The Sphinx's Lair

Rand al'Thor

12:01 AM

Huh, I'd never heard that. Maybe it's an American thing.

Or maybe I don't spend enough time with gangsters :-P

Alconja

Yeah, definitely not australian either, but we get lots of yank tv. (incidentally we have pineapples for money)

Deusovi

@Alconja You mean "definitely not American"?

Alconja

No, i was reading "not british" into rand's comment, so was saying not aussie either

I.e. Yes, American slang

Deusovi

Ohh, I thought you meant "I'm definitely not Australian", not "it's definitely not Australian"

Alconja

(excuse my sloppy writing, the coffee hasn't soaked in yet)

Rand al'Thor

12:05 AM

@Alconja You use pineapples for money? I thought Australia had advanced beyond the barter stage, at least as far as metal coins!

:-P

Alconja

CCCC: Parrot points at After Eights opening (6)

*Disclaimer: requires a slightly non-standard interpretation of a word that everyone in this room will understand perfectly, but which oxford english may not recognise formally.

Deusovi

I think I have a vague idea of what you're referring to, but I'm not entirely sure.

Volatility

Ah, I have it, but I have not a clue at the ready

Alconja

Did my disclaimer give it away too much?

Volatility

No, it fell out once I guessed the rest of the clue correctly

Alconja

12:14 AM

Cool. Didn't want to be unfair, but didn't want to give too big a hint either

Rubio

12:27 AM

@Volatility You're not going to answer it?

Will

oh duh

REP + E + AT

Deusovi

Heh, clever.

Alconja

That's the one. :)

Rubio

oh.

i looked at that, I didn't connect rep and points

Alconja

Hence my disclaimer :P

Rubio

12:34 AM

I wound up trying compass points and got nowhere

Will

Here's a corny one I never got to use last month

CCCC: Dad crudely wraps present for holidays to be observed (7)

Rand al'Thor

@Alconja After "darn harlot f***s another puzzler", I think rep --> points should be acceptable ;-)

Rubio

I thought it was nominally bad form to use indicators to put things out of order like that, based on something someone said in here.

Volatility

@Rubio I figured it would be better to have a clue sooner rather than later ;-)

Deusovi

@Rubio No, nothing wrong with that. (And I was trying compass points too.)

@Randal'Thor In my defense, it was pretty funny. :P

Rand al'Thor

12:38 AM

@Deusovi It was! :-D

@Will Nice seasonal CCCC.

Or should I say CCCCsonal.

Deusovi

Boooo.

@Will AD[HERE]D*

Will

Yup!

Deusovi

CCCC: Ignites &lit in the Times (9)

3

Rand al'Thor

Ooh, a meta cryptic clue?

Deusovi

Yep!

Thought it'd be fun to use "&lit" in a cryptic clue

Rand al'Thor

12:51 AM

Awesome.

Rubio

if &lit doesn't literally stand for LIT i'm going to be disappointed. :)

Sphinx

1:25 AM

0

Q: where in the world am I supposed to go

Not long ago I received an unsigned note that read. "meet me at the train station at noon on Friday" Followed by this riddle. The key to your curiosity. Lies in this riddle quite plainly. Forty five before it was. Now a tribe but once did buzz. Though quite religious I’m historic to...

Volatility

2:39 AM

@TheGreatEscaper have you solved the first part of humn's puzzle? I think I have, and was just wondering whether you were holding off on answering until you got the bonus part as well.

Rubio

3:07 AM

@Silenus #11, does this require identifying the type of fish? i had fleeting thoughts the final clue is "headless bluegill" but a bluegill looks not a thing like the pic.

Volatility

FWIW I think it's a trout

Rubio

Yeah so did I but I can't find a trout that looks exactly like that one

trout have an extra tiny dorsal fin in front of the tail that isn't there in the pic

and their tails aren't as forked as this one's

Volatility

true

Rubio

I tried using a fish identification guide to no avail. the one that looks the most complete (fishbase) is also a royal pain to use unless you already know a decent bit about what you're looking for.

Silenus

@Rubio There's no need to identify the fish. I would suggest thinking about the first question I pose in my progress report and then attacking the fish sub-rebus of clue 11 with an eye to what's literally depicted.

Rubio

3:16 AM

Ok, thanks. I made a few updates very recently; if you are feeling benevolent, I'd appreciate knowing if those changes complete any of my unbolded numbered answers.

bold Answers are known right. bold Numbers are (presumed) solved.

....aaannnnd pretty sure I just got 11.

Volatility

oh, lol

Rubio

hehehe

that stunk. I loved it. :)

Sphinx

0

Q: Fifteen distinct positive integers

A set of $15$ distinct positive integers $a_1,a_2,a_3,\dots,a_{15}$ is such that for each $i$, $2\le i\le 15$, $a_i=a_{i-1}+i,a_i=a_{i-1}-i,a_i=a_{i-1}\times i$, or $a_i=a_{i-1}\div i$. If the largest of these $15$ integers is $19$, find all the others.

number-sequence

Silenus

3:45 AM

Regarding 3, why do you think the font is *called* spotted?

Regarding 6, you cannot use the central ring as *both* the final O of KOMODO *and* an island. That would mean it's committing the mortal sin of double duty. The definition is much more straightforward than that. Recall the line "[the definition] can even appear misleadingly integrated in or around the subsidiary indicator."

That said, I do allow *indicators* to inherit positional relations from definitions, as in, for example:

But 6 is not an example like this.

Regarding 9, focus on the first question I pose in my progress report. The "redback" stuff you happened across is a coincidence. Again, think literally.

Regarding 11, where is this stuff about female ferret coming from? Again, think about the first question I pose in my progress report.

@Rubio (forgot to tag you)

Rubio

4:00 AM

#3, I don't think that; I borrowed that from Chris.
#6, ok I'll try again.
#9, I haven't revisited yet, still thinking about it.
#11, gill is another name for a female ferret. it may just be coincidental, that the answer is both **Gill** (what presumably you're looking for) and also still an animal.

By the way, the first question in the progress report (reading literally) is "where is the definition?" - if you meant "who said it was an animal", then it's moderately misleading to phrase it that way ;)

though I realise very technically, you didn't pose that question, it kinda looks like you're posing it by proxy.

Silenus

You're right, my bad! But you get my meaning.

Rubio

I do, now. :)

Leaving the ferret reference in doesn't actually make it wrong, though (does it?) - it should be correct as is

TheGreatEscaper

Hullo, everyone

Rubio

hey @TheGreatEscaper

TheGreatEscaper

@Volatility I have a hunch about the meaning of 'Self-portrait', and I have a hunch as to what colour that missing part should be, but then the in-progress portrait process got me confused. I also have a hunch as to what the creature is.

Rubio

4:09 AM

huh. @Silenus ok I misremembered the original entry for #3. fixing that.

Silenus

Answering 11 with "GILL, a female ferret" seems to me like answering the ddef "European shine (6)" with "POLISH, a nationality". It's an incorrect answer because once you tie a single specific semantic content to the answer, you invalidate it's application to the other definition.

These multi-rebuses are supposed to be (rough) analogues to ddefs. As such, I don't think you can bridle them with a single semantic value.

Rubio

Ah. Gotcha.

Ok cleaned it up in any case.

Volatility

@TheGreatEscaper I don't think the "in-progress portrait process" relates to the first part, although I could be wrong. For what(ever) reason, I have a hunch that my hunch for the first part is the same as your hunch. I don't have a hunch as to the creature; I think that relies on an understanding of the process.

Rubio

Same applies to "comma", really. I'm leaving in the notes about incidental animal connections only because that's why I bothered considering them in the first place, but they're no longer part of the answers.

Can you confirm all the bold numbered answers are now correct? I believe they are.

Silenus

@Rubio yep, they are

Rubio

4:22 AM

Ok thanks. So is #6 simply Dragon ([def] be tediously prolonged), with Commode+O animal clueing it?

Volatility

Is it not KOMODO DRAGON defined by "animal"?

Silenus

@Volatility ding ding ding

Rubio

Ah, yeah that's better

Updated 6. Bolded #3, I forgot to do that earlier; I assume "Spotted" is solved, yes?

Leaving just the spider. hehe

Silenus

Yep, but I would remove "=spotted" from the definition side of your answer to 3. You don't use that convention in any of your other answers.

Rubio

true. i'll take that out on the next edit

I'm lost on #9. anyone have any thoughts? The nonsense text I don't know what to do with

Sphinx

4:49 AM

1

Q: Sounds like my psycho girlfriend

When you were young, you didn't fear me But when you became older you found me, and you really had a scare Black or white you didn't care, as long as I wasn't there If you try to be rid of me I'll serve you a scar It'll make perfect, even more far And I dare you to, “s...

riddle rhyme poetry

Ankoganit

@TheGreatEscaper Re this comment: you're an olympiad enthusiast? Any chance you're on AoPS?

TheGreatEscaper

5:26 AM

Surprisingly not @Ankoganit

It's something I really should be on, given that I might be seeing the IMO no

*this year, but I've never actually taken a good look at the site

Sphinx

5:55 AM

0

Q: Vigenère cipher

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ = 0-25 List of keys starting in order you need to use them. Comic Bacon Key Cipher: QWUA BT UICL Video on how to use the Vigenère cipher Hint:

riddle cipher letters

TheGreatEscaper

@Volatility my hunch is 'Dragon'.

I don't think that's too much of a spoiler, as it will only really make sense for people who have the same hunch as me.

Volatility

@TheGreatEscaper Well, at least I can confirm that statement

Do we have the same hunch for the first part, at least?

Oh, hah, just realised the full meaning of "self-portrait"

Ankoganit

6:33 AM

@TheGreatEscaper Ooh, cool!

I went to IMO last year

TheGreatEscaper

Niiice!

Ankoganit

It was an awful lot of fun

TheGreatEscaper

How was it?

Yeah, must be

I'm really looking forward to it/really hoping I can make the team

It's a clean sweep this year, last year's Aussie team was all year 123

*12

Ankoganit

If I manage to somehow pass the TST this year too, maybe we'll meet

TheGreatEscaper

Hopefully! :)

What year are you in @Ankoganit?

Ankoganit

6:37 AM

@TheGreatEscaper 11th grade

TheGreatEscaper

This year?

Ankoganit

(and in my country 12th grade is the last year)

@TheGreatEscaper yeah

TheGreatEscaper

Awesome, same. Congrats on making it to the IMO in year 10

Ankoganit

thanks

TheGreatEscaper

I was one spot off reserve last year... but it's okay, still got two potential IMOs ahead of me.

Ankoganit

6:39 AM

I've a friend (Anant Mudgal) who's going every year since 9th grade

TheGreatEscaper

I have a friend who first made it in year 8, jeezus.

Don't know how they do it.

Ankoganit

Wow :0

TheGreatEscaper

I know another guy who might make it this year, and he's in year 8 now, so that'd make a second person I know

(If he makes it this year)

Ankoganit

Whoa

TheGreatEscaper

Yup, it's crazy. I'm still wrapping my head around cyclotomics and there are kids three years younger than me whizzing through em.

Ankoganit

6:43 AM

Hmm

things are definitely better

there

Here most people don't even know of IMO

TheGreatEscaper

Well it's similar here... it's not exactly something the standard schoolkid would know of.

oops gotta go now

Sure thing

cya later!

Bye!

6:49 AM

what's IMO, for the uninitiated?

Volatility

@Rubio In my opinion, it's

International Mathematical Olympiad

The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is an annual six-problem mathematical olympiad for pre-college students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except in 1980. About 100 countries send teams of up to six students, plus one team leader, one deputy leader, and observers. The content ranges from extremely difficult algebra and pre-calculus problems to problems on branches of mathematics not conventionally covered at school and often not at university level either, such as projective and complex...

TheGreatEscaper

That's the one

Ooh, good fun. It looks like 'GRID LOGIC' will be our next fortnightly challenge.

I should get to work on mine. I don't plan for it to be small...

Rubio

Fun fun.

Deusovi

Oh yay, it's finally coming up!

We need a good tag name for it.

grid-logic would be too confusing since we already have logic-grid.

Rubio

This is to be Grid Logic, as in grid-based puzzles? Crosswords, sudoku, kenken, etc?

Deusovi

7:03 AM

Yeah.

Well, not crosswords.

Pure logical deduction.

Sudoku-style, I guess? I was hoping for more obscure ones like Hashi, Nurikabe, Heyawake, and similar. (See the links I gave on the meta post.)

But Sudoku and Kenken would also be great

Rubio

Yeah just looked at it

Volatility

How about games-with-japanese-names? :P

Rubio

@Volatility Lol

Deusovi

@Volatility But they're not all Japanese names! There's one I was considering making called Ripple Effect

Volatility

I know, I know, but all the ones you just named are, so couldn't resist :)

Deusovi

7:08 AM

Speaking of which, I should probably start working on that...

TheGreatEscaper

I'll be making my own grid logic puzzle

With strange rules that I don't think I've seen anywhere around before...

Sphinx

0

Q: Constellations Puzzle : Find The Hidden Message

Find The Hidden Message in First Three Constellations based on the clues

logical-deduction cipher pattern

Deusovi

@TheGreatEscaper Sounds like fun! I'm excited :D

TheGreatEscaper

Those constellations seem to line up with the length of the word fairly nicely

The only one that doesn't fit my theory is HEART.

Actually, scrap that, I think I've got it.

Rubio

7:30 AM

the three have length 4,6,6

But I got lost trying to map them to letters

I love that Dharmesh signed it the same way though. That's awesome.

I got a couple mapped to a QWERTY keyboard but that fizzled out for me for heart

Oh. lol. Is that how they map? Cool

TheGreatEscaper

My initial thought was QWERTY but it didn't work

So I just thought the lengths of the words confirmed everything, so it was just the trek of working out what letter was where.

It's not very precise, though. For example, if you look at 'MILKEYWAY', the two ys are close, but not close enough that reading new constellations is easy.

Same with the I's in LIQUID

Deusovi

7:46 AM

That seems... ongoing-contest-y.

IAmInPLS

Hello!

Deusovi

Hey!

IAmInPLS

So I see that Alconja created a room for the awards

nice

TheGreatEscaper

Ouch, is that puzzle I just answered from a contest?

Deusovi

I suspect so, but don't have any hard evidence.

Mithrandir

7:55 AM

Don't worry, everyone does that - answers a question that's illegal/off-topic/duplicate.

Deusovi

The black bars make me suspicious though - it looks like a screenshot.

Actually, just deleted it. There was a copyright symbol in the bottom right.

Mithrandir

I saw the (c) just as it went gray...

Rubio

I didn't decode that copyright, but are you sure it wasn't Dharmash?

Deusovi

I'm not 100% positive, but the black bars make it highly unlikely that it was an original puzzle.

Rubio

The copyright doodle seems to have 11 or 12 letters, so yeah

It seemed like "A" was in a different spot in like every frame. Was that one of the problems you had @TheGreatEscaper?

TheGreatEscaper

8:04 AM

A was always in the same general spot

It wasn't very precise

Rubio

Well yeah that's what I meant

I was getting variations of like 30 pixels from one to another

TheGreatEscaper

I think A was around about the middle, and sometimes a little below

Well if you looked at things like MILKEYWAY and LIQUID

you could see from the same letters the leeway that there was

I think the curves were generated as follows:

Draw straight lines between letters

Use some rendering tool to turn them into curves

Rubio

Yeah most likely

TheGreatEscaper

Whereas for precision, it REALLY should've have calculated the curves based off turning points

Rubio

I was aiming for the point of greatest inflection, but that wasn't very precise at all

Man what the hell. People keep downvoting my puzzle.

TheGreatEscaper

8:13 AM

Ouch. 2 downvotes???

Riddles don't seem to get great rap around here. I tried to make a riddle that really subverts the expectations of a riddle and is fairly rabbit-holey, but it hasn't gotten any attention at all.

Rubio

There's a rather large glut of riddles out there right now

Deusovi

I generally don't like riddles. They're almost always either ridiculously easy or "guess-what-I'm-thinking".

TheGreatEscaper

I generally don't either, which is why I made a riddle that fit my puzzle ideals.

Rubio

I've only done two. One was pretty easy on purpose (and got downvotes for that, which seems hasty). The other, the first one I did, I think turned out very well.

Mithrandir

I like riddles, as long as they're good...

Rubio

8:17 AM

Your two hearts one? That seems like a whole lot of fun wrapped into one compact bundle of twistiness :)

TheGreatEscaper

I hope it's fun :P

Rubio

Oh. huh. I guess I've done more than 2 riddles.

TheGreatEscaper

I'd say that less than half of that puzzle is a riddle.

Rubio

I forgot a couple of 'em hehe

TheGreatEscaper

@Rubio, I was wondering, especially since you have the new years one too

And that definitely wasn't your first

And it definitely wasn't the easy one that got downvoted

Hang on a sec

That New Years riddle isn't yours after all

Rubio

8:21 AM

The new years one isn't a riddle, though.

Or, mine isn't anyway

TheGreatEscaper

Apologies I got some new years puzzles mixed up

I was thinking of rand al'thors

A highly respected member of PSE who's username begins with R, same difference! :P

Rubio

Oh. Yeah his is a little more convoluted than anything I'd put out there

12

Q: Let me tell you a little about myself

Let me tell you a little about myself Before I'm consigned to history's shelf. I'm just in my 30s, though I feel so old. It'll just take a minute for my tale to unfold. Sometimes I think I have OCD — I don't function well when I feel dirty, And cats and dogs really give me fits Cuz if I get scra...

riddle

is what I consider my first proper riddle here

TheGreatEscaper

Wow, nice!

Deusovi

Hey @TheGreatEscaper, what's your email address?

Oh wait, never mind

TheGreatEscaper

Yeah... thought you had it :P

Deusovi

8:27 AM

I do. Just remembered.

Do you have Discord?

TheGreatEscaper

Yup

I'm still TheGreatEscaper there

Deusovi

What's your tag? It should have # and a four-digit number after it

(It's fine if you don't wanna reveal it publicly)

TheGreatEscaper

It looks like you found me anyway?

Deusovi

Huh?

I sent you an email instead of adding you on Discord

TheGreatEscaper

6871, then

I assumed joining the room would reveal my discord no.?

I can view everyone elses, anyhow

Deusovi

8:32 AM

Oh, you did join! Didn't realize that.

TheGreatEscaper

I appear to be bound and gagged...

Would be saying hi if I could chat :P

Sp3000

10:17 AM

@Deusovi It probably wasn't very obvious, but now that it's over I was referring to the HOLOGRAM around the outside

Deusovi

@Sp3000 We didn't notice that :P

Sp3000

I was a little hesitant to include it since it could have been a red herring, but it was a little too fitting (although it did lead to some nice instances of HOLOGRAMP -> LAGOMORPH quick switches in the guesslogs)

Volatility

10:30 AM

Gee, II.2 was quite the esoteric puzzle

Deusovi

We got the Schoenflies notation - it was just the ordering that tripped us up.

"You know what a great ordering system is? First letter, then last letter, then the number in between! I bet that's exactly how dictionaries work!"

Volatility

lol

Sphinx

11:46 AM

0

Q: It's really hard riddle.

Can you solve this riddle? Two have four, but four have six. Some work broken, some must fix. Cold then hot, or hot then cold. Twice made silver. Once in gold. A simple object most men own. Now made of plastic but designed in bone. Any ideas? Thanks!

riddle word

Sphinx

12:02 PM

0

Q: A famous literacy test question

This question may be well known to some, but I still think it is interesting. It comes from the 1964 Louisiana literacy test which you had to take to be eligible to vote. (I wasn't sure which tags would be appropriate.)

word

Rubio

@BeastlyGerbil lol :)

Beastly Gerbil

not really a puzzle was it

Rubio

Not really, no.

It's close enough I figured I'd answer rather than VTC

Beastly Gerbil

dont know what to close it as though...

Rubio

Downvotes should take care of it, methinks.

Beastly Gerbil

12:06 PM

aaaah someone downvoted :(

Rubio

the avalanche of downvotes is already underway

Heh. people downvote good puzzles here all the time. "I don't like this type of puzzle. (V)"

"Imgur maze? (V)"

"Looks like it has ciphers in it, with no obvious key. (V)"

"This will take more than 5 minutes. Yawn. (V)"

"I'm an angry pouched hopping mammal on a throwaway account, and this was posted by a TSLer. (V)"

and so on.

I'm not bitter. Nope. :)

Beastly Gerbil

:P

Sphinx

0

Q: Another literacy test question

This comes from the 1964 Louisiana literacy test for eligibility to vote. Write every other word in this first line and print every third word in same line (original type smaller and first line ended at comma) but capitalize the fifth word that you write.

word

0

Q: This is one of my best , what am I?

I was created in Aug 2016 , My manager, protected me after 3 days I was created. Thus losers of my place couldn't talk to me. Two smart people gained gold , silver and bronze because of me . Some people supported me while others pushed me down .. This is one of my best , what ...

riddle

IAmInPLS

12:34 PM

@Sphinx This is one of the worst, for sure

What a way to self-promote

Beastly Gerbil

Uh these last few are awful

IAmInPLS

Yeah, just came back from lunch break

4 new questions

TheGreatEscaper

Hm. I don't particularly like any of them.

Beastly Gerbil

All pretty poor

Rubio

Yup.

Mithrandir

12:36 PM

@Sphinx Ouch.

TheGreatEscaper

The 6 newest questions all have non-positive vote totals.

Rubio

lol

Beastly Gerbil

@Rubio 1k away now ;)

Rubio

the funny thing is

Mithrandir

So I have to make Clue 22 and make the latest puzzle have a positive score :)

Rubio

12:38 PM

that Amruth one, I knew right away cuz I had just added an answer to it during Winter Bash, to get a hat.

Got the hat, too. :)

TheGreatEscaper

@Mithrandir are you soloing Clue 22?

I'd be happy to lend a hand.

Mithrandir

As soon as I figure out a puzzle type that I haven't over-used. But thanks for the offer.

(And yep, I have you written down for a Clue.)

Rubio

@BeastlyGerbil Yah, 1k.... whee!

Mithrandir

I need another 3.4k on Scifi to have my first taste of 10k powers.

Beastly Gerbil

@Rubio you know, that is the fastest 10k I have ever seen

Techidiot

12:41 PM

He has been adding a bounty to it for past few months now. I even had a dream with that puzzle :P Highly promoted one ;)

Rubio

I've said it before.

I, um, might have a problem.

IAmInPLS

I left a comment on Amruth A's puzzle

I see you had the same idea @Mithrandir

Mithrandir

Yep.

IAmInPLS

@Techidiot Exactly

Techidiot

That was intentional I guess ;)

IAmInPLS

12:43 PM

Sorry for caps lock :-)!

Techidiot

Haha

TheGreatEscaper

Oh whoops i deleted that because I thought it became irrelevant

And then people replied to what I said

Techidiot

0

Q: It's a really hard riddle

Can you solve this riddle? Two have four, but four have six. Some work broken, some must fix. Cold then hot, or hot then cold. Twice made silver. Once in gold. A simple object most men own. Now made of plastic but designed in bone. Any ideas?

riddle word rhyme

TheGreatEscaper

What about this riddle?

Techidiot

Does this one have an answer? Or it was made by a drunk guy? :p

IAmInPLS

12:44 PM

I think it has an answer

TheGreatEscaper

Yeah. But I'm not very motivated to work on it.

I tend to dislike riddles in general. They can be nice but so often people use riddles as a copout way of easily writing a shoddy puzzle.

Beastly Gerbil

a die?

IAmInPLS

Do you think I can edit it out to include the reddit link?

And to edit the title as well

A die is not convincing me as an answer

TheGreatEscaper

It's not convincing me either. It only works for the last two lines IMO

Beastly Gerbil

it was just the plastic/bone bit and the 6 bit which caught my eye

Mithrandir

12:49 PM

I got the hot/cold line

TheGreatEscaper

Hot cold makes sense now

The other lines are a bit dodgy...

IAmInPLS

Yeah, that is described in a reddit answer

TheGreatEscaper

'Have' doesn't translate well to 'adjacent' in my dictionaries

Mithrandir

Four-sided die

Four-sided dice, abbreviated d4, are often used in tabletop role-playing games to obtain random integers in the range 1–4. Two forms exist of this die: a tetrahedron (pyramid shape) with four equilateral triangle-shaped faces, and an elongated long die with four faces. The former type does not roll well and is thus usually thrown into the air or shaken in a box. == Historical == Four-sided dice were among the gambling and divination tools used by early man who carved them from nuts, wood, stone, ivory and bone. Six-sided dice were invented later but four-sided dice continued to be popular in Asia...

There we go.

@BeastlyGerbil did I beat you in network rep yet?

:P