The Sphinx's Lair

stacksfiller

00:00

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

Rand al'Thor

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...

stacksfiller

Wow!

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

boboquack

@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)

stacksfiller

00:13

Nah, bobo must have meant "tattle"

Gareth McCaughan

could be

boboquack

@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"?

Rand al'Thor

@boboquack Mine name written E-ishly?

Sp3000

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

Rand al'Thor

Gareth quite clevely suggested "Time Wheel Name".

boboquack

00:21

@Randal'Thor Ooh! Boboquack!

Rand al'Thor

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

Sp3000

@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

boboquack

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

Rand al'Thor

Boboducknoise, surely.

boboquack

I wouldn't say that!

Rand al'Thor

00:25

The name proposed above doesn't have E either.

boboquack

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.

stacksfiller

The men here ever seen these verses?

ONE-VOWEL RAP

►

I think there's a book like that too.

boboquack

Ooh! Do quasi-non-consonants count?

stacksfiller

The book I mentioned is pretty insane

It has five chapters, one for each vowel

poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2009/07/…

boboquack

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

stacksfiller

00:32

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

boboquack

@Stacks But Y's - count or not?

Can you do words with Y's?

In your rap I want to say.

stacksfiller

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!

boboquack

Oh, I know what you want to say now.

stacksfiller

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

Oh, yay

Rand al'Thor

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

stacksfiller

00:36

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

Rapping without the letter E

►

Deusovi

@stacksfiller Ooh, Andrew Huang is great!

stacksfiller

Yup!

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

Rubio

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

boboquack

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.

Riker

@boboquack yo

Rubio

00:41

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

Riker

rand summoned me

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

(chatting about lipograms in another room; got inspired)

Rubio

@Rik Howdy, No. 1

Rand al'Thor

@Riker Didn't.

Riker

*rand inspired me to enter thsis room

boboquack

Rand didn't say which room...

Riker

00:43

he has 3 open

I was 2 of them already

boboquack

thsis?

Rand al'Thor

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

Rubio

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

Riker

when I clicked it was 3

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

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

boboquack

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

Rand al'Thor

00:45

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

boboquack

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

Rand al'Thor

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.

Rubio

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

boboquack

@Rubio I'll do it for you.

You could bounty it, in any possibility.

Sp3000

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

Rand al'Thor

00:53

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

boboquack

@Randal'Thor What's that?

Rand al'Thor

@boboquack Can't award bounties to questions.

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

Sp3000

I've never seen that either, hence my confusion

Rand al'Thor

Elvis Presley - Trouble w/lyrics

►

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

Riker

ok we're not all from the 70s

boboquack

00:56

(Don't look at this anymore)

Sp3000

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

:P

boboquack

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

Rubio

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

boboquack

Hi A-big-anti-lock-human!

Rand al'Thor

@boboquack Oh, never mind then.

@boboquack I saw that ;-)

boboquack

00:58

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

Riker

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

Rubio

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

Riker

cryptic chat something

@Rubio it's just !

Rand al'Thor

Nov 15 '16 at 6:00, by Alconja

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

Rubio

CCCC is on our star board --->

boboquack

00:59

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

Riker

it has 2 stars though

@Rubio yeah

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

Rubio

oh. huh!

Riker

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

the 2 is just from 2 stars though

Rubio

i will find it and put it back

Riker

the actual hint is just "!"

Rubio

01:00

oh ... good god

boboquack

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

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio I'm too quick for you.

boboquack

That's what I'm talking about.

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

Rand al'Thor

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

Rubio

Many thanks, @Randal'Thor

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

boboquack

01:01

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

(Don't look at this now)

Riker

@Randal'Thor 30 days iirc

Rand al'Thor

@Riker No, shorter than that.

Rubio

bah. :) I'm slow today

boboquack

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)

Rand al'Thor

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

Deusovi

01:08

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

Rand al'Thor

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

boboquack

Ninja'd!

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Jinx!

boboquack

Ping ping ping! I can do that! :}

Deusovi

"Multiplication by i of north" is hilarious.

stacksfiller

01:12

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

Rubio

@D good day, most illustrious Mod :)

boboquack

@stacks What's Contact?

stacksfiller

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

Rubio

@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. :)

boboquack

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

Rubio

01:19

Oh. I did find that funny upon noticing it

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

boboquack

Who wants to start?

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

Rubio

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

Deusovi

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

boboquack

P

Rubio

so I will drop my original bit of silly whimsy

and start typing e's again

Deusovi

01:25

oh, that's what you meant

Rubio

;)

boboquack

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

Rubio

oh. Didn't realize you started. Sec

Is it a thing we all engage in here?

stacksfiller

I'm playing

Deusovi

I'm up for it.

boboquack

01:27

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

Rubio

That ... would annoy quickly :)

Deusovi

...Nah.

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

boboquack

3

2

1

(Shout!)

Rubio

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

Deusovi

^

Rubio

01:28

(What IS the chat limit, anyway?)

boboquack

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

stacksfiller

Alright

boboquack

@Rubio Not if you count slowly.

Rand al'Thor

@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.

stacksfiller

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

boboquack

01:29

I trust you all.

For now, anyway.

Deusovi

That's a pretty big assumption.

stacksfiller

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

Rubio

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

Deusovi

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

Rand al'Thor

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

Rubio

01:30

Like Galadriel with the One Ring.

boboquack

^

Deusovi

Let's just do standard contact for now

stacksfiller

Okay, my word starts with an I

boboquack

Without fifth symbol?

stacksfiller

Nope

Rand al'Thor

01:31

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

boboquack

Six-limb animal group

stacksfiller

Spiders?

boboquack

@Randal'Thor It's okay.

Rubio

that's 8 :)

stacksfiller

Insects?

Rand al'Thor

01:31

is confused

stacksfiller

Oh right and didn't start with I

boboquack

Ya

stacksfiller

I'm smart

boboquack

Your 2nd thought was right.

Anybody?

Rubio

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

boboquack

01:32

I can't say that!

Deusovi

@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.

stacksfiller

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

Rubio

@boboquack not you, stacksfiller

stacksfiller

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

boboquack

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

Rubio

01:33

Ok fair enough

Rand al'Thor

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

Deusovi

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

stacksfiller

Anyone but me can

Rubio

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

stacksfiller

I think boboquack was going to say "ins3cts?"

Yup

Rand al'Thor

01:33

A type of flower

boboquack

HAT=8-1-20

Rand al'Thor

+1

boboquack

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

stacksfiller

Oh wait sorry

Iris was my guess

Rand al'Thor

Hey, @stacks deleted it!

Deusovi

01:35

A type of bird.

boboquack

Why did you rid it from chat?

Rand al'Thor

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

boboquack

OK

stacksfiller

I got confused

Ibis for deusovi's

Deusovi

Yep.

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

Rand al'Thor

01:36

That's too similar to iris :-P

Deusovi

(Not just crossword-ish things?)

boboquack

An animal similar to a lizard

stacksfiller

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

Iguana?

boboquack

-1

+1

Rand al'Thor

0

boboquack

01:37

+1 for iguana, -1 for iwis

@Rubio?

Deusovi

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

Rand al'Thor

A cold home.

stacksfiller

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

Igloo?

Rand al'Thor

+1

Deusovi

Listen. What is this?

Rand al'Thor

01:38

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

Rubio

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

boboquack

Right/not-right

stacksfiller

Confirmation that my guess is right or wrong

Rubio

oh

Deusovi

@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"

Rand al'Thor

01:38

@Rubio Congratulations on your new door.

3

Rubio

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

boboquack

Oh, gotta go for now.

Deusovi

Wow, nobody got mine?

stacksfiller

Infinity?

Deusovi

Nope.

Sp3000

01:39

Doesn't stacks keep guessing until they give up?

Rand al'Thor

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

stacksfiller

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

Rubio

now we try to guess?

Deusovi

I thought someone else would say "contact".

stacksfiller

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

Rand al'Thor

01:40

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

stacksfiller

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

Sp3000

First time playing, learning rules :P

Deusovi

So, any contact on mine?

stacksfiller

Oh sorry

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

Deusovi

nah, looked online and that was standard

Sp3000

01:42

What happens if we contact and guess wrong?

Deusovi

Nothing

someone else gives a clue

stacksfiller

I give up on Deusovi's if anyone has contact

Otherwise someone else can do another clue

Rand al'Thor

I have no clue on Deusovi's.

stacksfiller

Inaudible?

Deusovi

Nope.

Sp3000

01:43

Can I just take a random stab?

Deusovi

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

stacksfiller

Yeah

Deusovi

Alright. Anyone else want to give a clue?

Rand al'Thor

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

Sp3000

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

Rand al'Thor

01:45

Republican, but only once.

Deusovi

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.)

Sp3000

Hmm k

stacksfiller

Impeached, maybe?

Rand al'Thor

Nope.

stacksfiller

I can't think of anything for this one either

Rand al'Thor

01:48

Anyone?

Contact?

Deusovi

Nope.

Rand al'Thor

Are hints allowed?

stacksfiller

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

Rand al'Thor

OK then:

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

stacksfiller

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

Deusovi

01:52

heh

Yeah, I got nothing for Rand's clue.

stacksfiller

Same

Rubio

same

Rand al'Thor

Gosh darn it.

Deusovi

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

Rand al'Thor

You were so close.

stacksfiller

01:54

Instruction?

Deusovi

Nope.

stacksfiller

Imperative?

Deusovi

Also no.

Rand al'Thor

Contact (maybe)

stacksfiller

Alright, go for it

Rand al'Thor

01:55

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

Deusovi

Just say it.

Rand al'Thor

Inaudible?

Deusovi

No.

Okay, let's try this again:

Sp3000

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

stacksfiller

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

boboquack

01:56

3

2

1

Sp3000

Did you give up on rand's?

stacksfiller

Yeah

Sp3000

Innkeeper?

boboquack

(Don't look at this)

Rand al'Thor

@Sp3000 Bingo!

Deusovi

01:57

?

stacksfiller

Like pub?

Does publican mean that?

Rand al'Thor

Publican = innkeeper.

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

Deusovi

Google says publican is a tax collector.

stacksfiller

Yeah, I didn't know that

The second letter is N

IN

Deusovi

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

Rand al'Thor

01:58

Ahhh, it's British English.

Deusovi

The word was "important".

Rand al'Thor

Sorry, I didn't realise that.

stacksfiller

Important?

Is there more to it I don't see?

Deusovi

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

boboquack

A not-old thought

(Sorry, still doing lipograms)

Rubio

01:59

Yeah I got it, finally

stacksfiller

Ingenious?

Deusovi

Contact.

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Not really.

Contact

Rubio

contact

Deusovi

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

stacksfiller

01:59

Innovation?

boboquack

@Stacks +1

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