The Sphinx's Lair - 2017-06-08 (page 2 of 2)

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7:00 PM

Quoted from "The Telegraph"- "Labour is 19 points ahead among 18-24 year-olds while the Conservatives are ahead by a huge 49 points among the over 65s."

That should be enough to suggest that the Conservatives are going to win this. Young guys don't really go out to vote. The older ones usually do.

but old people tend to live clustered together

inefficient use of resources

Ah, so you mean to say that, Conservatives are going to win big at some places but lose out on others?

From "The Telegraph" again- "The campaign has been marked by two terror attacks at London Bridge and Manchester, but neither even seems to have had an impact on the polling." - Really? I thought terrorist attacks usually stir up nationalistic sentiments of people..

@Rubio har har, but yeah. we all know how differing ideologies can ruffle feathers. better safe than grumpy.

Though, I am not sure which party will benefit from that.

@Sid possible that anyone who was going to change parties from terror have already done so since they appear to be more regular now?

7:06 PM

0

Q: Solitaire cipher riddle

I am trying to solve this problem but with no clue of what it actually means. Only thing i know is that it is solitaire cipher hidden message/key. Here is the content of the image: AZAXV HEFWV WOUWQ CFEMH KARAZ EJVNL CBFOV MMMBM SNHBA UGKZM BJGIE OWZWW WBYVL OZJLS UBIPD EYJXD GMBEY XSIKL NABQZ...

cipher keys-and-locks

@forklift Possible. But, I think it might be hurting the Conservatives more. Since BG claims that one of their campaign promises was to cut down police salaries or something like that.

Don't think the public is going to appreciate that considering they are facing attacks far more regularly.

perhaps that's the reason then, they lose votes for crippling the police, but gain them because they are actively advocating deportation? (I am not as well versed in UK)

Neither am I. Are they advocating that?really? maybe we need someone well-versed in UK politics or some British guy to tell us that.

I think in general, conservatives tend to be less in favor of cultural integration, so that may appeal to people who find culture clash to be the main cause of terror events

but I'm really trying to speak in observable generalities because it's always a sensitive subject and this site is not moderated for political topics

there was a chatroom for sensitive topics on PSE, iirc

7:16 PM

the debate room?

This isn't a debate, right?

Just a discussion.

chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/58850

@Rubio yes

Frozen

chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/58850

and yah frozen

But yeh can unfreeze it, @Rubio

7:20 PM

I could but meh

I thought unfreezing rooms made Shog9 grumpy

Wait, did it?

We don't need to.

I think I will still play Switzerland to this conversation. When the dust settles, I want it known that I was not a feather ruffler

I think Deus is gonna unfreeze it now :p

7:21 PM

Hm? No, I wasn't planning on it unless it was necessary.

(same)

@manshu Speaking of frozen chatrooms: Today I stumbled into the Cryptic workshop and saw that it is frozen now and that you were the last one to post there. Do you have an answer for your last cryptic? (Victor loses his head in the bull ring (5))

that has to be INNER

I feel like someone said that was 'inner'

@MOehm I couldn't get the def

7:22 PM

but it's gross

And yes that was INNER

bull ring is def, but shouldn't be :)

"the bull ring" doesn't do anything though, does it?

in the bull ring= INNER.

Meh.

Yes, the def is "bull ring", as in the inner bull on a dart board.

7:22 PM

ohhh

I'd never heard that

did we switch languages? what just happened?

Oh. So the phrase "Bull's eye"?

I think it scores 50 and the outer bull 25, but I'm not a darts person. My brother is, though.

@Forklift Have you heard of cryptic crosswords before?

We're speaking in cryptician

7:23 PM

^

Bull's Eye is a thing for the center, never heard the outer thing called Bullring though

yeah, I hadn't heard that either

I've seen the CCCC clues, but they just look like gibberish and your answers always do too

I have.

47

Q: Cryptic Clue Guide

This post is not a puzzle. There is nothing puzzly hidden inside it or the self-answer, posted at the same time. What exactly is a cryptic crossword clue, and how do I write one?

wordplay puzzle-creation cryptic-clues cryptic-crosswords

7:24 PM

I've decided it's beyond my abilities as an old grumpy man

I think the inner and the outer bull make up the bull's eye, like the iris and the pupil, perhaps.

Cryptic clues are fun! :c

^

right.

Unless they're, like, " Reemergent current adopting obscene direction (12)" ... hehehe

7:25 PM

They are also down any grumpy old man's avenue, because you can have gripes over what's allowed and what not no end. Hours iof fun!

The easiest I have ever found is: I'd seem upset by a death (6)

apparently sp3k knows the answer and isn't telling. whee

My favorite pastime! :P

oh well, then!

so you can start with that

7:26 PM

there are easier ones

And then the one I made (with some improvisation): Doctor beheaded fake duck (5)

Might be best for them to read the explanation before they start trying to solve cryptics for themselves.

nice

yes.

@manshu Drake?

7:28 PM

@Sconibulus yes

decoy

it feels quack-ish at first :)

fake duck = decoy tho

Doctor becomes DR, beheaded fake becomes AKE

DR+AKE = duck

How does Doctor beheaded fit in there? @forklift

7:29 PM

it doesn't. hence my bewilderment

I'm like "octor decoy? why am I so dumb?"

yeah, I don't think either of those are particularly easy to start off with

I'd never encountered a cryptic before venturing into TSL

they're not hard, but certainly not easy

nor had I

:D

7:31 PM

I think I do ok now :)

Definitely!

Me neither.

This improved my vocabulary to a great extent.

I have also improved my vocabulary but when it's really the time to use some word, I forget. :/

Reemergent still isn't a word :P

And if that's the def, D:

I mean, it's definable

7:33 PM

Current could be I.

we don't need dictionaries to tell us when a word is cromulent

6

reemergent is most probably the def

But a current that accepts must have more than one letter, so AC or DC?

@Sconibulus some of us do. :/

@MOehm could also be something like NOW or PRESENT

7:35 PM

That would make for nice words like AntiperiodiC.

or FLOW

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reemergent is indeed a word, by the way

though it seems that hyphenating it is probably preferred

^ okay at least that

I think reemergence is the appropriate word

obscene direction though...

obscene can be the anagram indicator

7:38 PM

Reëmergent

@n_palum Well, one is a noun, one is an adjective.

direction should be N, E, W, S (any of those)

it can?

errr...sorry...no it can't

I doubt obscene is an anagrind. That would mean a very long word for "current" with a single letter embedded

@manshu Or heading or bearing.

7:39 PM

or 'direction' anagrammed inside NOW somehow

How do we have NOW?

(or some other three-letter word for current)

"current"

@MOehm Yes. They can be. I am fairly new at this game so I didn't knew

Ah, current as in Present..

7:41 PM

@manshu No sweat, just pointed it out.

:)

@MOehm Oooo TIL

Okay, I need to go sleep. Have a nice day folks!

night night @sid

@manshu ok, so where to start with something like this? this doesn't appear to imply direction, letters, sounds, or anything

7:45 PM

Good night, Sid.

\o

@n_palum What's wrong? Isn't reemergent an andective?

@Forklift what does "upset" imply?

hmm, like turned over, spilled?

so flip it?

or disturbed?

7:48 PM

I could agree to that

letters can be disturbed (i.e. anagrammed)

its an anagram then

yes

demise!

Yes!! :)

Nice work

7:49 PM

lol, I feel like my daugter bragging about coloring in the lines "very good. you've done the easiest part of coloring"

haha.

to make up for it I shall solve the active

I felt the same :p

We all are trying. :)

with my help you should hopefully be as good as you were without it

Yeah. Or probably better. ;)

7:53 PM

I assume this is not a clue for something like pornwest? or am I way off on what obscene direction might mean

Some more to solve:

theguardian.com/crosswords/series/cryptic

@Forklift well, "obscene" wouldn't be a definition for "porn" - substitutions need to be definitions or abbreviations

@manshu The Guardian's cryptics are hard.

obscene should be something like rude, dirty

@Deusovi Which ones are easy? :/

I can't think of any particularly easy ones off the top of my head.

no worries/

I'll lurk them for a while

7:56 PM

@Forklift They are fun to explore too.

The site 15² solves and explains the free crosswords in the Guardian, FT and Independent. They usually also tell you how hard the crossword was in a preamble.

@Deusovi Don't forget to mention when you find any on the cryptic journey

The Guardian's Quiptic is aimed at beginners, although lately these have been somewhat difficult, too.

starts from Quiptic no. 1

@MOehm I was saying I learned one's an adjective, one's a noun

Regardless, if that's the def, I can't find or think of any suitable words to fit

8:03 PM

adopting indicates a word inside another right?

I guess so.

I'm betting ffao is not a Ludacris fan and oscene direction is not "dirty south"

@manshu does the same :)

I have solved only 2 till now :p

I have 2 and 10 :)

8:10 PM

In that sense, now I have 17, 20, 25

wow.

@ffao RE(CRUDE+S)CENT.

:o

Never heard that word. Nicely solved, though.

Nice.

explain

I got the adopting crude s

8:19 PM

"Current" adopts "obscene + direction"

"current" is RECENT

so that gives CRUDE + S inside RECENT

or RE(CRUDE+S)CENT

which Google tells me means "reemergent"

yeah, well maybe ffao needs to put down that 1000 page thesaurus, lol geez

I want to know where ffao came across the word recrudescent. it's, well, not exactly common :)

So... @Rubio is up for the next C4

Yah. I have to polish up this latest ~~turd~~ clue of mine

how about this easy one for someone to tell me I'm thinking wrong: directional mirth becomes massacre (9)

8:22 PM

I'm not sure about "directional" there. The rest is fine though.

I am wondering if CC solvers look at the words in the same way the normal people do? :/

seems ok to me

S is a direction, but it's not a "directional".

what would the al be doing wrong?

ah

bearing might be better there then

Sounds good to me then. I'd change the ordering around to become "massacre bearing mirth" though, because the surface sounds slightly better

8:26 PM

@n_palum I flagged a bunch of 'em. At best, they were obsolete after Catija's edit.

massacre surely started with mirth ?

seems better

Mirth after second massacre?

Oh, that's nice too

Time flies, turning massacre to mirth :)

I'm not sure about "time" --> S

8:29 PM

ok but now I don't get any of those and I know what the answer is...

T maybe, but not S

In mine, the definition and wordplay were just switched around.

oh fine

@Rubio that's correct! you're up, Rubio

In Rubio's, "surely started" indicates the start of the word "surely".

@n_palum Hm? I wasn't saying being a mod should dictate his opinion, but he seemed to be misquoting site policy, which can be a problem in general but especially coming from a mod.

8:30 PM

good lord these are hard. ok, break time for me.

And in M Oehm's, S is an abbreviation for "second"

thanks for your patience, all

Huh, I'd never heard the word "recrudescent" either.

no worries, cryptics are always hard at first

see, my 4Cs are educational even for Rand :o

8:31 PM

CCCC: Incantation chorus opening puts twice as much effort into starting dangerous, wild, undoable plague. (6, 6, 4, 3, 7)

Oh god.

That is a long clue.

lol.

And answer, for that matter.

that is a long answer.

This the the part where I stop solving CCCC

8:32 PM

@ffao Another possibility: "reemergent in relation to obscene smell" :-)

muahahaa

Double Double Toil and Trouble

HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHA

I don't know how the wordplay works yet, but it almost has to be

I think I know some of the wordplay

8:32 PM

Deus can you repin the CCCC explanation text please

still pinned for me

it's below the current instead of above

@Rubio I was ten seconds faster than you with the pin that time. You need to work on your ninja skills :-)

Twich as much effort I think is 'double, toil'

DOUBLE(DOUBLE + TOIL)AN* + D_ + TROUBLE

DOUBLEAN* is an anagram of UNDOABLE, D from "starting dangerous", TROUBLE from plague

8:35 PM

deus has it

This the the part where I start solving CCCC again.

Who gets to do the next one then - Scon or Deus?

Welcome back, Manshu!

I was writing the anagram part when you posted, couldn't figure out plague :)

Deus

@manshu Paris in the the spring?

8:36 PM

Thanks. :D

he got the answer, I just got the result

Sometimes - frustratingly - knowing the answer is only the first part of solving the clue :)

More like "Paris the the spring", even.

I should have gone with s/Incantation chorus opening/Frog Chorus song opener/

@Randal'Thor Google doesn't know what it mean

8:38 PM

and wished you all good luck on that :)

ohk. got it

I read the two "the"s on the first try

(Or worse - that line is the name of a movie starring the Olson twins. *shudder*)

Can we make a CC on the word "the" ?

You can, sure

then the def should be Article

8:40 PM

Article in Newport Herald (3)

that's a good one

Something like: Article tea before him.

@manshu Article on altered Icelandic letter (3)

@Randal'Thor indirect anagram >:/

@MOehm Oh, nice.

8:41 PM

Article opens Tampa Herald Enquirer. (boo)

@Deusovi blows raspberry :-P

(The :-P emoticon has never been more appropriate.)

What is Icelandic letter?

eth

🙈

*flags for inappropria... er, wait, that was yesterday

8:42 PM

ð

that would be an indirect anagram, though?

oh, I see deusovi mentioned that

1 min ago, by Deusovi

@Randal'Thor indirect anagram >:/

@Randal'Thor Came across that way imo, but moving on.

@Rubio Nationalist symbols indicate inappropriate behaviour (5)

heh

You have a singular/plural mismatch there

8:49 PM

Not if you think of the second definition as a noun too.

one or the other

Incidentally, is that OK?

"indicate foo" isn't a definition for a noun

for a verb it'd be just fine, but then you've got the flags/flag issue

"[...] does X" as the clue, with the solution being something which does X rather than the act of doing X?

Eh. It's an easy fix anyway:

Nationalist symbols used to indicate inappropriate behaviour (5)

Hm. I'll let Deus weigh in on the revision

I think it's ok, but I am not totally convinced

8:52 PM

Nationalist symbols indicate inappropriate behaviours (5)

Deus gave me some flak earlier for defining nouns using "does X"

^

@manshu That doesn't fix the problem

Then we need to change the wordplay.

but this is double def, right?

yup

Nationalist symbols falls after first of February (5)

9:03 PM

@manshu That's a nice one.

(Well, except for the grammar mistake.)

Thanks.

And yes, I knew that mistake :/

I wonder -

Nationalistic symbology indicates inappropriate behavior (5) .... that might do it

that'd be 4, right?

9:18 PM

it's 5 because of "indicates"

thing indicates, things indicate, right?

indicates is not a definition for a thing, it's a definition for an action (verb)

in this case the verb form should match, so it has to be "flags"

A flag, it indicates; those flags, they indicate

tenses are weird

or conjugations rather

no, no, you don't get me, the answer is the verb "to flag"

but it has to be flags to match the conjugation of indicates in the clue

because "indicates X" is only a valid definition for a verb, not for a noun

^

"(he) runs"' = "(he) goes quickly somewhere", right

so "(he) flags" = "(he) indicates inappropriate behavior"

9:25 PM

why is it 'he flags' rather than 'I flag' or 'you flag' or 'they flag'?

because the clue says "indicates" rather than "indicate", and then we've gone full circle :)

right.

"(I) flag = (I) indicate inappropriate behavior"

And since we have
noun: symbology

the study or use of symbols.
- symbols collectively.
"the use of religious symbology"

symbology can be more than one symbol, making the verb tense of the surface reading work without ruining the ddef

@CR241 Did you realize you posted a puzzle in Meta?

10:05 PM

@Rubio will you pin the CCCC?

There isn't a current one - waiting for @Deusovi to post a new one

Rubio keep an eye on the meta puzzle in case they realize the mistake so you can migrate it for them

@RUBIO, I am sorry. I haven't realize it can you please migrate it to Puzzling?

I'm trying to, actually. :)

I'm not actually sure how to migrate to, well, ourselves.

okay, Thanks

10:19 PM

I know you can go between the main and move to meta..

So, actually i'm not able to migrate this question to main for you at this time.

Could just repost

For Hugh's puzzle.. Hobbes makes me think of Calvin and it mentions a name needed.. Hmm

I was thinking Hobbes vs Locke, as in Thomas Hobbes author of Leviathan

But there's nothing in the puzzle to suggest locks

It suggests another philosopher

Although maybe Leviathan, "bait" -> sea creature

10:31 PM

Hmm.. perhaps

10:42 PM

There is a stega tag

@MikeQ Bait and rod -> sea creature.. maybe first two lines are about Hobbes and the second two are about someone he disagreed with.. bait also slang for debate perhaps?

I expect the misspelling of Hobbes is not accidental.

Neither do I

11:00 PM

-1

Q: Can You break.. Who am I?

I talk, but I do not speak my mind I hear words, but I do not listen to thoughts When I wake, all see me When I sleep, all hear me Many heads are on my shoulders Many hands are at my feet The strongest steel cannot break my visage But the softest whisper can destroy me The quietest whimper...

support riddles puzzle-series

11:47 PM

@Rubio Gah, sorry. Got distracted.

@Deusovi I'm deeply offended by your distraction. *snif*

0

Q: Is this six different views of the same block or is there a consistent view with 1 or more that is 'odd'

The answer book of this puzzle book says that the first five are all consistent but the last one is not because the Z has to be a U. I can't seem to agree with this as U seems to be attached to N, P, E, L & Z. Clearly it can only be attached by four ends adjacent wise.. If PUL*, then N and Z ...

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