HNARC = RANCH

DARTY = TARDY

UQEAPO = OPAQUE

OVENKI = INVOKE

CARTOON ANSWER:

WHEN THE LITTLE BOY ARRIVED AT THE GATES OF THE AMUSEMENT PARK, HE WAS – – –

RNCTDAENE = ENTRANCED

Good morning, Jumble fans, and happy Thursday! I couldn’t be more excited as today is the Opening Day of the MLB regular season. After 152 LONG days of waiting, “America’s Pastime” is finally back and the season will last (if there is a game #7 of the World Series) until Halloween night. Ok, enough about baseball because it’s the Jumble that you came here to read about, and what a fun puzzle we had today. I’m here to break it down for you and touch all the bases!

Leading off today’s game was RANCH. It was instantly visible as was the next word which was TARDY. Starting out with an instant double was a great way to begin the game, but my enthusiastic spirit started to wane when I arrived at OPAQUE. It’s unique blend of uncommon letters momentarily blurred my vision until I used my tried and true solving technique which is to try the anagram backwards. The OPA brought the word instantly to mind bringing me to the final, and in my opinion, most challenging clue word of the day. David was definitely throwing us some heat by starting the anagram with OVEN but it wasn’t enough to make me reach for it. I decided to once again start from the back where I was met with an I and the N close by which brought INVOKE to mind. With all of the clue words out of the way, I was waved into home and could begin my favorite part which of course is the cartoon!

There sure were a lot of moose greeting me upon first glance. In New Hampshire we jokingly refer to a group of moose as “meese” which is funny until you meet up with a group of them standing in the roadway as your zipping down the Kancamagus Highway at 40 mph. I counted 5 in the cartoon and knew exactly what the setting was for today’s panel — WALLEY WORLD!

Is that Clark Griswold with his young son Rusty from the 1983 comedy classic “National Lampoon’s Vacation“? It sure looks like them and the dialogue confirmed my suspicion. As they get ready to enter the park, the wide-eyed youngster is mesmerized by the giant moose head staring at him from atop the gate and his mouth is wide open as he prepares to head in. Although Jeff didn’t give us a baseball themed puzzle for today, I was more than thrilled to see this one in it’s place. My favorite detail had to be the shadowy figure in the background holding a moose balloon. Superb job, Jeff!!!

The final solution was 9-letters long and I had no clue as to what the answer would be. Writing out the clue letters, I started my solve from the back for the third time today. EN allowed me to see ENTRANCE with a D left over. Plopping it on the end was all that was needed to finish this one off and I was done. Have a terrific Thursday, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Now let’s play ball!!! ⚾️⚾️⚾️