GITSH = SIGHT

GRUHS = SHRUG

DIRTEA = TIRADE

TULEID = DILUTE

CARTOON ANSWER:

HE BELTED HOME RUN AFTER HOME RUN ONCE HE – – –

SIHSHRTIDITE = HIT HIS STRIDE

Good morning everyone, and happy Thursday! We’re in the homestretch of puzzles for the week with yesterday’s game being the most difficult so far. The majority of folks that stopped by were looking for help with FLEGNU as well as the surprise answer, LEFT AND “WRITE”. If you fell victim to Jeff and David’s nasty curveball yesterday, it’s time to stand up, brush yourself off, and head back out to the plate to take a swing at today’s offering.

Leading off today’s game was SIGHT. It was pretty obvious as was the next word which was SHRUG. The 5-letter words took more time to write out than to solve so I was feeling like nothing could slow me down. My go get ’em attitude quickly subsided as soon as I ran into the next anagram which was TIRADE. A nasty slider. Impossible for me to hit. David jumbled this word so perfectly that I actually skipped over it and moved on to DILUTE. Now that was an easy one to figure out after using my technique of trying the anagram backwards. And there I was right back where I left off only a few seconds before, and more frustrated than ever! After what seemed like an eternity of just staring at it, I broke down and pulled out my notepad. It took a few minutes to figure out and I was just happy to be done with it.

Everyone’s favorite part of the Jumble is the cartoon and I was especially pleased to see that this morning’s panel featured a baseball theme. We may have had to wait a couple of weeks into the season to get it, but it’s better late than never. The setting was a baseball field where a couple of coaches are cheering on a player as he heads for home. The look on the players face shows us that he’s not under any pressure to get there as he leisurely gallops towards the plate. By reading the sentence and dialogue we learn that the player has just hit a home run and he’s savoring every second of this glorious moment. There wasn’t much fine detail in today’s drawing except for maybe the shadowy crowd cheering in the stands. I’m happy that Jeff showed restraint by not forcing any in because the drawing was perfect just the way it was.

The solution to the surprise answer wasn’t overly difficult to solve with HIS being the first word that I found. It was neatly placed together in the beginning of the anagram for an instant solve. I would have switched the position of SHRUG and SIGHT to make the layout more challenging, but perhaps our wordsmith thought TIRADE was enough trouble for today. HIT was found next with STRIDE taking just a few moments to figure out and finish this one off.

On a final note, you only have a few days left to enter April’s giveaway. Head over to the front page of my blog for your chance to win an “I ❤️ Jumble” coffee mug and a $20 iTunes gift card. You can use the gift card to get rid of those pesky ads in the Just Jumble app and still have a few bucks to spare. Have a terrific Thursday, and I’ll see you tomorrow!