# The Jumble **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2000, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276 "2000-04-27T14:41:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/1 "2000-04-27T14:41:00Z")
You know the Jumble puzzle that’s printed in most daily papers? It’s the one that has a list of words that are jumbled up. You figure out what the words are then use the letters of those words (the ones that are marked) to form a caption for a little cartoon. My question: how many words are there that have unique sets of letters? It always seems like there’s only one answer per set of letters. Do they rerun these things often? Re-use words? Who the hell writes these things? How long has it been around? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/2 "2000-04-27T15:04:00Z")
I don’t have any real answers that you couldn’t get by looking at your newspaper, but here’s what I found. The Jumble® is written by Henri Arnold & Michael Argirion and syndicated through Tribune Media Services. ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/3 "2000-04-27T15:17:00Z")
Thanks, UncleBeer. Yeah, I saw that part. I looked at Tribune Media Services’ website, but all they offer is an online Jumble and some sales contacts for the puzzle, but no real background information. What mostly intrigues me is the number of words that have letters unique to them, i.e., “surly” which was one of the words the other day. These letters can’t be formed into any other word (can they?). How many words do we have that are like this? Obviously, a lot, because they’ve been coming up with this puzzle for as long as I can remember (25+ years). ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/4 "2000-04-27T15:23:00Z")
Note, of course, that if they used SURLY once, they could use it again many months later, scrambled differently, and I can’t imagine any one would remember. I find the challenge to the Jumble is to guess the pun/joke answer without having done any of the jumbles. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/5 "2000-04-28T05:12:00Z")
[quote] I find the challenge to the Jumble is to guess the pun/joke answer without having done any of the jumbles. [quote] I always try to do all four Jumbles without using any information from the final Jumble to help. I also do it all in my head, no pen. I did find one Jumble with two solutions once. The extra solution was obscure. I had guessed at a word I didn’t know, and found it in the dictionary. * * * _It is too clear, and so it is hard to see._ ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/6 "2000-04-28T05:34:00Z")
Okay, I just spent about fifteen minutes at the internet anagram server at [www.wordsmith.org/anagram](http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram) and my early results predict that only a very small percentage of 5-8 letter words can be rearranged to form other 5-8 letter words. I’d be interested to see some actual stats, but I think the issue raised in the OP is not that much of a problem. To my mind, the real skill of those things is rearranging them in such a manner that the solution can be very difficult to come to. * * * stoli “There’s always a little dirt, or infinity, or something.” -Feynman ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/7 "2000-04-28T05:36:00Z")
Forgot to mention the (probably obvious) fact that that site is the worlds bestest way to cheat at Jumble. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/8 "2000-04-28T05:42:00Z")
The Jumble has been running forever, and I suspect in the early days they occasionally made a mistake. But with computers, I suspect that doesn’t happen anymore. Seven years ago, I wrote a small program that took all the permutations of a jumble clue, and ran it through a spelling checker, throwing out anything the checker didn’t think was a word. If I remember correctly, all of the Jumble clues ultimately resolved to just one word. Nowadays it wouldn’t be to hard to take every possible group of letters, and run their permutations through a spelling checker, to get a list of all the groups which can only be resolved into a single common word. ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/9 "2000-04-28T16:15:00Z")
It’s rare, but I have once in a great while, seen a word that could be resolved in a couple of different ways. If I think of any, I’ll let you know. And yes, they do re-use words, though I don’t know if they get jumbled in the same way both times. * * * “The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord ---
**Author:** ![starfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@starfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starfish)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/10 "2000-04-28T16:49:00Z")
It doesn’t matter if the letters can form more than one word. You have to use the correct word to get the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/11 "2000-08-16T22:54:43Z")
smile limes slime miles ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/12 "2000-08-16T22:59:05Z")
Well, that certainly took long enough. How about: Times Mites Smite ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/13 "2000-08-16T23:25:48Z")
The horse was a \_ \_ \_ \_ \_ And had good odds on the \_ \_ \_ \_ \_, But it was distracted by \_ \_ \_ \_ \_ Crossing in front of the gate. Expecting the best, the owner saw the \_ \_ \_ \_ \_ And being a Frenchman, decided to feast. But the dish was a failure, and many did pale, For the horse was so bad, it was already \_ \_ \_ \_ \_. ---
**Author:** ![jcgmoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@jcgmoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcgmoi)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/14 "2000-08-16T23:32:35Z")
I can play. **apers pares parse pears rapes reaps spare spear** ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/15 "2000-08-17T00:57:05Z")
Henri Arnold isn’t COMPLETELY oblivious, so he knows enough not to use words that are anagrams of other words… MOST of the time. But he has certain blind spots- for instance, he uses “mocha” (as in coffee) on a regular basis, as if he’s unaware that “macho” is a very commonly used word that could be formed with the same letters. ---
**Author:** ![Tzel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzel)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jumble/11276/16 "2000-08-17T05:19:06Z")
Heh, I just find it interesting that you play the jumble enough to notice regular patterns.