The Sphinx's Lair

« first day (3491 days earlier) ← previous day

3:51 AM

The subject line is a clue, but you’ll need to find where. Additional clue: look up. Or down, maybe. I have to admit the answer isn’t very rewarding. Sorry about that; it’s more a proof of concept right now. 2215210A525246R04 2431121B010024R02 3451848A592243R02 3011459B485802R06 2131036B532515R10...

cipher

3 hours later…

Stiv

6:53 AM

@msh210 Just rolled back the edit to shorten the links in the Advent Calendar meta post - I don't think the shortform works between meta and the main site? (I wasn't previously aware the shortform was even a thing, to be honest...)

msh210

7:07 AM

@Stiv sorry about that!

C4 hints 1–2: The first & last letters are D.

Stiv

7:37 AM

No worries - it taught me something new :)

msh210

@Stiv If by "short form" you mean without the initial https://puzzling.stackexchange.com, then it's a relative URL; you can read more about it there.

Jafe

8:35 AM

if it was "like ice and fire part 6" the answer could be delayyyed

Dannyu NDos

8:46 AM

I was thinking of "destroyed".

Jafe

DE?????ED does seem like a promising structure

Sphinx

9:37 AM

Q: PSE Advent Calendar 2023 (Day 5): Twin-brother waiters

This puzzle is part of the Puzzling Stack Exchange Advent Calendar 2023. The accepted answer to this question will be awarded a bounty worth 50 reputation.< Previous Door Next Door > It was nighttime. The next stage of the puzzle hunt started, and we were told to go to a certain restaurant. Our t...

word enigmatic-puzzle seasonal

Jafe

9:59 AM

great crossword answer to use if you're making a pangram grid: "joaquin phoenix"

TakingNotes

10:14 AM

he should change his name to joaquin zenix just to get the holy JQZX quadruplet in there

Jafe

agreed

that said phoenix is a pretty boss choice, definitely better than his birth name Joaquin Bottom

msh210

his parents chose it, I believe

(but yes it's a good choice)

(but then again, pretty much anything is better than Bottom)

Jafe

ah right his brother was a Phoenix too

well, yes

msh210

(meaning no offense to anyone present whose surname might happen to be Bottom)

Jafe

i went to army with a guy who's last name was (translated) Chest-Lump, with a hyphen

msh210

10:21 AM

My last name is Hamm. Practicing Jews don't eat pork. I went to a religious grade school. The amount of teasing I got…

Jafe

hah ouch

etymologically unrelated, i assume

msh210

yeah

huh, no, apparently they're both from *hammō. TIL.

Jafe

10:38 AM

i just filled out name change paperwork the other day

going to adopt an english first name because Jarno is too weird for english-speakers

avoids starting every conversation with a stranger by first repeating your name, then spelling it and then explaining where it's from

1 hour later…

oAlt

11:49 AM

Apr 4 at 8:10, by Jafe

people with normal human names miss this genre of entertainment entirely

Jafe

11:59 AM

exactly

3 hours later…

bobble

2:48 PM

I have a given name describable as "properly Christian" (mind you my parents aren't), and my sister has a Japanese given name. One of us has more trouble getting their name spelled right by other people.

1 hour later…

msh210

3:50 PM

@Jafe Jarno? I thought "Jafe" was taken from your first and last names, Jaaligud Fello

GentlePurpleRain

4:30 PM

@Jafe I guess it depends on how insulated the English-speakers are. I am a native (and mainly) English speaker, and it doesn't seem that weird. (Granted, I don't think I've met someone with that name before, but I've met many people with names that I would consider a lot "weirder".) But then I also went to a school where the majority of the students had probably immigrated within their lifetimes, and didn't have English as a first language.

My given name is not hard for most people to understand or pronounce, but it's an amalgamation of two "common" names, and people have great trouble writing it correctly, because it has no hyphen or uppercase letter for the second name (like Annemarie, or Maryanne, but two names that are never normally amalgamated like that.)