Puzzles Etc.

T. makes me think train stop, but that's two words

you're on the right track, sort of

yeah I have no idea what the T. could indicate

Anagram of T and PERIOD gives PERIDOT

Oh God. Americans.

"period"

sigh

3:25 PM

nice one Gordon

KoA

^^^^^^^

oh my god

yeah, i would've said it was American only but that would give it away

KoA

I would've never thought of "period" ahahah

yeah I mean, I'm american but I still wasn't reading that as "tee period"

3:26 PM

q_a: that's the idea

I thought "T stop" but cafeteria etc didn't pan out

yeah I kept reading it as "ok this is something that's been abbreviated that will make sense with a seven-letter gem"

that's the point, q_a

huh, never seen that show

I know!

3:28 PM

slightly easier one: Sculpture of someone over 21 (4)

what show? o:

what show +1

Isn't peridot a main character of that Steven Universe show?

oh yeah, Steven Universe is a great show

bust

uh

she's not a main character - she doesn't show up until later on

3:29 PM

I've never seen that either

yep, q_a

bust is over 21 no?

damn I was thinking bust but wasn't sure how someone under 21 fit

It's a kids' cartoon but it's surprisingly mature

@jon ...shit

yeah so the under 21 part was why I wasn't sure

but I figured that's what you were going for

3:30 PM

oh well

you saw nothing

I was trying to make it work in my head as my fingers were typing it out

lol

shhhh

definitely wasn't retconned...

nope not at all what are you talking about haha

3:31 PM

but yeah that show seemed semi-popular among people I knew from twitter

anyway, Steven Universe starts out kinda cheesy but it's really good - i really recommend it

No idea what that is

from what I could gather, it seems like it was fairly... "woke"?

kids' cartoon on Cartoon Network about a half-kid half-rock-alien discovering his powers. features themes of ptsd, homosexuality, and discrimination in a form that's kid-friendlt but still engaging for adults

that's the best summary I can give

KoA

I'm gonna head off to bed, it's 1:30am and I forgot I have an early morning rehearsal oops

3:33 PM

that's cool

night o/

night koa!

gn

good night!

I like that "woke" has become a thing

Some insane Roman! (4)

3:36 PM

it's a lot easier than saying "reasonably aware of certain types of oppression and sympathetic to groups affected by it" or whatever

(I did not write that one)

insaNE ROman! I love &lits

:)

haha

I was going to guess Nero just because

but couldn't reason it out

@q_a: yeah, it's really cool how new forms of expression pop up like that

3:38 PM

(four letter roman, but couldn't figure out the "some insane" part)

it's an &lit clue: the entire thing is the cryptic half and the entire thing is the definition half

yeah, makes sense

At 1/3 off you should have battled (6).

looks sorta like FOUGHT but i can't get it to fit

another &lit : One's cold to walk over (6)

3:41 PM

@jon: did you get that from crosswordunclued?

i had that page open in another window

no diff site

Man I really want to add a hint to my puzzling friend puzzle but they have already made so much progress I feel they don't need one

hard to write &Lits

what does &lit mean?

entire clue is both definition and wordplay

3:42 PM

and literally so

stands for "and literally so"

eg "terribly evil! (4)" --> VILE

@Deusovi Right answer, why's it difficult to make it fit?

oh! F+OUGHT

correct

lol

nice

3:44 PM

i thought "1/3 off you" meant ...YU.../...OU.../...YO...

and i didn't see where to get the FGHT from

It takes me a while to get it even when you say the answer lol

easy &lit: No fellow for mixing! (4,4)

If that was a 3,3 I would say shy guy

Lone wolf

LONE WOLF

damn

anagram

3:48 PM

Im still stuck on that "one's cold to walk over (6)"

yeah that's a toughie

hint: it decomposes into (1,1,-4)

Well now I'm more confused

nice

3:50 PM

one + cold + (to walk) over

Yeah I got nothing :/

over as in flipped

Have fun:

0

Q: The trained agent

Your headquarter has sent an encrypted message to your phone: OGZOTZHETZKOBOZRESTOZTAZETHZLIARYAWZNISTATOZWORTROOMZ8ZMAZDENYTIFIZGINSAKZORFZA 774060025101 000511014005 110123431121 200120404006 It didn't take you long to figure out the letters, but the numbers were a bit tricky. You w...

well I dont think klawot is a word

answer: I+C+(ECAP)<

3:54 PM

oh damn

another good &lit: "First person to be USA's #2! (5)"

First one, hope you guys are graceful ;-)

hi @fondor

hi

adams?

3:55 PM

not great at ciphers myself

yep, ADAM + (u)S(a)

yeah, I'm not either

how is it &lit?

some USA history?

oh, I got the literal part first, then the first person, but didnt get the s part

John Adams USA first VP

first US vice president: ADAMS

OK

and there was me thinking it was president's wives, but that's 1st lady /*doh/*

3:58 PM

I was kicking myself for thinking I had forgotten a layer in my puzzle until I realized it would have made it too broad, so I guess I lucked out haha

what was it going to be?

Well I was going to use another layer of synonyms, but that would have made it almost impossible to solve/too broad

Trying to figure out what to do with the numbers, so far, Fondor.

First part is (obviously) correct!

Possibly worth noting that A - J are the numbers 1 - 10

4:11 PM

... or 0 to 9 :)

yup

which fits the other grid's design

9 7 4 1 7 1 0 7 7 5 1 9
0 1 1 4 2 3 2 5 5 5 1 9
1 6 2 5 2 4 6 3 3 5 2 7
3 5 2 2 3 8 6 4 5 6 1 9

774060025101
000511014005
110123431121
200120404006

Well....

Adding the numbers (and rotating at 10) doesn't appear to give anything useful - first line would be

G E I B D B A J C G B A

A: Forgot my name, can you help me?

oh my god this is amazing

0

FARXPVQ FRYENUP leads to: His father's name is: My name is: I won't answer more. Its your time. '

So basically the puzzle is insolvable once he changes his profile.

did you ever heard that "riddle"/joke thing that was like, why are firetrucks red (or something similar, it takes many forms)?

never heard it

4:18 PM

where the "actual" answer involved a long string of almost word-associationy nonsense?

oh like those half life 3 jokes?

wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-are-fire-trucks-red ctrl-f "russian"

(like I said, it's not really a riddle, it's a dumb joke)

but that's what that guy's answer makes me think of

heh yeah

i don't think the guy understands that Caesar ciphers are easily decipherable

or like, the rantings of a caricature conspiracy theorist with a corkboard with a bunch of index cards and red yarn

Or that they're the first thing anyone tries

4:22 PM

yeah

As for fondor's puzzle...

I'm really thinking these number/letter grids connect additively, somehow

Considering the count hints

And the watch

sorry for derailing the serious discussion

nah, we never have serious discussion here

4

only joking and slightly less joking

that riddle is like... it's like a riddle that would appear in a movie, where the only part that ever really appeared would be the breathless description of how it was solved

that's a really accurate description

4:29 PM

"... and I noticed that the letters spelled out J-I-M-M-Y, which is weird, because Jimmy doesn't HAVE a sister..."

"...so i did the obvious thing - I zoomed in by a factor of seven thousand, flipped it upside down, applied the last three Photoshop filters, used character recognition to convert the resulting smudge to text, and read every seventh character that had a 1 as its fifth bit!"

5

lmao

@Khale_Kitha: The watch is no hint. It more to round up the story.

Okay, then, let me ask.... lol....

Did you misuse 'literally'?

I have put it there consciously

4:36 PM

Okay

hmm, the first group of numbers are only 0 - 7

Yeah

the second group is 0 - 9 (assuming you're right about the letters)

Have you realized, that your partial solution if still incomplete? ASKING FOR A ...

but there's only one instance of 8 (I)

4:37 PM

Yeah, fondor - I assume this grid is supposed to give the final word, right? There's nothing else in the letter string.

right

(edited)

@Khale_Kitha I like how dcode's vigenere thing now just seems to go "oh, statistical analysis, eh? ok, let's see what keys will give us EAAAAAAAAAAEEE"

haha, ikr

I think they broke something when they updated it last

4:39 PM

dcode is trying its best :c

It was designed by monty python

I found one that was pretty good at "guessing" recently, but it had fewer options than the dcode one

Also, I realized that Emrakul claims to have stolen the family jewels.

Because I find it amusing to twist his words into meaning that :P

vaibhav posted another puzzle

@Matt - a new puzzle...

Try and figure out what the heck those four lines of text, from the Newspaper, could have said? =D

4:43 PM

that's easy

JHEBHBAHHFBJ
ABBECDCFFFBJ
BGCFCEGDDFCH
DFCCDIGEFGBJ

huh, it doesn't caesar cipher to anything

(they're a low budget operation)

No, that's the letters marked on the words. What were the sentences? haha

:P

(vai's new puzzle i mean)

nah that was it KK

Jihad in Bahrain...etc, etc

4:44 PM

I know what you meant, but I still stand by my answer hahaha

:P

Worst. Newspaper. Ever

They're tying to find new, and unique, ways to stand out above blogs and online news.

What is that puzzle... "To be continued" as in, you can't solve this haha?

there are rumors that they're gonna include a letter after J in the next issue

maybe even a coherent word

Ah, he's using the semi-interactive-puzzle tag

yep, and... that's the only tag

4:49 PM

possible answers:

HIPPOGRIFF
MELLOWNESS
MIDDENHILL
PENNYCRESS
WIFFERDILL
YELLOWNESS

WIFFERDILL

3

hehe

has to be right

I'm amused that it has no + votes, but has a favorite

Interesting :-) but not intentional

4:50 PM

a lot of people use favorites as reminders to get back to something later

Referring to what, fondor?

I think he glossed over the fact that each part actually has to be reasonably solveable

Your possible answer above is funny, but not my solution

yeah

Oh, no - it's possible answers for this other puzzle.

Honestly, I don't have anywhere else to go, that I can think of, on yours, currently.

And it looks like the other puzzle's already heading to the Midden Hill.

4:53 PM

aw, someone downvoted chess fortnight

or maybe removed their upvote? idk

Yeah, I show +15 -0

yep, removed upvote

Also possible that it's someone getting banned

Do you think it is bad to add to clues in my puzzle after work has been done on it to remove ambiguity, and guide in the right direction?

You might consider hints, instead

Unless it wouldn't interfere with the rest of the puzzle.

4:56 PM

Well I fear that if i don't remove ambiguity they might come up with some crazy combination of words that work out that hadn't even crossed my mind

Wesley Situ

we'll find a way to make the answer plastic bag

@Khale_Kitha: I'll wait some more time until I will give another hint. You may have helped others to go on.

Yeah

You already got my upvote B-)

=D

4:59 PM

oh yeah the wifferdill puzzle was the one that made me comment on the dcode tool