Jumble

Dr. Drang’s post referencing puzzle-based games reminded me of a word-puzzle game I used to play a lot and haven’t in a long time.

Jumble was a game that was published first weekly, then daily in the Indian Express, the newspaper that I read daily as a kid. It consists of four anagrams – two five-letter and two six-letter ones. You unscramble the four words, and the circled letters form a larger phrase, that you unscramble from the clue given in the cartoon. Apparently, it has been around since 1954, and was created by a chap who also did covers for DC Comics.

Along with reading Tintin, Hagar the Horrible, and Beetle Bailey, I spending ages trying to figure some of these anagrams out (and sometimes being hauled away to study instead). Sometimes I did not succeed, and would eagerly await the answer in the next day (or week)’s newspaper. During some of the long, hot Indian summers when it was too hot to play outside, and not enough books to read inside, they kept me entertained In any case, it was fun, and also a decent tool for someone learning the English language.

Today’s Jumble! game

Several years later, I found them on the web. For some reason, they seem to have gotten a tad easier as an adult. But not by much.

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