The Sphinx's Lair

Rubio

1:33 AM

I thought this CCCC was solved, wasn't it?

ffao

it wasn't confirmed

and I heard a certain lazy cluemaker was using that as an excuse not to post a new one for now

n_palum

A certain someone :P

Rubio

hehe

Sphinx

2:39 AM

0

Q: A Riddle for a Friend of Mine

My eye is not quite precious. My ear is not quite a dandy lion. My tongue is not quite barbed. My whiskers are flowery. My vocalization is something remarkable. My hand is used by another. My tail might be eaten, built on, or lived in. My sleeping place is a manipulative game. ...

riddle

Sphinx

6:07 AM

0

Q: The Piece in the Corner of my Jigsaw Puzzle

Don't know about you, but I personally enjoy relaxing at home, listening to good music and solving puzzles. Yesterday I was trying to finish one of my numerous jigsaws, when ended up with 4 corner pieces, all of which could fit perfectly the frame. Can you help me figure out which is the correct ...

enigmatic-puzzle visual jigsaw-puzzle

Sphinx

6:34 AM

0

Q: Find out the rule, then solve it

First, Find out the rule from the example, Then solve the puzzle without computer. Example Solve This

mathematics visual no-computers number-theory

Sphinx

7:08 AM

0

Q: To mock a mockingbird: What question to ask

The puzzle goes like this - There is a question I could ask that has a definite correct answer - yes or no - but it is logically impossible for you to give the correct answer. You might know what the correct answer is, but you cannot give it. Anybody other than you might possibly be ab...

logical-deduction

Deusovi

@n_palum Yep, that's correct, and @Scon is right about "lets...in" being the insertion indicator

@ffao That's it!

ffao

let's try again, then

CCCC: Animal measures intelligence, domain outside of tech field a relic (9)

Sp3000

7:32 AM

Hmm almost got the parsing but "domain" is tripping me up

ffao

7:45 AM

If you have everything else, whatever's left is the domain

Simple elimination :p

(I don't like it either)

Sphinx

8:14 AM

0

Q: Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth

Hints:

enigmatic-puzzle

Gareth McCaughan

8:51 AM

I'm confused in same way as i think Sp3000 is.

Aargh, bloody mobile devices. "the"

oh no, i see

but not posting anything until I'm on something with an actual keyboard and a CPU capable of keeping up -- @Sp3000 or anyone else, feel free to scoop me.

ANT, IQ, IT in .UY -> ANTIQUITY

not keen on "measures intelligence" for IQ (it's true that IQ measures intelligence but "measures intelligence" is not a def for "IQ" in the way that, say, "number that measures intelligence" would be)

.uy is the domain name for Uruguay

It's probably going to be at least an hour or so before I can post a new clue; @Sp3000 if you're around and want to jump in, please feel free (I have the impression you 90% solved this before I did)

Sp3000

11:01 AM

Yeah, had that with the exact same thoughts/reservations. I don't actually have a clue yet and am currently out, so I'll be a while too.

Sphinx

11:14 AM

1

Q: A dirty hoe brought me woe

Such a puzzle verse: A dirty hoe brought me woe, But I'll be digging more Who is it about?

riddle

ffao

11:34 AM

I've seen many defs of the form <does X>

but that wasn't even supposed to be hard, I just put it that way because it reads better

Sphinx

0

Q: Why this mysterious phenomenon happens?

Take a short ($\approx 3 \sim 4 \; \text{inches}$)plastic hollow rod with thin width ($\approx 1 \sim 3 \; mm$), place it on a smooth table. On the top side you're seeing, mark it with $O$ on one end, and $X$ on the other. Place a finger on top of $O$, and push it downward with the finger so that...

physics

ffao

I could have said "Animal gets score that measures his intelligence", but that's way too prolix for two letters

n_palum

11:57 AM

@ffao So that was your word, just to confirm

ah, yes, of course

Just making sure :)

GamEn

which one is 5 AM?

G<I want to sleep>amen

Gareth McCaughan

that would be morning + night, I think

Techidiot

12:10 PM

GaMeN :p

But that's a mid-night as well

Enhancement Request @dcfyj :)

n_palum

Don't over complicate it :P

:( The tiniest little contact game in the world started up, sputtered out and died

ffao

that was... interesting

I suppose they realized why we don't start contact games with 3 people

n_palum

Well I mean you can

GPR and I managed to start a game with us and I think a partial player assuming "If you play, they will come" which has held true for us ;)

ffao

in a better timeslot, I assume

Techidiot

@Spinx
1.7k
this week
2.3k
last week
2.5k
per week
9.5k
@Contact
this week
15.7k
last week
8.8k
per week

n_palum

12:20 PM

What is that? Messages sent?

Techidiot

That's a summary of messages. Yes

n_palum

I mean.. it makes sense

Techidiot

Yeah.. A lot of sense. It could have been much more that what it looks ;)

Sp3000

@ffao IQ aside, my main concern is with "domain", since it's almost like using "consonant" to clue any single consonant

(still out, no clue, so Gareth can post when free :P)

n_palum

Although not sure why you have 4 numbers for Sphinx and 2 for Contact? The wording doesn't line up

Techidiot

12:26 PM

@Rubio I can go as far as that..may be going ahead I came across Ultrasonic as well..Cat vocals are taking me to many remarkable things ..

@n_palum Oh.. cropped while copying :p

n_palum

I agree with Sp that Domain is not great - since there is no indication of what domain, there are lots of those :P

Gareth McCaughan

CCCC: Break in on childish old cow without hesitation (7)

M Oehm

12:42 PM

@Techidiot Did you know that Cats are known for their music. Or was that musicals? :)

n_palum

Musicals :P

Techidiot

Didn't had an idea about it

Cats (musical)

Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make what is known as "the Jellicle choice" and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. Cats introduced the song standard "Memory". The first performance of Cats was in 1981. Directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne, Cats first opened in the West End in 1981 and then with the same creative team on Broadway...

Is this what you are talking about?

M Oehm

I think this is what Rubio thinks of as vocalization. I may be wrong, though.

Techidiot

Hmm.. Lets add it. Thanks

n_palum

@ any who play contact - one of the members from Golf went and sent invites to a few different chat rooms not just TNB this time... a lot of new people have entered the room... :-<

Techidiot

12:44 PM

Well, all the examples I gave had a phrase saying "this is remarkable" :p

n_palum

Like a lot of people....

Techidiot

Oops..

M Oehm

Apparently there's also a film ofthe musical, so that makes it a lot like the Cat's Pajamas.

Techidiot

Yeah.. I can find many such things.. But well, not sure exactly what we should be looking for.. the musicals might be it.. Lets see

n_palum

@GarethMcCaughan or @Techidiot since you seem to be around, can you check Contact and see if I am missing important things? I pinned a message to try and cover some norms of the room since there are an abundance of new participants.

Techidiot

12:50 PM

Looks fine to me.

n_palum

Alright thanks

Techidiot

lol. His word was Hell's Queen and he was defending P

:p

n_palum

What?

Techidiot

He edited a message he sent

in Contact, 6 mins ago, by Christopher

My word was pyknic

This message was My word was Hell's Queen :p

n_palum

Odd.. Pyknic is like larger persons though..

Rubio

1:05 PM

Like the other bits, this one is also a "cat's ______" thing. Someone will probably know it.

Sconibulus

anyone know of a sequence that goes 1,3,41/6, 9, 51/4, 12, 14?

oh wait, crap, it's 1,4

Mithrandir

I've been looking at the CC rules again

And randomly thinking

And I'd like to know if this is a valid clue or not

n_palum

Nope

Mithrandir

Okay, thanks. >.<

n_palum

'this' lacks either wordplay or definition and the connector ;)

Mithrandir

1:16 PM

Tooth gunk, like Greek Hell, and together (8)

n_palum

I assume you are going for TARTARUS?

Mithrandir

Yeah

n_palum

in which case I believe it's an invalid clue because you have Word play Def Wordplay (The they have to be independent of each other)

Mithrandir

?

n_palum

TARTAR (TARTARUS) + US

It needs to be TARTAR + US, TARTARUS

Or vice versa

Mithrandir

1:19 PM

Oh, so I need to rearrange it?

n_palum

Yes, they need to be connected somehow, but able to be independent of each other

'like' can be your connector, but the wordplay bit needs to all be together

Mithrandir

So like 'Greek Hell, like tooth gunk together'?

n_palum

Yeah, surface reading isn't great but yes that would be valid

Mithrandir

(I was using 'like' to indicate synonyms - that kosher?)

n_palum

As far as I know

Ehh not necessarily, and it's not necessary

I'm not the best person to ask, but that's my understanding

Mithrandir

1:21 PM

Yay, I finally wrote a valid one! :P

I've been failing for a while.

Gareth McCaughan

not terribly convinced by "together" -> US -- it's not really a definition

n_palum

Yeah it's not great..

'You and I', 'NA Country', 'and head of undead snake' :P

Mithrandir

*shrug* I'll keep working on it, try to come up with a better one.

(by 'it' I mean CCs in general)

Sp3000

We should have clue writing workshops in chat more, have multiple people try to clue the same word :P

Sconibulus

oooh, that could be fun

n_palum

1:25 PM

There's actually a chat room for that :P

The one Deus made for me when I was first learning..

Sp3000

I remember that one :P not sure if it's still active though

n_palum

Cryptic Workshop

Oh yeah - it froze :P

I'm sure Deus or someone can revive it

Mithrandir

I can fix that

Boom

n_palum

Oo

Yeah Deus, Oehm and Gareth etc helped me learning CCs

Techidiot

@Rubio The cat's meow," an expression referring to something that is considered outstanding; coined by American cartoonist Thomas A. Dorgan (1877–1929) or this

Rubio

1:33 PM

@n_palum nothing wrong with "pronouns". The restriction on defender is no proper nouns. (I usually say the defender must have a single, real, non-proper-noun, Scrabble-legal (excluding tile restrictions) word; attackers can use anything they can clue, including names and phrases, as long as the defender would not be hopelessly unable to guess it.)

@Techidiot by Jove, I think he's got it!

n_palum

@Rubio Ah that's the word, well if you want to write up a more concise one and pin that, I'd be fine with that (I wrote that in the moment and didn't have time to edit it well)

Rubio

I will probably write up something. I've been meaning to anyway.

Techidiot

A knowledge tag deserving riddle. @Rubio Nice. The scratch thing got me going..

Rubio

2:02 PM

Hehe. It was a bit of whimsy I typed out in like 10 minutes. Inspired by my actual feline friend (the actual origin of the title, not that anyone would possibly know that, so any reasonable explanation for the title would have been accepted hehe)

n_palum

I figured it was about your cat as soon as I saw Techi's answer

Sconibulus

2:43 PM

gah, these stupid aliens are hurting my brain

n_palum

Pew Pew

ffao

to everyone who complained about my domain: I have already given you the best answer I can, and that is "I don't like it either" :P

but I spent something like half an hour trying to fix it and couldn't

n_palum

Not really complaining was just feedback - No one makes perfect clues every time :)

Hmm.. For Gareth's CC if the def is 'without hesitation', only words I've got are: SWIFTLY, RAPIDLY, or GOAHEAD

Sp3000

3:02 PM

Yeah I don't mind the occasional flaw here since C4 is pretty ad-hoc, but I just thought I'd voice my opinion so we don't set a prerequisite :P (there's been a few times where people have pointed to a past C4 and said "but it's been done before")

ffao

prerequisite? don't you mean precedent?

Sp3000

... I edited that message 4 times and I still missed something :/

n_palum

Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and slow dancing.

Oh maybe if the def is break in = ILLEGAL

Sp3000

@n_palum My current assumption is dropping UM or ER for "without hesitation"

n_palum

Ohh, so Break (in) def?

M Oehm

4:34 PM

@Techidiot So much for musicals. Sorry, didn't want to put you on a wrong trail. I was really convinced that would be it.

Sphinx

6:40 PM

0

Q: Not a footprint to be seen

...a kingdom of isolation - jk. A small young chap went on a journey with some friends and was inspired to write this poem about one of his traveling companions. Who's the poem about? Precedes the procession of lady and lord Last in secession an enraged orc horde Carefully navigating to ...

riddle rhyme

Sphinx

8:39 PM

0

Q: A Children's Rhyme Riddle

Riddle me this, riddle me that, No riddles, but rhymes will you find in my hat! A cake and a cup, a rake and a ball, A bowl with a goldfish, don't let it fall! Now that they've fallen, let's pick up some things, But first we should start with some kites and some string...

riddle rhyme

Deusovi

9:28 PM

@ffao You've probably seen definitions of the form "<it does X>", which are sometimes acceptable (if not strictly definitions).

n_palum

Hey Deus! How was the last final(s)?

Deusovi

I ended up taking three finals yesterday, then slept all day today.

Woke up at 4:30 in the afternoon.

n_palum

That's always fun :)

ffao

three in the same day? ouch

Deusovi

Yeah. Not fun.

Gareth McCaughan

9:37 PM

Do you reckon you did OK?

Deusovi

Yeah!

The exams weren't too hard individually. It was just doing 3 of them back-to-back that was draining.

n_palum

Woo

ffao

10:03 PM

my exams were always mon-wed-fri

with the expectation that everyone would spend tue and thu sleeping the whole day

Gareth McCaughan

10:16 PM

0

Q: A Children's Rhyme Riddle

Riddle me this, riddle me that, No riddles, but rhymes will you find in my hat! A cake and a cup, a rake and a ball, A bowl with a goldfish, don't let it fall! Now that they've fallen, let's pick up some things, But first we should start with some kites and some string...

riddle rhyme

^ does this really qualify as a puzzle?

n_palum

If it's pulled right from the book with no reference I'd say close tbh

Deusovi

Shouldn't this question:

9

Q: Colors make everything fun

Can you find what comes next? PS. This is my first puzzle post, feedback is greatly appreciated. Coincidentally, this is a spoof off of the first puzzle I solved that piqued my interest in puzzling/riddles.

pattern visual

be closed as a duplicate of this:

36

Q: Interview Question or Pathbreaking puzzle

I thought this changes the way series of numbers are looked at 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 Write down the next three lines

logical-deduction pattern number-sequence

in analogy with the closure of this one:

-6

Q: Find the next 3 items in the sequence

A sequence goes as follows: A AA BA ABAA AAABBA CABBAA ACAABBBA AAACBACBAA CAACABAAACABBA ... It's an altered version of a sequence you all know! The answer should be in the above format. Additionally, will D ever appear?

pattern

?

n_palum

Ahh yeah they're all the same, good catch

I would agree

It's just a visual version of the same thing

Deusovi

(By "in analogy with", I mean "if the latter was closed, then the former should be too along the same line of reasoning".)

n_palum

Yeah

Deusovi

10:24 PM

Honestly, I don't understand how the first got 9 upvotes.

n_palum

I didn't upvote.. didn't recognize it so

I think it slightly hit HNQ though which is where some came from

Deusovi

Oh, really? It's actually pretty common. It's called the Look and Say Sequence.

...Of course it hit HNQ.

n_palum

That keeps happening with a bunch of "puzzles" that aren't even good... I have to hold back my urge to downvote for the sake of countering it but I don't because I know that's bad

Deusovi

Well, if they aren't even good, then you should downvote anyway.

n_palum

And I know of the Sequence, just didn't look long enough to recognize it

If it's something I don't understand, I usually don't (I didn't recognize the visual right away so I cannot say I did)

Deusovi

10:27 PM

But yeah, I'm starting to despise HNQ. So many good puzzles don't get the credit they deserve.

n_palum

Yeah they really don't

The ones with clickbaity names do..

Or those coooonstant "visual picture puzzles"...

Deusovi

We used to have a huge problem with bad riddles consistently getting HNQed.

It led to us instituting the mandatory Riddle Sandbox, which was... a mistake.

(To put it lightly.)

n_palum

Yeah I remember all that stuff.. I've looked back on the history

"Lightly" haha

ffao

did the problem just solve itself eventually?

Deusovi

Pretty much? I think the sandbox actually did have some small amount of benefit - just not nearly enough to outweigh the outrage.

(Justified outrage, at that.)

Sconibulus

10:33 PM

I had a riddle or two that were helped by sandboxing

that happened right as I was starting to be at all active here

ffao

I remember the general feeling of pretty much everyone at the time was that something had to be done about the bad riddles

I'm not sure I get all of the outrage, really

how many posts on meta get 20 upvotes?

Sconibulus

I think it was probably established people who were known as decent riddlers annoyed at having a hoop to jump through

ffao

Sure, it could have been handled better, but I'm not sure I would be outraged, is my point

Deusovi

Not just 20 upvotes, 27 upvotes and zero downvotes.

n_palum

Hey @Deusovi I introduced my friend to the site, he's gonna make his first puzzle shortly :O

(It's just a riddle, but I feel a lot of people start there to get their feet wet)

Deusovi

10:47 PM

Downvotes only came after this post criticising us (which was much harsher originally).

37

Q: Should we ask our new moderators to step back and take a more hands-off approach?

Anecdotally, I've been seeing a pattern since the community moderator elections that's bugging me. Basically, it's that the new group of moderators (@Deusovi, @GentlePurpleRain, @Emrakul...since I'm talking about you specifically might as well name you) are very hands-on, despite the fact that...

discussion moderators

Ooh, sounds good! I'm always happy to see new faces around here.

n_palum

That was a harsh post ^

Deusovi

Nobody else seemed to think so.

But eh, what's done is done. I'm glad it was worked out reasonably.

n_palum

Well I guess harsh isn't the word.. just very direct and analytical... I think you've done a good job :)

(As always my opinion still doesn't weigh heavily though)

ffao

Internet discussions tend to get blown out of proportion because you don't really get to hear the tone in which points are being made

I don't think that post was meant to be harsh, though it was quite direct

Deusovi

Its original title was "Are our new moderators out of control?".

And in retrospect, I was voting to close a lot. All for things that clearly needed to be closed, but it made me seem like a tyrannical dictator or something (which I am clearly not and never would be. Obviously.)

n_palum

10:55 PM

Obviously ;)

ffao

yeah, we would never think that (lest we suffer from the deushammer)

Sphinx

0

Q: Who are we: "Come and see!"

Hi I'm new to puzzling and this is my first riddle. I know it's pretty basic but I just wanna get an idea of how you guys operate around here. Criticism is welcome!! We sicken at the thought of history. We fight to make our mark on the present. We hunger to deprive the future. ...

riddle wordplay knowledge

n_palum

There it is :O

And @Deusovi he was also curious how Engineering based puzzles usually get received here. (He's an engineering student and such and has some interesting EE based puzzles to try and make)

Deusovi

I'd be really happy to see an engineering-based puzzle! As long as it wasn't homework-ish, that is.

n_palum

Oh of course not, I already warned him of that haha

Deusovi

11:04 PM

Cool! Can't wait to see some then :D

ffao

... then again, I was puzzled by a large portion of my EE homework

n_palum

It'll be a bit but he said awesome and he's excited to give it a go

ffao