Best puzzle found in newspaper features section

you forgot bridge problems (but who cares? fuck a bridge)

I was thinking about that, but I only ever read the first and last paragraphs of our bridge column. They were the start and end of an amusing anecdote or quotation. Having never read the middle paragraphs, I didn't know if they were "figure out this bridge thing" like chess puzzles or "here's how to be better at bridge."

http://www.casafree.com/modules/xcgal/albums/userpics/10507/Omar%20Sharif.jpg

went with ordinary crossword .... sudoku a close second

Jumble: so corny

Arrivederci, Omar.

I have a huge soft spot for the Jumbles. The JUMBLES!

You've convinced me.

Cryptic crossword!

I'm a bit surprised to learn that newspapers out in BFA have cryptics.

I do sometimes like to solve the final pun without bothering to un-jumble the Jumbles

Some Jumblers fill in only the circled letters.

BFA certainly does not have cryptics but I did not want to be pelted with "where my cryptics."

Me and my brother, every morning before school, we'd set a timer and see who could solve the Jumble fastest. During breakfast.

Always under 2 minutes.

"where my cryptics."
I think they're at Applebee's, with nabisco & co.

All this other stuff is Poochie to the classic crossword.

I removed kind of a crucial verb

Poochie? A dog?

ordinary crossword = elegant and reliable Itchy & Scratchy

CryptoQuote = Worker and Parasite

The Jumble = Happy Little Elves

They're Jumblin', baby.

I haven't actually looked at the Jumble in years. Is it my imagination or did the accompanying cartoons have kind of a Don Martin look to them?

http://www.cs.duke.edu/courses/fall04/cps100/assign/anagram/jumble.gif

http://www.smartweb.net/webdav/webbweekly/arts_leisure/images/_0126jumble.jpg

They kind of remind me more of the Lockhorns or Howard Huge, but I can see the Martin vibe.

What did Shirley Temple have as an ambassador?

"OOOOOO-O-OOOOO" OOOOOOOO

There's a reason the punchlines are short.

(Ans: "Dimple-o-matic" Immunity)

(You wouldn't have gotten that, would you?)

(Especially without any letters from which to anagramble it.)

http://www.knightfeatures.com/KFWeb/content/features/nonkffeatures/UM/wordygurdy/wdy050430.jpg

I don't even think of non-cryptics as proper crosswords, hardly.

you misspelled "I am a dick"

j/k

Still, though, that post sounds like a rejected Frasier gag

Ha, Yellow Kid, we used to make up our own Wordy Gurdy's. Like

Raggett's Prescriptions (1)

It's a UK thing, nabisco. I don't think NVague has ever been to this side of the pond.

I am just making fun, because "I can barely conceive of them as proper crosswords" makes a person sound, to put it transAtlantically, a bit like the Hyacinth Bucket of broadsheet puzzles

I had to look that last one up. The Frasier gag was pretty funny.

Yeah the Frasier gag was lulz. From what I've learned online, I realise that yr "straight" crosswords are a bit deeper than the ones over here. Which I should've said last night only I was tired and just typing for the sake of it really. I would still rep for a really well-crafted cryptic clue over most things tho.

Codeword, man, it's all about CODEWORD. But so far that only seems to be in the Times and the Evening Bastard.

If codewords are the ones where each letter is assigned a number which is filled in on a crossword grid and you're given two or three starter letters to crack them, I quite like them too, but will probably still vote for cryptic crosswords.

(Is '"Figure out coded quote" puzzle' one of the codewords with a quote at the bottom to decipher once you've done the grid, or is it something else?)

>> Codeword, man, it's all about CODEWORD. But so far that only seems to be in the Times and the Evening Bastard.

> If codewords are the ones where each letter is assigned a number...

then they are also available in The Sun.

Wordy Gurdy reminds me of Wonky Donkey.

I was able to do Cryptoquotes for about six months and then somehow lost my ability.

You probably got bored.

All my the's turned out to be and's.

Sounds like the title of a lost country classic from Schoolhouse Rock.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Too bad somebody like Jim Ford didn't write some of those Grammar Rocks.

No love for the Acrostic in the Sunday Times?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I like the unscramble the word and take the bubbled letters and unscramble them for the answer to a comic... because sudokus are boring and crossword puzzles are too hard.

slylock fox... is he still around?

slylock fox is more famous than ever!

I think that is exclusively due to the Comics Curmudgeon. Cpn Lorax, the name of your preferred puzzle is the Jumble. The JUMBLE!

> I think that is exclusively due to the Comics Curmudgeon.

Probably. But still.

I voted for the Jumble as promised. If they actually put quality, reasonably challenging American language cryptics on a daily basis in the US papers, I'd have voted for that.

That Jumble was...

THAW-SOME!

Sorry. Maybe thread title should now have the words "Jumble Spoiler" added.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41T9SSYRCWL._AA240_.jpg
Thaw-some

Here's an almost Wordy Gurdy for you:

Rudolph nemesis involved in corny wordplay puzzle (4 words)

Maybe should reword as

Rudolph nemesis implicated in corny wordplay

BUMBLE'S JUMBLES

You have made my evening!

oh four words :(

That's basically it, Abbott! I was looking for

BUMBLE IN THE JUMBLE

I guess I could change the clue to "Wordplay of Rudolph's nemesis (2)" so that your answer works.

Elfen dentists from Myanmar (2)

(I am so sorry)

BURMESE HERMIES!

OMG James you are making me die with the happy. Rankin Bass specials (esp Rudolph) + ridic word games is kind of my idea of a perfect time! (Plus I have a whiskey sour here, so.)

Here's one more joke on this theme you might enjoy, Abbott.

http://jcnemecek.com/grosvenor/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/scrabble.jpg

I'm wearing a T-shitr of Hermie right now!