting a few inspiring words from his coach. It seems he’s struggling to throw a breaking ball which is defined as a pitch that drops or curves before it reaches the batter. The panel started to take on a completely different meaning after carefully sifting through the clues. My first indication that this was more than a baseball game was by noticing the word SCRAMBLERS written in cursive on their hats. Knowing a bit of Jumble history leads me to believe that what we’re seeing today is Jumble Jeff getting a few pointers from the creator of the Jumble, Mr. Martin “Marty” Naydel! The big tip-off was the barely noticeable number 54 on the sleeve of the coach’s shirt. That was the year that Mr. Naydel created the SCRAMBLE, and it wouldn’t become known as the JUMBLE until he changed the name a few months later. Since there have only been three cartoonists for the Jumble since its creation, Jumble Jeff would be the pitcher, Martin Naydel would be the coach, and I can only assume that Henri Arnold is the catcher. The first Jumble puzzle ever published was on June 7, 1954, which means the Jumble celebrated it’s 67th anniversary just 10 days ago. Here’s to many, many more years of “punny” puzzles, David and Jeff!
The final solve was an anagram consisting of 13 letters. Five of them were vowels and the remaining eight were consonants. The V stood out like a sore thumb to me. Since the cartoon sentence was talking about a specific type of pitch, CURVE just happened to pop into my head. With those letters crossed out LEARNING was quite visible in the remainder to bring this one to a close. I know Jumble Jeff has mentioned that when he first started drawing the Jumble, he tried to match Henri’s style which was always a struggle. I think that’s the LEARNING CURVE Jeff is alluding to here. Have a terrific Thursday everyone, and just keep MIGJBLUN!
RAVEN = Last used to 12/29/18 as VERNA
UNCLE = Last used on 09/02/20 as CUENL
GRIMLY = Last used on 10/21/11 as LRMGIY
MANTRA = Last used on 11/08/19 as NARMAT
LEARNING CURVE = Last used on 07/13/16 as REERIGVCNUNLA
VNARE = Used on 03/16/18
CNEUL = NEW ANAGRAM
RMYIGL = NEW ANAGRAM
RMNAAT = NEW ANAGRAM
VENUCLEGRIANR = NEW ANAGRAM
Hump day humped me! I couldn’t get the MANTRA nor the solution…………….
Fun J today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for me.
Low 90’s in SoCal. Fires are not too many today. A lot of shootings in LaLaLand.
Good Morning, Everyone. I hope this finds you well…🙋🏻♀️
🤷🏻♀️The LEARNING CURVE set by the English Professor had a few students GRIMLY crying UNCLE, especially the nervous, RAVEN-haired beauty, who made…”I’m so past tense” her MANTRA! 🤷🏻♀️
📚Her UNCLE sat there GRIMLY, trying hard to like the book,
But reading Poe’s “The RAVEN”, all his patience’s what it took…
He so wanted a GED, his MANTRA…”I deserve…
To get through this course unscathed…despite the LEARNING CURVE”! 📚
No Learning Curve needed today. With a mind as sharp as the eye of a Raven, my Mantra of “Jumble before breakfast” meant I never had to Grimly say Uncle. Always love the baseball puzzles. Looking at 104 degrees here on the Great Plains. How hot is it? It’s so hot that corn on the stalks starts popping. Be safe and be happy!
You always shuck and a-maize me, OO. I’m beginning to think you really are The Dude! Take care and be well. 🙂
Toughie today….no blind solve and struggled with 6 letter anagrams!! Finally solved those last two, took out the ING…then all was easy.
Hey Terry…Breaking ball, being a pitch that doesn’t travel straight, threw the word CURVE right into my MITTs…and “practice” in the dialogue gave up LEARNING…From there I was SAFE HOME! 😉⚾️🙋🏻♀️
You’re the wizard, Angela
LOL! Hardly, Terry. But I do enjoy studying the question, and more so the dialogue, to CATCH all the hints! Hope the day’s going well for you both!…Enjoy!⚾️🙋🏻♀️
Saw mantra,but wasn’t sure it was an acceptable word.Then curve looked like the 5 letter first cartoon word,but I had left out the ‘E’ from the circled letters from ‘uncle’,so was stumped by the ‘learning’ first word solve,despite the ‘ing’ being obvious! I guess the hot weather has dulled my early morning responses.
Good morning. Mig you had me checking my paper. Yesterday was hump day. That could explain the off day. I had to look up Mantra. I’m sure we had it before and I failed then. This old dog didn’t learn anything but once I got all the letters down and thinking like Angela, the answer came fairly quick. Next time I see Mantra jumbled I hope it doesn’t elude me for a third time. Until tomorrow stay well and stay safe.
Good Morning, Paul. Mig does the puzzle at night, and lives on the West Coast, so when he posted his comment it was only a little past 9PM on Wednesday night. But it does get a little confusing at times! 😉 And Mantra? Make a note of it…you never know when we might be “hearing” it again! And thanks for the Shout Out…(although I’m not sure thinking like me is always a good thing)! 😂 Hoping you’re well and staying safe too, Brooklyn. Enjoy your day…⚾️🙋🏻♀️
I rally didn’t recall having seen mantra before,but it did pop into my head as a possibility.
Good Morning, Professor. We had it in a puzzle back in November of 2019, but since it’s not that common a word, it may not easily come into memory. 🙋🏻♀️
Good morning again. Casey who’s Mantra was, “never strike out,”had a Grimly outcome when a Raven pitcher affectionately known as Uncle blew a fast ball past mighty Casey and struck him out. Take care.
LOL! Paul Enjoy! …https://tinyurl.com/wdb2j8bx ⚾️🙋🏻♀️
Paul…Sorry, it didn’t take. I’m trying it again…⚾️🙋🏻♀️
https://tinyurl.com/wdb2j8bx
Thank Angela. It was very cute.
YW, Paul. ⚾️🙋🏻♀️
Hi all – I recognized UNCLE from seeing it in other word games. Then I had TARMAN and wondered whether there was a new superhero I’d missed, but two jumbles showed MANTRA. The answer was quick when CURVE fit the last word layout.
Very appropriate cartoon, with all the brouhaha about “foreign substances” in baseball currently.
I have some chores to do, so I’ll just send the usual good wishes to everyone.
That’s where I thought Jeff may have been going with it before noticing all the clues. Happy Thursday, Steve! 🙂
You too Mike! I hope you didn’t turn off the game before the Sox pulled a Yaz! 😂
That grand slam surprised the heck out of me — a 467’ bomb on a cutter. It was hard trying to get sleep after that! 😂
“UNCLE Fester hoped his LEARNING CURVE hadn’t been too steep as he GRIMLY chanted the MANTRA he recently practiced to protect the Addams Family from the ominous RAVEN.”
Another vote here for uncle and mantra which had to resort to pencil and paper to solve. Had an easier time with the cartoon answer – saw curve first and learning quickly followed. Thanks for all the Jumble history, Mike – very interesting. Wishing all of you a good day.
You’re most welcome, Betty. Seeing all of the Jumble cartoonists together like that really brought a smile to my face. I honestly haven’t stopped thinking about it all day. Jeff should be extremely proud of himself!
Wishing you a wonderful Thursday as well. 🙂
MANTRA took the longest today. For the answer, I saw curve right away. With the remaining letters, it took a bit before I saw the ING, and then a while more for LEARN to pop into my brain. Nice CURVEs.
Nice sleuthing, Dennis. It sounds like all you had to do was PENNANT it. On to tomorrow! 🙂