ICALL = LILAC
NYMEO = MONEY
DIGINS = SIDING
XONVCE = CONVEX
MARY SHELLEY’S SUCCESS AS AN AUTHOR WAS A RESULT OF HER HAVING – – –
LIANESDOVE = NOVEL IDEAS
Happy Wednesday, Jumble geniuses! Our midweek puzzle offered up two brand new clue words to decipher bringing the total to four for the week. David chose to challenge us with LILAC and CONVEX with the latter being the hardest of the two. Surprisingly, it wasn’t either of those that gave me the most difficulty. SIDING took the longest for me to decipher even though I quickly identified the -ING suffix. CONVEX will probably be the winner of the poll question down below, but I’m sticking with my choice of siding as the hardest for today. MONEY was the oldest clue word of the day and last made an appearance on 12/12/17. SIDING was our most recent with a freshness date of 2/19/18.
Upon first glance of the cartoon, it was apparent that this was going to be a period piece. A quick read of the sentence and dialogue identified the woman on the left as Mary Shelley and we see her discussing a page from her latest novel with a friend. For those of you who are not familiar with Mary Shelley, she was the author of “Frankenstein”. Her book is now over 200 years old and is arguably the first major science fiction novel.
The details within the panel gave it an old-timey feel. The hairstyles of the women along with the frilly collars of their dresses were well drawn. We see a feathered quill resting in an inkwell on Mary’s writing table with several pages of paper laying beside it. There was also a small (and tastefully clothed) statuette of the Venus de Milo sitting on a pedestal in the background. My favorite detail today was one that was not drawn, rather, it was in the wording of Mary’s dialogue. Most people are incorrect when they call the monster in her book Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein was actually the mad scientist and the monster remains unnamed throughout the novel. She refers to the character as “monster,” “creature,” “it,” and “demon.”
The final solve was an anagram consisting of 10-letters which is the same length as yesterday’s. The “OVE” at the end of the layout brought NOVEL instantly to mind leaving IDEAS to be found almost as fast. We’ve actually seen this same punny answer twice in the past (12/7/12 & 6/14/14) but it was so long ago that it seemed fresh. Have a wonderful Wednesday, and I’ll see you right back here tomorrow!