We got all jumbled up last week and the phones were ringing off the hook because of it.

Our puzzle page production software threw a curve ball at us, with the majority of the Jumble puzzle failing to print for two days. Instead, the riddle for the puzzle did print, which includes a large picture that is part of the final hint, but no word portion of the puzzle.

As phone call after phone call came in, I thought the public must be calling to thank us for our insightful journalism. But, no, the Jumble was screwed up. I haven’t received that many calls since, well, the last time it was screwed up.

Many feared we were canceling the Jumble, which, as any editor will tell you, is professional suicide. No, we are not canceling the Jumble.

The Jumble has appeared in papers around the nation since 1954. I used to test my word scramble skills on the school bus ride home. I was never very proficient at it, though. Many of today’s puzzles are based on the Jumble, such as the popular online game Wordle.

Still, the Jumble reigns supreme. As one reader put it, “I cannot start my day without doing the Jumble. Then I read the rest of the paper, cover to cover.”

If you like puzzles, I’d encourage you to look at all our electronic puzzles online. There’s quite a wide variety, from crosswords to number games in a digital format, and several styles of the Jumble. Find them all at www.bendbulletin.com/puzzles/.

And thanks for reading. Please support our local journalism so we can keep bringing you the puzzles and comics as well. Register for our newsletters here, or subscribe here.

Gerry O’Brien, editor