The Sphinx's Lair

dcfyj

5:01 PM

Supposedly, all the clues have a "...true definition and the sneaky way round..."

Rubio

Yeah not so much

dcfyj

In other news, I hate my left ear...

n_palum

I just can't help but notice the puzzle says "HI"

GentlePurpleRain

Is anyone working on Sp3000's CCCC? I keep unconsciously drifting toward indirect anagrams, and then realizing that @Sp3000 would never do that... (Right?)

dcfyj

Theoretically

n_palum

5:05 PM

I've been trying to figure it out but I'm still quite the novice at them... I keep looking at start letters and rat(tle)

GentlePurpleRain

Any of "off", "oddly", "make", or "rattle" could be anagram indicators.

"start" and "end" (or "without end") could also be indicators.

Deusovi

"Oddly" could also be an indicator.

GentlePurpleRain

...which I just mentioned... :P

Deusovi

Not necessarily an anagram indicator.

GentlePurpleRain

ah.

Rubio

5:07 PM

No, he meant letter selector

dcfyj

Every other letter :P

Rubio

all odd letters. :)

Gareth McCaughan

It seems like @MOehm solved it quickly but hasn't said so (at least that's the conclusion I draw from how confidently he's made statements about it).

n_palum

Can you use @ in a CC?

Gareth McCaughan

I suppose you could (perhaps indicating the letters AT) but it would be kinda gimmicky.

Perhaps in a thematic crossword where every clue uses slightly unorthodox symbols somehow.

n_palum

5:14 PM

Hmm just curious thanks

M Oehm

Yes, I know the solution to the CCCC, but I refrained from answering, because (a) I didn't want it to look like a ping-pong match between Sp3000 and me and (b) I'm at home now and my home queue of clues has run dry.

Gareth McCaughan

yup, understood. I've done the same before.

M Oehm

(When the clue was posted, TSL was not especially busy.)

Gareth McCaughan

(though folks here are tolerant enough of short delays that if I'm not about to be AFK I don't mind solving one and then making up a clue)

Rubio

@MOehm - I loved erythrichthyology btw. I may have to use that sometime.

GentlePurpleRain

5:22 PM

Watch out if Rubio's next CCCC has an enumeration of (17)! :P

Rubio

lol

"Look over there!" (17)

n_palum

What does that even mean

Rubio

erythro- means red

ichthyology is study of fish

put together it's supposed to suggest "red herring"

Gareth McCaughan

and of course leucornithology means "white birds" and MO was comparing the white crows in this clue to red herrings elsewhere

(I loved that remark too)

n_palum

Goodness yall are too smart sometimes

Rubio

5:24 PM

Right.

Gareth McCaughan

er, sorry, to be more accurate it means "study of white birds"

n_palum

I went and tried googling what they meant ;_;

Rubio

Heh. They're made up. I'm sure the results were unenlightening.

n_palum

Well leucornithology was like "Do you want 'bald eagles'?"

Gareth McCaughan

etymolology, n. the study of words made up for the purposes of humour

n_palum

5:26 PM

The other one was just a mess

Rubio

Hehe.. "Bald" as in "bald eagle" means white, so that one at least is sensible if not strictly relevant

M Oehm

I've just cobbled these words together from what I found on the web. A linguist should have a look at these neologisms before they are released into academia.

n_palum

bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) - from the wiki it suggested

Gareth McCaughan

as an expert etymolologist (v.s.) I hereby certify that your neologisms are perfectly cromulent.

Rubio

meh

:)

n_palum

5:28 PM

Big words are scary

Gareth McCaughan

nah, big words are easier than little ones

There's a story from Richard Feynman (the physicist) that I really like.

Rubio

c.f. the entire German language

Gareth McCaughan

So one day he thought "I should learn Spanish" and he went along to some place that had language classes. He headed for the room with the Spanish classes; next door was a Portuguese class, and in the queue for that class was an incredibly good-looking woman. Being the sort of chap he was, he immediately changed his mind and learned Portuguese instead. (This is just background; the actual point comes in a moment.)

M Oehm

Cromulent, aha. I seem to be thumbing/mousing my dictionary more often than other days today.

n_palum

@MOehm I've just had a dictionary tab open for a bit now

Deusovi

5:31 PM

@MOehm (It's from the Simpsons.)

Rubio

Cromulent is a wonderful word, but unless you're looking in the urban dictionary I wouldn't expect to find it :)

Gareth McCaughan

And then it turned out he got an invitation from a university in Brazil to go and be a visiting prof there, or something, so it was fortunate that he'd learned some Portuguese. Well, of course his hosts asked him: so how come you learned Portuguese when Spanish is obviously more useful? And he started to tell them (in Portuguese, natch) the story above. And when he was about to finish off by saying "... and so, I learned Portuguese!" [...continues]

Rubio

It pays to embiggen your vocabulary.

M Oehm

Oh, yes, my pop culture lacunae. But I've found out what it is. Learn something new every day.

n_palum

@Rubio It comes up in dictionary if you google it - albeit simpsons references

Gareth McCaughan

5:32 PM

he suddenly realised that he had no idea how to say "so" in Portuguese. (It's the little words that are hardest!) But then he realised that he could use a long word instead of a short one, because long words tend to be almost the same in different languages, and he finished off: "... CONSEQUENTAMENTE, apprendi Portugues!"

And everyone was like, wow, he knows such big words!

(End of story. Sorry if I bored anyone.)

Deusovi

Heh.

n_palum

Snoring ;)

Rubio

blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ericlippert/2011/02/14/…

There's a Feynman story (of sorts) relevant for PSE :)

Sconibulus

Feynman is really funny, I remember a story where he blew up a vacuum sprinkler

Techidiot

@GarethMcCaughan That was...motivating :-) I liked the end.

n_palum

5:55 PM

V tvir hc

Deusovi

@n_palum ?

oh

n_palum

rot13 * woops

Sphinx

7:31 PM

0

Q: A very hard and random puzzle

My friend gave this sheet to me with a couple of other friends. They were laughing, and I looked at it, but I do not know what it meant. Could you have a look? You Kill your sausage mother princes or fool happy days I really shall ha [rude word] ability get me you watch me cry. I know th...

cipher

Sphinx

7:47 PM

0

Q: Where's my pet gone to?

I came home today and realized that my furry friend was not there to greet me. There was a note on the counter from my SO that explained where they had gone but I wasn't quite sure what it meant. Can you help tell me where they went and why? I was left this: A small note: The +2 (mixed ...

enigmatic-puzzle word-search

Beastly Gerbil

8:45 PM

Not a cccc and quite easy but has really nice surface reading: 'Send it back with the payment (5)'

Deusovi

Yeah, that's a nice one! I really like it

Beastly Gerbil

Of course you solved it already :P

Deusovi

Well, like you said, it wasn't difficult. But it's definitely a good clue

Beastly Gerbil

I like ones like these because they use words which usually aren't part of the actual clue and which people usually look over

Sphinx

0

Q: Trying Again: t-00110000

So, I asked about this previously, but there was a lot of confusion over what exactly I was asking. I'll try to be more concise this time. Recently, an individual has been anonymously sending users of the website Curious Cat (Myself and some friends included) a link to a video called "Blackcat" w...

cipher mystery

-2

Q: Work out numbers 1-1000 using 1,2,3,4 and 5.

An extension of Create all numbers from 0-100 only using all of 1,2,3,4 and 5 Calculate 1-1000 using the numbers 1,2,3,4 and 5. All the digits have to be used exactly once, but you are not allowed to use more than two sets of parentheses. Also, divide and minis cannot be used.

calculation-puzzle

0

Q: Introducing Mosaic puzzle series and the API

Mosaic — Also known as: ArtMosaico, Count and Darken, Cuenta Y Sombrea, Fill-a-Pix, Fill-In, Komsu Karala, Magipic, Majipiku, Mosaico, Mosaik, Mozaiek, Nampre Puzzle, Nurie-Puzzle, Oekaki-Pix, Voisimage. Mosaic is a Minesweeper-like puzzle based on a grid with a pixel-art picture hidden ins...

puzzle-creation grid-deduction

n_palum

8:55 PM

@BeastlyGerbil tidnes? Did I do it

Beastly Gerbil

Thats not 5 letters

Nor a word

Rubio

but other than that, NAILED IT.

Beastly Gerbil

:P

n_palum

@Rubio Sweet!

Beastly Gerbil

You might need to be familiar with the word, its no used much nowadays

Rubio

8:58 PM

@Sphinx Isn't this, like, rampant promotion in the guise of an eventual puzzle?

thanks Deus. I was trying to decide how to flag it ;)

The "spam" reason blurb mentions something about not disclosing author's affiliation but in that case I assume it would have been reasonable regardless of if affiliation had been disclosed or not?

boboquack

@Deus, I'm not sure of the rules in the CCCC, but are we allowed to use 'common knowledge'?
E.g. Deus' complement I am, um..., an egg (4) [I haven't made this clue very well, it's just an example] for OV(i->UM)

Deusovi

Yeah, since it exists mainly to promote something.

@boboquack What do you mean by 'common knowledge'?

boboquack

@Deusovi Things that most users of PSE will know, but not e.g. the world

Deusovi

I don't see any problem with it.

Sp3000

@GentlePurpleRain If it helps, yeah no indirect anagrams. There's something amusing about that statement, but I'll save it for later :)

Deusovi

9:10 PM

@BeastlyGerbil - you're voting to close your own question?

n_palum

Meta

@dcfyj Did we ever find out why you hate your left ear?

boboquack

9:42 PM

@Deus Deletion please: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/50300/…

boboquack

9:55 PM

Thanks

Rubio

Give me one million dollars pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp[..]eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

i didn't realize that's all it took to get people to help you

Gareth McCaughan

@BeastlyGerbil My only complaint about the "send it back ..." clue is that the def isn't awfully exact. Perhaps some other word might be better.

dcfyj

@n_palum lol, no one ever asked. For some reason my ear is clogged and I haven't been able to hear out of it for the last few days. I'm working on getting hearing back, but in the mean time is really annoying.

Rubio

And this, kids, is why you should never let someone pour hot candle wax directly into your ear.

dcfyj

Nope, went to bed able to hear fine, woke up unable to use my left ear.

Gareth McCaughan

10:07 PM

when that's happened to me the reason has always just been a big blob of earwax, which there are standard procedures for removing.

dcfyj

The last couple days I put some peroxide in to liquify the wax, giving it a break today, I don't want to damage it after all :P

Rubio

just jab stuff into your ear until you can hear again. totally good idea.

dcfyj

Riiiiight lol

Rubio

I've fortunately never had issues with excessive earwax plugging up the works :)

dcfyj

This is the first time I've had this issue.

Beastly Gerbil

10:11 PM

@Deusovi yep, I was just looking over my posts and realised how bad it was. Its not even a puzzle, just a list of cards

@GarethMcCaughan hmm, it used to be a payment in the old days....

Gareth McCaughan

well, it is a payment, but it's a rather specific sort of payment.

Beastly Gerbil

yeah point taken....

Uh. Don't you just love it when your computer spontaneously updates and you lose all your work....

Gareth McCaughan

eeeep

can't you disable that?

Rubio

"It said 'Requires Windows 8 or Better'. So I installed Linux."

Gareth McCaughan

tee hee

Beastly Gerbil

10:15 PM

Aparently not... i got notifications sayng 'your computer needs an update' with options 'update now' or 'later', and I always clicked 'later' but hey ho

My computer gave up on me

dcfyj

In the settings somewhere you used to be able to tell it to ask to download and/or install updates. I think they got rid of that for some stupid reason...

Gareth McCaughan

ugh, that's horrible

Beastly Gerbil

But hey, it's late so night all! Hopefully word recovered most of the files anyway....

Rubio

Seeya

Gareth McCaughan

@BeastlyGerbil, I assume this is Win10 that's screwing you around? It's frustrating -- it seems to be notably better than its predecessors in some ways, but there are just too many things that are Really Expletive Annoying.

Beastly Gerbil

10:17 PM

Yeah 10.

Gareth McCaughan

(good night)

Beastly Gerbil

And the problem is it needs updating to stop the updates randomly occurring :P

dcfyj

I'm logging back off as well, swyping is annoying for prolonged periods of time and so much slower than typing on PC lol.

Sphinx

0

Q: Solve the Mosaic

Mosaic is a Minesweeper-like puzzle based on a grid with a pixel-art picture hidden inside. Using logic alone, the solver determines which squares are painted and which should remain empty until the hidden picture is completely exposed. Each puzzle consists of a grid containing clues in various ...

grid-deduction

boboquack

@Sphinx Hmmm... I don't like big grid deduction puzzles if they're just a big grid deduction and nothing else.