The Sphinx's Lair - 2017-02-12 (page 1 of 7)

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12:00 AM

If you think about it, for anybody to know what your lipogram isn't using, so that it can qualify as a lipogram, you should put in all XXV (to Romans) additional chars, as I just amazingly did.

Gareth McCaughan

A couple of months back I posted only e-less comments for quite a while without anyone noticing. Starting, appropriately enough, here: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/33943073#33943073

85

Q: Hearken, now, and listen close!

Hearken, now, and listen close; I have so much to tell. Now lend an ear and do your job; you surely will excel. To find my hidden message, gaze on every word herein. While skimming through it might be fast, you'll miss the quiet gem. How vitally important are the details of this ver...

riddle rhyme wordplay english language

Wow!

With his capital constraint, how long it is, AND rhyming too, that's just crazy good!

@stacksfiller Or you can just quantify what's your point - fifth sign, (rather clumsy) ASCII point sixty-four plus what fifty is with last digit cut off, last part of a common synonym of rat, and so on.

Gareth McCaughan

(please tell me you don't think "rat" and "mouse" are synonyms)

12:13 AM

Nah, bobo must have meant "tattle"

Gareth McCaughan

could be

@Gar, I also think that rat and your word two past rat is [sic] not synonyms, but 'common synonym' shows that most humans would think of it as similar to a point of not making too much of a distinction.

@Randal'Thor Playing your thing, how would you go about doing "Rand al'Thor"?

@boboquack Mine name written E-ishly?

@Randal'Thor I can't think of how I'd improve that line without basically dropping the theme or rhyme

Gareth quite clevely suggested "Time Wheel Name".

12:21 AM

@Randal'Thor Ooh! Boboquack!

@Sp3000 Forgetting the rhyme - acceptable, since line three be equally changeable.

@Deusovi My two thoughts were something along the lines of [k]NIGH[t] or [y]EARL[y], but the added "as a whole" just threw me for a loop

Hmm well do I still need to keep the mice? :P

No fifth sign in Boboquack! Will you fix it to bobo-duck-sound?

Boboducknoise, surely.

I wouldn't say that!

12:25 AM

The name proposed above doesn't have E either.

Oh, too bad. :P

If a common thing to say works, I think it's lots and lots of fun!

What sound do ducks say? Quack!

(A human who scrolls through as that human didn't watch this occur will find this particularly confusing)

BTW for any humans who abstain from our fifth sign, Control-F is good for confirming your words work.

The men here ever seen these verses?

I think there's a book like that too.

Ooh! Do quasi-non-consonants count?

The book I mentioned is pretty insane

It has five chapters, one for each vowel

poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2009/07/…

@Stacks should I flag you for discrimination against girls and adult girls?

12:32 AM

@bobo To answer both your two quetions with one answer, It's fine if there are no Y's

@Stacks But Y's - count or not?

Can you do words with Y's?

In your rap I want to say.

You can't have any Ys, but I didn't want to say that for your 2nd inquiry, as that would be discrimination against boys!

Oh, I know what you want to say now.

I'm was trying to say a pun, but I think it might not actually work

Oh, yay

Conversation here reminds me: Literature SE needs questions referring these French writers.

12:36 AM

That guy from my link also sings a rap that's a normal lipogram too.

Rapping without the letter E

@stacksfiller Ooh, Andrew Huang is great!

Yup!

I'm fond of most of Andy Huang's stuff

What did I start here - I wish to formally apologize to TSL. :)

I don't think all words that Mr. Huang put in up of his photo work with his rap.

@Rubio What do you want to do? With or without what Mr. Huang abstains from?

Oh, and hi @Rik!

And @God too.

@boboquack yo

12:41 AM

I think I'm for his camp, not his opposition's.

rand summoned me

in The Reading Room, 4 mins ago, by Rand al'Thor

(chatting about lipograms in another room; got inspired)

@Rik Howdy, No. 1

@Riker Didn't.

*rand inspired me to enter thsis room

Rand didn't say which room...

12:43 AM

he has 3 open

I was 2 of them already

thsis?

@Riker Actually I'm in 4 rooms atm :-)

I am now catching up on scrollback, so if I don't talk back to you folks if you talk my way, do not find this an affront to you

when I clicked it was 3

mos eisley (scifi), the reading room (literature), and this

@Randal'Thor mod rooms don't count -.-

@Rubio You'll find what I said on scrolling...

12:45 AM

@Rubio We ain't having no talking back in these parts!

Will a-big-anti-lock-human join chat, I'm asking...

If you're looking for riddles,
You've come to the right place.
If you're looking for riddles,
Come right round to my place.
I was born solving codes
And cryptic clues.
My daddy was a green-eyed Ximenean oracle.

I wish I could (^) this again. puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/18509/…

@Rubio I'll do it for you.

You could bounty it, in any possibility.

@Randal'Thor tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RhymingWithItself :P

12:53 AM

@Sp3000 "Trouble" already rhymed with itself in the original.

@Randal'Thor What's that?

@boboquack Can't award bounties to questions.

@boboquack Wait, what? Is there really someone who knows less about popular culture than I do? :-O

I've never seen that either, hence my confusion

Elvis Presley - Trouble w/lyrics

If even I am familiar with a pop song, I assume everyone is.

ok we're not all from the 70s

12:56 AM

(Don't look at this anymore)

@Randal'Thor That's my line, replacing "pop song" with "English pop song"

:P

@Randal'Thor Actually, it's got a wrap-up post.

so our illustrious mod's cryptic is still standing, huh

Hi A-big-anti-lock-human!

@boboquack Oh, never mind then.

@boboquack I saw that ;-)

12:58 AM

@Randal'Thor It's in the history anyway.

what's "CCCC" stand for as it refers to chat riddles?

"2 !" is for that original cryptic word still? or not?

cryptic chat something

@Rubio it's just !

Nov 15 '16 at 6:00, by Alconja

(PS: I've named the game "Cryptic Clue Chat Chains")

CCCC is on our star board --->

12:59 AM

Rik's right, a big-star on Rubio's post isn't displaying.

it has 2 stars though

@Rubio yeah

I wanted to know what it stood for, which rand explained

oh. huh!

@boboquack for me it looks like "<star> 2 !"

the 2 is just from 2 stars though

i will find it and put it back

the actual hint is just "!"

1:00 AM

oh ... good god

@Rik, no that's not what I'm talking about.

@Rubio I'm too quick for you.

That's what I'm talking about.

A-big-anti-lock-human, will you join in this lipogrammatic fun?

Pinned messages are automatically unpinned after a certain period (2 weeks?)

Many thanks, @Randal'Thor

And good to know, I was not cognizant of that fact

1:01 AM

@Randal'Thor So Will can't hold up CCCCs for too long? :D

(Don't look at this now)

@Randal'Thor 30 days iirc

@Riker No, shorter than that.

bah. :) I'm slow today

Ha! I got a brown jigsaw icon for humans liking my unknowns for Mithrandir's chat unknown, and it's not my unknown!

Human-from-capital-city-of-a-multiplication-by-i-of-north-Australia, why don't you talk?

(BTW, it's on your account info, so I'm not giving away non-public information)

@TheGreatEscaper I think bobo is looking for you ...

1:08 AM

(@TheGreatEscaper, he's referring to you. Probably.)

@boboquack Gave him a ping since you can't.

Ninja'd!

@Deusovi Jinx!

Ping ping ping! I can do that! :}

"Multiplication by i of north" is hilarious.

1:12 AM

About four of my high school pals and I did try to play Contact in this way on a handful of occasions

@D good day, most illustrious Mod :)

@stacks What's Contact?

It's funny, particularly if a guy is bad at it, so has to talk slowly

It's a word thing, that you can play out loud

quora.com/How-do-you-play-the-word-[thing-you-can-play]-Contact

@boboquack I found two or four things that you said, I don't know to which you want to point my focus

URLs shouldn't count. :)

@Rubio (A human who scrolls through as that human didn't watch this occur will find this particularly confusing)

1:19 AM

Oh. I did find that funny upon noticing it

Contact looks intriguing, it would probably supply much good fun to play with Puzzling folk

Who wants to start?

Or who wants to not-attack, I should say?

My limit on wordplay tricky-fun is too low to allow two in unison

Then I can reveal my clue, and we can take a temporary break from the CCCC

P

so I will drop my original bit of silly whimsy

and start typing e's again

1:25 AM

oh, that's what you meant

;)

Who's going to think of a word starting with P?

oh. Didn't realize you started. Sec

Is it a thing we all engage in here?

I'm playing

I'm up for it.

1:27 AM

But all play-humans should comply with not having a fifth symbol.

That ... would annoy quickly :)

...Nah.

Wait... how are we going to shout the word at the same time?

3

2

1

(Shout!)

You'll hit the chat limit doing that, no?

^

1:28 AM

(What IS the chat limit, anyway?)

Anyway, @stacks you thought of it, so you can not-attack to start with.

Alright

@Rubio Not if you count slowly.

@Deusovi Wouldn't it work for the second guesser to just say the word and the first to confirm whether or not it's correct?

Assuming we can all trust each other.

If you guys didn't want to do E-less Contact

1:29 AM

I trust you all.

For now, anyway.

That's a pretty big assumption.

A different idea would be cryptic-contact, but that might also be a little crazy

oh gosh. that would ... I dunno. Be both awesome and terrible, all at once :)

Yeah, I'm not sure how well that'd work

@Deusovi doesn't trust any of us. He's a mod, so he can see all our dirty secrets :-P

1:30 AM

Like Galadriel with the One Ring.

^

Let's just do standard contact for now

Okay, my word starts with an I

Without fifth symbol?

Nope

1:31 AM

@stacksfiller Hang on, didn't someone already say P?

Six-limb animal group

Spiders?

@Randal'Thor It's okay.

that's 8 :)

Insects?

1:31 AM

is confused

Oh right and didn't start with I

Ya

I'm smart

Your 2nd thought was right.

Anybody?

So I guess you're supposed to say "No, it's not insect"

1:32 AM

I can't say that!

@Randal'Thor We give clues to words starting with I. Our goal is to make stacks not get it, but have some other attacker get it.

Wait, bobo, if someone had contact you couldn't have said it!

@boboquack not you, stacksfiller

Yeah, I don't ever play with the "Is it a" and "No, it's not a" because it just seems pointless

@Stacks I had digits of symbols to go if so.

1:33 AM

Ok fair enough

OK, so now it's someone else's turn to suggest a word beginning with I?

@boboquack I can't parse that comment at all.

Anyone but me can

Does it matter who? Do we just lob one in there if we have a word ready?

I think boboquack was going to say "ins3cts?"

Yup

1:33 AM

A type of flower

HAT=8-1-20

+1

Did stacks do it? Is that what +1 is?

Oh wait sorry

Iris was my guess

Hey, @stacks deleted it!

1:35 AM

A type of bird.

Why did you rid it from chat?

Yes, +1 was meant as confirmation that that word was correct.

OK

I got confused

Ibis for deusovi's

Yep.

(The clues can be anything we want, right?)

1:36 AM

That's too similar to iris :-P

(Not just crossword-ish things?)

An animal similar to a lizard

And I'll preemptively guess iwis for the next scrabble player's clue

Iguana?

-1

+1

0

1:37 AM

+1 for iguana, -1 for iwis

@Rubio?

stacks, the clues can be anything we want, right? Not just crossword-ish things?

A cold home.

Yeah, except for stuff like inside jokes, or words in a language I don't know etc.

Igloo?

+1

Listen. What is this?

1:38 AM

@stacksfiller Hey, "inside jokes" begins with I!

sorry was getting the door - what are these +1 / -1 for?

Right/not-right

Confirmation that my guess is right or wrong

oh

@Rubio not actual scoring things, just shorthand for "yes, that's what I was thinking of" or "no, that's not what I was thinking of"

1:38 AM

@Rubio Congratulations on your new door.

3

@Randal'Thor Wow. that was bad. :)

Oh, gotta go for now.

Wow, nobody got mine?

Infinity?

Nope.

1:39 AM

Doesn't stacks keep guessing until they give up?

@Deusovi We're not allowed to guess until stacks has had a go, right?

No, anyone can say contact if you think you have it, then when I give up, you say it

now we try to guess?

I thought someone else would say "contact".

I won't say that I've given up if you didn't say contact, though

1:40 AM

@stacksfiller Oh. That's not what it said in the Quora rules that someone linked to.

As long at least one of the people that said contact gets his right, you get another letter

First time playing, learning rules :P

So, any contact on mine?

Oh sorry

It might be that my rules aren't the standard ones, I know there's a few variations

nah, looked online and that was standard

1:42 AM

What happens if we contact and guess wrong?

Nothing

someone else gives a clue

I give up on Deusovi's if anyone has contact

Otherwise someone else can do another clue

I have no clue on Deusovi's.

Inaudible?

Nope.

1:43 AM

Can I just take a random stab?

Can I modify my clue and re-give it after someone else gives one?

Yeah

Alright. Anyone else want to give a clue?

@Sp3000 ~~Et tu, Brute.~~ Oh, wait, wrong kind of stab.

Well I was going to go "Contact - inquiry" but still a little uncertain on rules

1:45 AM

Republican, but only once.

Nope, not it. Therefore nothing happens.

(Normally, you say contact as soon as you have it. Then, you guess the word when Stacks gives up.)

Hmm k

Impeached, maybe?

Nope.

I can't think of anything for this one either

1:48 AM

Anyone?

Contact?

Nope.

Are hints allowed?

Yeah, you can modify the clue or hint anyway you want

As long as you are giving that hint to me as well as them

OK then:

Republican, but only once. (hint: nothing to do with politics)

Because it basically could just be thought of as giving a new, more refined clue

If I didn't know the first letter, I would think it should be "Publican"

Republican being when you publican and then you publican again

1:52 AM

heh

Yeah, I got nothing for Rand's clue.

Same

same

Gosh darn it.

My clue, modified: You need to listen. What is this?

You were so close.

1:54 AM

Instruction?

Nope.

Imperative?

Also no.

Contact (maybe)

Alright, go for it

1:55 AM

Should I do 3 2 1 or just say the word already?

Just say it.

Inaudible?

No.

Okay, let's try this again:

Contact for Rand's possibly? (Or too late?)

In out loud Contact, Deusovi would have also said his word, so doesn't that mean we should know what it is now?

Rand's isn't too late

1:56 AM

3

2

1

Did you give up on rand's?

Yeah

Innkeeper?

(Don't look at this)

@Sp3000 Bingo!

1:57 AM

?

Like pub?

Does publican mean that?

Publican = innkeeper.

I was surprised you didn't get it after getting as far as publican.

Google says publican is a tax collector.

Yeah, I didn't know that

The second letter is N

IN

Ah, damn. My clue wouldn't work anymore.

1:58 AM

Ahhh, it's British English.

The word was "important".

Sorry, I didn't realise that.

Important?

Is there more to it I don't see?

Yes, probably. @Rubio? @Rand? Understand why it's "important"?

A not-old thought

(Sorry, still doing lipograms)

1:59 AM

Yeah I got it, finally

Ingenious?

Contact.

@Deusovi Not really.

Contact

contact

250

Q: This is important. I need you to listen…

Look, you don't know me. We've never met. But, like I said, I need you to listen... I had the most disturbing dream the other night... Woke up in a cold sweat and couldn't get back to sleep. It wasn't a nightmare as such, just ... eerie, I guess? I don't even remember the details, but it left me...

riddle enigmatic-puzzle visual story cipher

1:59 AM

Innovation?

@Stacks +1

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