Frog Applause by Teresa Burritt for March 12, 2018

Insecurity is always puzzling.

Thank goodness MY insecurities don’t come from bravado and conceit, just plain ol’ wimpiness.

Gene, I’ll take a “Ü”.

My first takeaway from the letters in the bottom corner was O-B-A-M-A and U-tah C-ounty O-bituary I-ndex.

A test first thing Monday morning. What would Garfield say?

Ubacomaui. I knew him well

POW, a big O hug.

Spiderlegs Steve was not popular with the airlines.

The puzzles in Highlights Magazine sure has gotten obscure.

It’s the missing __ from __possum.

He’s run six feet, almost seven.

Why, yes, thank you, that gaggle of loose letters will fill in the blanks quite nicely, indeed! There is that pesky dangling O, but s_ what?

What really is the deflected focus here is the hapless runner who is getting nowhere fast, just spinning his sneakers, as it were. He is Lame!

Taking all the missing letters in order, we get BACOMAUI. Clearly, Teresa is telling us that she has just returned from a vacation on a popular Hawaiian island, where she attended a pork pit barbecue, but lost her N. It’s sad, but many young ladies have lost their N after a heavy eating and hard drinking BACOMAUI. She told me that afterwards, she tripped into a palindrome, saying,

"I roamed under it as a tired, nude maori. " This must have been an n-less ordeal.

This O problem has me thinking of the Cleavers again.O is left wide open like my pal Beaver.

How many Rubik cubists does it take to solve this puzzle?

In such a hurry for nothing, those that pace themselves shall catch up with them at either a stop sign or a red light; while driving that is..

Has anyone considered that Teresa actually flubbed up but got away with it because we assume she planned it all out.