Puzzles Etc.

oh geez. Yeah, I never took that from the puzzle, at all

Q: The hangman game backward #2

18

Hangman game backward version 2 - guess what was the question, with only 1 letter missing: fill in a "b" - I might lose control anytime, so keep me on my toes. fill in an "m" - my brothers are all metalhead but me. fill in a "p" - my buddy has two big tusks and loves to carry me around all day...

that's one of the earlier ones

my problem is, I can't find an appropriate NY city

Matt

or nevada city

or illinois city

Even the first one had a bad description. I think the guy just needs to learn to give a better puzzle description.

Ty for explaining it

5:04 PM

yeah I agree with you, they easily could have just linked to another one

for context

I looked at #2, though

and it links to #1

None of them have a description of what you're trying to accomplish

He lacks the info in every last one of them

And I just won't bother participating in that puzzle.

Matt

I can't stop thinking that the half the population clue with "o" leads to w_man, but that's useless for the other clues

yeah, w_man, b_y, m_m, m_ther, p_p, etc., don't work

well, it's been answered

haha

though I'm dubious on "sin"

bad answer, imo

On all 3 reasonings

Especially half of the population having experienced being a "son"

Not generally something you experience

nah, I'm OK with that

I mean, I feel like "gender" was clearly what was being signalled there

and the last one fits

5:15 PM

Not sure I agree on the last one, either

but the first one... I'm sure this was the intended answer but being like "oh there's a strip club called Sin City in NY" is...not the same as it being a city, like the question says.

The definition of night is the inability to see the sun

I think that's nitpicking, honestly.

you definitely can't see the sun at night

I think that counts

Except it says you might not

and even if it was "loose", riddles are always loose

5:16 PM

And there's no chance that you will

yeah you're just nitpicking

Not really - it's a word puzzle

So the words matter, or the puzzle is invalid

Same with the reasoning "rarely see the sun at night"

Name a time when you have seen it, at night? lol

I would call 9PM night, and I've seen the sun at 9PM

Not in the dark, you haven't

it's definitely not "afternoon"

5:19 PM

It's not night, either

it's dark, though!

It's evening

OK, yeah, you're still nitpicking.

The definition of night is when the sun is completely gone

suffice it to say, the sin city part was bad

5:19 PM

Not even remotely

1) where is that definition? 2) again, riddles usually involve wordplay.

" the time from sunset to sunrise"

Meaning the sun has gone down, and has not yet risen

True, but there's a difference between wordplay and being completely incorrect

that's one of many definitions.

it's not "completely incorrect"

if you couldn't do something, I could say you had a hard time doing it

And you would be incorrect, saying so

it might not be a complete description, but it's not inaccurate

You're looking for precision in language. Unfortunately, there is no precision in language.

5:22 PM

Can't and difficult are logically incongruent

yes but you'd know what I meant if I said that

you wouldn't even balk

Yes. I definitely would. If you said something couldn't be done, then I would know it couldn't be done.

like I say: there's no such thing as precise language. it's a literal (ha!) impossibility

If you said it was difficult, then I would know that it was difficult. They're completely different.

If you said it was difficult, I would have NO idea that it was impossible.

That's not necessary, though.

It's weird that you're pushing this particular discrepancy when the first one is much more obviously problematic.

5:26 PM

My problem is with all of them, as I said

2/3 are fine

roughly half of the population are sons; it is very difficult to see the sun at night.

I might not see the sun at night, in the dark.

What? Sun still exists? Haven't seen him for days.

check back at night

my gf doesn't let me.. :p

Yes, I've sen the answers - they're still bad

5:28 PM

You're looking for a precision that does not exist

How did you know that my gf doesn't exist?

It exists, perfectly fine - you're just white-knighting this answer for some unknown reason

I hate to explain this to people, but language does not operate on strict logic. In fact, nothing does except logic itself (well, until you get to those nasty completeness problems)

No, sorry, precision of language does not exist, and any linguist will tell you this much.

You keep arguing with yourself about it. I'm bored.

OK. I mean. There's a ton of information that backs all of this up.

5:45 PM

Oooh. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus anyone?

Can we model semantics syntactically?

are you mocking me hugh meyers

(I don't think you're actually mocking me)

It happens to be a subject I love arguing about. Especially over a beer. Or, better still, several beers.

also, @HughMeyers, how do you do? I stared at your recent birthday password riddle for a while

I'm doing fine. You?

good, good. looking at the "ordering multiple objects" puzzle and some others.

5:53 PM

My favorite part of that one is where he says "there must be a billion numbers".

I liked that. Classic Hugh Meyers.

also, your girlfriend seems cool.

I haven't seen "ordering multiple objects" yet. Good?

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/30339/… some people might have trouble classifying it as a puzzle, but I like it

also puzzling over KK's most recent: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/30280/its-time-to-go

I was in Italy for a while and wasn't on the Internet much. Last few days have been like a homecoming.

Getting back to puzzles.

Are you European, originally (I mean originally within your own life, not ancestrywise)? Or did you end up in Switzerland by some other means?

in any case, I'm extremely jealous of anyone who travels to another country, pretty much ever.

6:00 PM

Other means. I've been a bunch of places.

That was my guess

Italy is a few hours by train from home. Very easy trip.

I lived in Canada for years. If my family's from anywhere it's there.

I'm from the US, never been anywhere else. Well, OK, I've been to Canada a couple of times, in the beforetimes, when you didn't have to have a passport to go there.

I was surprised the coin and gram puzzle still wasn't solved.

me too! It's a tough one. I offered a bounty on it as a way of recusing myself from it

KK has done a good job of letting people know that they got something right, but not what

6:09 PM

I put in a guess that I figure is probably close to sort of stir the pot.

KK does great puzzles. I love seeing his name next to a new one.

yeah, me too

Hey, I'm back - Sorry for being irritable, lately. This 97+ hour crap has me on edge, because I can't get work done.

yo, seriously, I totally get it

also sorry for being argumentative

np

I had similar dealings with time warner cable a while back

6:15 PM

....Me, too angry

lol

I was down for a week, and then Verizon sent the notice that they were done with construction and I could sign up for FIOS

When the FCC switched comcast customers to TWC

Your guess, @HughMeyers, is probably one of the closest, currently.

I'm blushing. But thanks!

haha

I feel that there are a number of different paths I could go down but none looks significantly more compelling than the others. I'll think about it some more.

6:42 PM

@question_asker you here?

can you tell me how this answer was offensive?

the new meta post reminded me of it.

Hey, q_a - Gerbil made a meta post about the question he had deleted

q_a knows

didn't you see those two huge paragraphs?

ah, I only switched to the tab, then closed to do other things - haven't read any of it, yet

and just now about to read it =D

:)

@manshu I personally think that the subject matter of the answer is (or can be) sensitive, but I do not personally think the answer itself was offensive, except that it could be read in a way that makes it seem like it's minimizing the holocaust.

6:51 PM

I find petty cash very offensive!

?

We had a conversation in here yesterday about that answer, I think.

LoL, I'm responding to Manshu's comment on Gerbil's meta post =D

oh haha

Anyone else unable to read "oh haha" as anything but "oh...ha........ha......"

lol

oh boy, manshu's comment. kind of misses the point

6:53 PM

@question_asker Then why does schools teach about Hitler and his doings?

I don't really think that taking issue with demonizing mental illness is "petty"

@manshu What I'm saying is I don't think the answer (about Hitler) is offensive. I can understand how somebody would a) read that answer as minimizing the holocaust (referring to it as "harsh" is kind of tame), and b) take offense to said minimizing

but overall, I personally don't think it's offensive.

Now I am thinking that it's either people find everything offensive or I am really, really evil.

I think what he's trying to say is..

It's less that the answer is about Hitler

..and more that it feels like the answer is minimizing the Holocaust into "very harsh", when it should, arguably, be considered far worse.

It's not a very justified reasoning, but it's viable.

right

That is to say - I never even saw the answer until it was mentioned to me, yesterday, as having been deleted.

6:57 PM

I can't make this clear enough, I don't think:

Ok... I know now. People are not offensive. It's me who is evil.

lol

I personally was not offended by the answer. I personally don't think the answer actually minimized the holocaust, but I can sort of understand how people came to that conclusion.

Personally, I think it was a personified personnel issue further personified by the closing of a specific person's, personal idea for the answer.

:P

you understood? I can't even understand how people link things in their mind