Friday, September 16, 2005

The Jumble

One of the earliest word games I was exposed to(and soon became addicted to) was the Jumble. It appeared in the Sunday magazine of Indian Express and was the primary reason that our Hindu-addicted household bought the Sunday edition of IE. Imagine my joy when I subscribed to the San Jose Mercury News here and found that they carry a Jumble puzzle everyday! With all news now available online, that is the only aspect of the print edition that I miss since I stopped the subscription.

The rules of the game are pretty simple. You get 4 jumbled words(2 5-letter and 2 6-letter) that you first have to unscramble and enter in the boxes below each word. Particular letters in each of the 4 words are circled. Once you have unscrambled all 4 words, you select only the circled letters and unscramble them to answer the riddle(usually some kind of a pun) at the bottom.

This puzzle is one I created for a get-together at our house a few years back. Wanna take a stab at it?



PS1: If you do find this interesting enough to play, could you jot down a quick comment saying so? Thanks.

PS2: No answers in comments maybe until Monday so as not to spoil the fun for others? Email bbalaji [at] sbcglobal [dot] net for hints/solution confirmation :-)

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19 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:39 PM

    good lunch-break fun...! thanks...hv mailed my soln to bbthots...

    ReplyDelete
  2. mitr_bayarea2:57 PM

    great blog, i do the Word jumble from SJ Mercury news everyday and its so refreshing and addictive..my answers have been sent to your email..do we get a reward or sthng for the top 5 winners :)

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  3. Anonymous3:35 PM

    hmm....bb..i'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature of the game.....looks like you forgot to mention that the sub-puzzles do not necessarily have a unique solution. I came up with 2 (legal!) words for the last but one subpuzzle only 1 of which lead me to the overall puzzle's correct answer

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  4. Anonymous3:37 PM

    Balaji,
    I love word puzzles. Although I did not remember the answers from that night, once I started unscrambling, it all came back to me. Hence, I did not send my answers to you.

    You should do more of these puzzles.
    Sreela.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Balaji3:47 PM

    ram, that was fast! got it...

    mitr, where did u send your soln? didnt get your email.
    the reason for asking for feedback was to c if i could make something like this a regular(weekly) feature. if yes, then i'll start thinking of contests :-)

    anon, good catch. i'm guessing the other word u found is AVAILS. that is a bug. will make sure that doesn't happen in future posts.

    SK, wanted to chk if there were enuf readers interested before posting more. hope there are since i like making up such puzzles too :-)

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  6. Kaps4:37 PM

    i used to enjoy this stuff a lot. thanks for reminding us of such stuff.

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  7. Narayanan Venkitu4:49 PM

    I like it , it is interesting, I remember, I used to play it in the IE in India.! Didn't know that Mercury news carried it.!

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  8. Anonymous5:58 PM

    yes...it was avails .....maybe u shd let it be tht way to keep things interesting:)

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  9. Anonymous7:29 PM

    Balaji,
    That was fun - I think I got the solution (just too lazy to mail it you). Yeah, you should make this a regular feature and come up with other word games too. Some ideas:

    1. Cryptic clues for city/personality/movie etc. names
    2. Etymology trivia
    3. can't think of any now....

    Faffer

    ReplyDelete
  10. Me too8:54 PM

    Sunday Express magazine used to be a great favourite with us too. Esp. the Jumble and crossword(easier than Hindu's and hence a 'feel better'!)

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  11. Balaji10:42 PM

    anon, Aparna found that the 1st word could be COULD also! guess i need to be real careful with future puzzles :-)

    faffer, no prob. just hope u had fun solving it.
    will try to think of diff. kinds of games for future game posts.

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  12. Revo's nuggets8:15 AM

    oh - that was an excellent one -especially the pun at the end.

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  13. Balaji9:26 AM

    me too, u're right about the easier part. i used to be obsessed with 'the hindu' xword too though i didn't finish it most of the days!

    priya, thanx! based on responses so far, it is gonna be a regular feature(atleast till interest wanes :-)

    revo's, thanx! glad u enjoyed it :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous8:24 AM

    good entertainer and nice way to relax in the midst of work

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  15. Anonymous1:49 PM

    It was fun solving it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Balaji12:42 PM

    TVS, thanx :-)

    ReplyDelete
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  19. Funtabulous4:25 AM

    i like word puzzles but my mom is crazy abt them....is there anyway i cud have them all printed out and give to her to do them...she will be coming down in 2 weeks and she will love them

    ReplyDelete

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