The Sphinx's Lair - 2017-02-09 (page 3 of 3)

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TheGreatEscaper

10:08 PM

... when you're legitimately 5 minutes away from posting a really big puzzle and you realise you need to get to school RIGHT THIS MINUTE

When your puzzle is too difficult and no-one's made any progress, do you post a hint or edit the actual puzzle?

@TheGreatEscaper :P

That's early...

TheGreatEscaper

Yeah, basketball is at some ungodly hour in the morning

Which question are we talking about? RIDDAL? I notice that's an oldie which hasn't been solved

6

Q: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a comet!

Ummm... this is a little embarrassing, but I need a bit of help with my homework... I got a riddle from English class, which I have no clue where to start deciphering: Air I miss, comet I be, Round, with a tail at the back. Or is there? No, you may hear... Up I would still be missed, u...

riddle cipher knowledge english steganography

@TheGreatEscaper RIDDAL I've realised was not a good puzzle, so I've silently let go of it.

Can you at least post a canonical answer?

I'm curious to see what the solution was.

TheGreatEscaper

Ahh I saw the bird/plane/comet question, but isn't that fairly new?

10:15 PM

I knew what to do for step 7, and I think I knew what to do for 12, but not the rest.

8 mins ago, by TheGreatEscaper

... when you're legitimately 5 minutes away from posting a really big puzzle and you realise you need to get to school RIGHT THIS MINUTE

TheGreatEscaper

Argh, I'm actually so annoyed I'm at school right now. EVERYTHING in GRID36 was done, I just hadn't written up some final text

At school doesn't necessarily mean occupied, but it means being away from puzzle files and word/image processors

ah right

@TheGreatEscaper It's been a day in Europe and almost a day in the US

@TheGreatEscaper Notepad! Microsoft Word! MS Paint! SkyDrive! OneDrive! iCloud!

@Deusovi Can't now, I'm at school :P

Unless you definitely know it's too hard, I would wait until at least 24 hours since you posted

10:20 PM

If I remember I'll do it soon

@Volatility I was asking for more general advice in any situation.

Because I can't do it on the main site, I'll be VTC'd for too broad

TheGreatEscaper

My general rule of thumb is leave for 24 hours, then if it doesn't get any attention for another 24 that tells me it's too difficult, make a shameless edit to bump the question so that solvers can give me a gauge of the puzzles difficulty

Sometimes things are quiet depending on who's around - if Gareth and Neil and deus are each busy for a day or two, a cryptic puzzle might not get answered for a while

Ideally, the puzzle should be reasonably solvable without hints. If you know it's too hard, then edit the puzzle, but if you have reason to believe it's solvable as it stands, add hints.

Thanks!

(And if you do edit the puzzle, make sure you say so in the post, and notify anyone who has already posted an answer)

(Gosh, nearly posted a hint just then)

I mean in my response

10:28 PM

Speaking of cryptic puzzles, has anyone else looked at Bailey's endless loop puzzle? @Deusovi @GarethMcCaughan et al.

Hm?

I'll let the Oceanic PSE users have some time, maybe edit tonight if no progress is made.

8

Q: An endless loop in a desolate wasteland

You check your position tracker. Back at the beginning. Slowly, once again, you begin taking steps and counting cracks in the sidewalk. One. Two. Three. Four. Five You look around. Pitch darkness. Nowhere to go except forward. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. You pull a crumpled scroll out of...

wordplay cryptic-clues cryptography

Ah, right.

^ That puzzle just looks like how it reads - utter madness. I love it.

10:30 PM

Have we done anything with the actual symbols?

user image

Should the hints be spoilerised?

A lot of these look like letters or numbers.

I kind of stumbled straight onto them

I don't think it matters.

I assumed they were arbitrary and just for the substitution cipher, but maybe there's something else, yeah

10:31 PM

I doubt they're arbitrary. They could be, but I don't think it's likely.

Hi @Kelexin!

Anyway, this puzzle calls for a spreadsheet!

That's a point

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/…

10:45 PM

I got the grid

Ah, nice

see how THORP is in EAR[TH, ORP]HAN?

we're gonna go around the clock twice overall

ooh, nice

Starting point is arbitrary?

yeah

at the moment, at least

once we get either the first or last clue, I'll update it

10:55 PM

it's POST(UR)E* from PESTO

...indirect anagram D:

how?

it's legit

PESTO -> POSTE and then U,R embedded?

PESTO --> POSTE is anagrammed indirectly

is it not?

oh. lol. well, yeah.

I'm half asleep, clearly.

any way to get "fore" out of "together with" ?

not that I can think of

11:06 PM

you (?) started typing backflip just before I did hehe

yep, that was me :P

Deus is Noah P there I assume

Oh, I was just about to do IDEAL

yep!

huh, maybe it's not 60 spaces

My apologies, I think I forgot to put the FORECAST clue in the transcription

ah, that makes sense - I was wondering what the extra definition was for

11:13 PM

BOOFOR?

y'know, to boo for someone

the opposite of cheering for

...it's something ending in for

lol.

I don't see a clue that maps to that

there's an E after the FOR though

Neither do I, but I don't have any better ideas

in FORECAST

11:14 PM

ah

i was thinking it was ia:swine but i can't find a clue for that either

(wines, sinew)

Actually it might be BEFORE = previous and ERST = long ago, with a mistake in the clue

ah, yeah

EAGLE reversed isn't ALGAE, so ...

yeah, ALGAE is Party ruined by eve's end

11:29 PM

yeah he fixed that

what's the clue for LEVER?

coming back to celebrate

REVEL - celebrate

"coming back" - reversal

no, i mean the ... what are we calling those - the text snippet clues

column F

definitions

those. :) what's the def for that?

We have 5 left and 6 spots

...huh, one of them must have gotten removed

11:40 PM

cupboard is the other one

ah. that was on DRAWER which got deleted at some point

replaced by REVEL?

yeah

hm

ballad / laddie seem the most likely, but no defs for ... well ... any of the options

yeah :/

11:49 PM

nice

ah

it's mallard, but i've no clue why. haaallp

oh. MAR. derp

thanks

is "witch" meant to be "switch"?

that'd make more sense

ooh, probably

11:55 PM

yeah I was just coming back to type that

woo

so now what

hm

indexing doesn't seem useful

what do the nth letters of the defs give?

11:58 PM

oh, the defs? hold on

wow. that is even worse

yeah, i like SCOVRUEF better

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