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12:04 AM
Dear therapists, part two: My older sibling fights fires and saves lives. My younger wrote a Java manual you might have read. I was lost in the middle and now have hundreds of unfiltered (but heavily edited) posts.
Nothing like sticking your jaw out.
(Yes, I've also edited many manuscripts of others, but those don't count the same.)
(Though some of those books did save a career or two . . .)
 
12:31 AM
... so my sibling rang a dinger: "sufficiently incoherent bases"
(Everyone is my sibling, of course, and everyone rings a dinger! But when it's someone I've seen from birth it chimes in a special way.)
Look out, folks, that same sibling hadn't heard of Puzzling SE (Has been to others SE, like everyone else). Think we're about to be boarded by a username I look forward to decoding.
Fear not. Others like me are better.
Weird, though, many better than me are performers, not necessarily artists with one toe over the line.
Takes all kinds.
Is this a monologue? You all remind me of my siblings. Better in every way and quiet while the canyon screams for an echo.
I'm continuing this tantrum until someone has a cure.
(Yeah, that was a repeat, but after that bin had been emptied.)
 
12:56 AM
D: so many edits
 
🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉 I edit to live. 🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉🖉
"Wheels of fate slowly grind my life away":
That's a puzzle song!
So's this:
Take that.
 
1:14 AM
(My music teacher just gave a language lesson.)
(Made me ready for a tongue lashing.)
 
1:51 AM
How i love a lick of language!
 
Perhaps we are all long-lost siblings of @humn. The idea puts me at a loss.
 
Slurp.
Yeah, as an editor my function is not only to corral but also to let loose the horses.
I show my editees how those ponies play before pulling in the reins.
 
Horses live in a corral, seahorses live in coral.
 
(wide smile and a prance and flip of the fin)
 
For your lined to the nines puzzle, you say that the sequence continues forward infinitely. If the 26th line is called "line z", then what is the 27th line called?
 
2:06 AM
!? and !
Zinfinity?
 
line aa?
 
Have a seat. That's movie theatr talk.
 
For shame! You should not be talking in a movie theater!
 
That's what they told my feet.
(They were up on the seat in front.)
(But those puppies kept barking.)
Parents? Secret from a child: Get them a summer cinema pass but not a bus pass.
Takes hours off your hands.
I yet come to understand, so many centuries later, how my mother disarmed me.
Thought I'm clever but the nut didn't land far from the tree.
 
How unfortunate. I still have all of my arms.
 
2:17 AM
I only pretend to be 'armless.
We're each an 'andful!
🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉 🖉
Weren't I a sight to behold I'd be an eyesore.
(That was for you, Karen, who will never see it.)
 
Who's Karen? Someone I should know about?
 
(Karen is my language teacher nonpareil. Others have tried but she succeeded.)
(Karen taught me languages I still don't know.)
 
I still don't know what to do with this puzzle.
 
(... weeping on, Karen is whom I channel whenever Rand al'you-know thinks I know something about anything ...)
(... so nice to have guiding lights. So long since they shone ...)
(... so sappy, but earned the right ...)
(... and wide-eyed for more guiding lights. In another century I'll credit you ...)
 
2:33 AM
I can't wait, but I will just have to wait!
 
!
I used to dread the future. Then thought I found out why. Now think the future is beyond telling.
 
Sharing music in Puzzling SE
can't stop the music
 
link?
 
Oh, my youtube isn't working right now. wait..
Well, see if this works. I'm just copy-pasting the link
It's metal
 
Works here! It's cooling my speakers by sizzling them.
 
2:41 AM
:)
 
The uglier music tries the sweeter my ears hear. Guess that applies to persons too.
I still don't know where to dance between the clues. Sweetness or spikes?
 
Can't dance to that music
 
I do. Give me a beat without a beater and I dance.
Give me a beater and I lash back.
 
haha
 
Thank you for a stereo warmer in any case!
(Again, don't try this at home.)
 
2:48 AM
You're welcome
This is the really slow doom metal. It's best enjoyed with some nice headphones
music to sleep to
 
Zat what it comes down to? I have loud speakers.
 
loud speakers has its benefits too
 
And, yes, I love nothing more than to fall asleep to the windows rattling.
Other than to wake up to that.
Porneighbrocitos.
(Okay Spanish linguists ... "porneighbrecitos")
(Okay Bowdlererizers, "porn" was an accident of construction. Let it slide.)
(It came from "pobrecitos" and "neighbrs.")
One never knows where what comes from, do one?
 
After you're done blinding me, dumbfound this fool. (Coming from one with sensically deprived friends, with a sense of humr nonetheless.)
 
3:02 AM
sense of humn
 
After all.
 
Just realized that that album is about a child suffering from autism
I rarely look up the lyrics. I should look these up, however..
 
You're halfway to being a doctor, @Avantgarde!
(Signed, medical editor.)
 
0
Q: Flying fortresses departed from me

Hack-RFlying fortresses departed from me, but I'm too small to host even a 727. No one owns my tree, not even me. I've induced far reaching hysteria and caused the most famous lucid dreams, but mostly only social wasps fear me. I've hosted a man that sparkles and ultramarine women. What am I?

 
heh, far from it
 
3:08 AM
Let it happen if that's how it goes.
I'm halfway to a mosquito bite. One never knows.
(Signed, bag of bones.)
(Yeah, i feel mortal again and again, then wake up feeling immortal again and again. ... it ... just ... ain't ... fair!)
(for once I'd like to be outlived by those I love, but I'm not wiling to accommodate.)
(so meanwhile I channel their love to you)
(As you do others' to me. I get it and am grateful.)
@Avantgarde , that's more than 3 minutes. Regardless, everyone within earshot is still attuned.
Draw me a line and call me a chicken.
(that was better than intended, figiure it out)
 
3:41 AM
My sibling doesn't have the guts (or time?) to make it here. So here I am. Just what yam.
(I wouldn't even dare to type without an unsolved puzzle or two.)
(Or without a sibling or two . . . kinda the same.)
(Except that my unsolved puzzles were deliberate.)
(While my unsolved siblings were gifts from others.)
(Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Guess I was a gift from tje same puzzle factory ........)
 
@humn hi hi humn humn
 
Welcome!
I don't know whether to wax cheer or sorrow. So I just honeycomb.
... whatever ... someone slapped me a keyboard and I've been striking since ...
... I look at the feral cat prostrate on the side and ask, why doesn't everyone expose their tender parts? ...
... I do ...
... secret message to my sibling ...
... weird, admittedly ...
... that little kitty trusts me to step around what matters most ...
... I'm the most badass stumbler but when that little bundle sneaks my feet i'm reluctant to move.
... really, don't get in a fight with me unless you're a fifth as tall.
... all that typing and the dinger still hasn't moved.
... talk about trust!
... no, not dead, checked. Sometimes I just don't understand fellow earthlings.
... wonder if I look as cute while asleep and in danger of being stepped upon ...
(spoiler alert: not quite, but don't bother stepping)
 
4:21 AM
0
Q: A Bit Confusing Puzzle

William Nathanael Sometimes it's an alternative Sometimes it belongs to the cow One day it's orange Another day, it's not pure somehow Sometimes it's the important date Sometimes it's only in the morning One day it needs lenses Another day, it is worth seeing Sometimes it wakes up ...

 
 
3 hours later…
7:05 AM
Oh dear. A friend sent me this and now I am stuck solving a regex nonogram-ish/crossword puzzle
 
I can free you
 
It's quite fun actually
 
7:24 AM
According to Gareth / Scon, that regex crossword is a bit on the easy side
there should be harder ones around if you're interested :-)
 
It seems like there are no misdirections in it
And they seem to use minimal character sets.
But I love the concept. May do a harder one after solving this one.
It also makes me want to write a program that can solve these kind of puzzles. Because I can :P
 
But if I am going to post my own regex crossword-type puzzle I need to know if the solution is not ambiguous >:)
 
you can write directly into the thing
 
It does not seem to check for ambiguous solutions. Only if the intended solution matches the given regex.
 
7:35 AM
no I meant if you like solving these
 
Ah. Well thanks :D
 
8:06 AM
@GarethMcCaughan That would be good, I guess because the representation of each tattoo/number I just thought up it's difficult for others to be sure. I think I'll add that as a hint to clear up my own mistake lol.
 
 
2 hours later…
9:44 AM
Nobody?
 
Hm?
 
10:04 AM
@Mithrandir You there?
The hymn of Egypt is not a hymn. A long bowl in stead---the last conquers this half-blood. Who is the beginning before the end.
Nobody quite understands this enigma.
Who or what is this?
A reflection of see --- the number
(But hear too,
four of them make a chain.)
are the lucky stars of this hymn.
 
 
1 hour later…
11:42 AM
0
Q: Untwisting a long rope

user38153Have you noticed that if you take your mouse and hang it from the end it will start to twist until it becomes untwisted? My puzzle is this: If you have a really long rope and not enough vertical space, how do you untwist it?

 
 
2 hours later…
1:37 PM
@humn Thanks muchly for the unexpected bounty! A windfall in numbers. — Rand al'Thor 2 mins ago
You're more than welcome, @Rand al'those-points. Feels absurd to bounty a puzzle and answer and puzzler and solver so well received.
Feels absurdly good, that is.
 
hey @humn
 
Hey poet!
 
Poet I am, riddles I make too
Solve that riddle I posted
(too ironic, i can't stop laughing :-P)
 
A crack in the canopy?
 
The hymn of Egypt is not a hymn.
A long bowl in stead---the last conquers this half-blood.
Is, in truth, the beginning before the end.

Nobody quite understands this enigma.
Who or what is this?

A reflection of see --- the number
(But hear too, four of them make a chain.)
are the lucky stars of this hymn.
 
1:52 PM
Sous le dôme épais
 
@humn When answer you are, what to answer?
> (too ironic, i can't stop laughing :-P)
 
The number e? Or a number of them: ees?
Or the constant c?
Think I've only once solved a riddle with its intended solution. After learning from milliards of them.
A reconstant C can make a CCCChain.
Word of the moment - milliard - where do these wonderful words for numbers go?
Once USA president George Walker Bush was told about a country of Brazilians.
He said, "that sounds like a lot."
(He wasn't even joking.)
(It's amazing how each new president can make a predecessor seem brilliant by comparison.)
(How many times can a shadow cast a tree?)
(The other goodie about Bush minor was that he was a hole who sought a doughnut.)
 
2:13 PM
@humn I'm the same
The answer is you
 
U? Was working through the alphabet.
 
You
humn
is the answer
You're the hymn of this lair
(Egypt -> Sphinx)
 
I??
 
but you're not hymn, you are humn
the last vowel u which looks pretty much like a long bowl
 
Nice.
 
2:16 PM
replaces the semi-vowel y
in hymn
 
But aren't we all just sphynxters here?
 
but you are actually the letter a (the beginning of all alphabets and also vowels)
added before the last letter of humn
HUMAN
HUMN
HYMN
 
HMM
 
As you rightly point out, 4 Cs is CCCC, which stands for Cryptic Clue Chat Chains
see sounds like C
 
... was a try ..
 
2:20 PM
so you were told to hear too
which number is a reflection of C?
It's always more likely to be a digit
3
from (0-9)
 
Ↄ? (oops late type)
Allowed beyond 9, 21 would also count as the reverse of C (12).
What is the reverse of tahW
 
2:35 PM
... while looking up the P word for an entrained garden vine (any help?), I found this synonym for herring ...
Noun: pilchard (plural pilchard or pilchards)
  1. Any of various small oily fish related to herrings, family Clupeidae.
  2. 1839, John Hookham Frere (translator), The Birds, lines 76–77, in Acharnians and two other plays
  3. He longs occasionally for human diet,
  4. His old Athenian fare: pilchards, for instance.
Zeroing in but amiss among the alphabet:
Caryopteris (bluebeard; Chinese: 莸属 you shu) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae (formerly often placed in the family Verbenaceae). They are native to east Asia (China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia). They are herbaceous plants or small shrubs growing to 1–4 m tall. The leaves are opposite, simple ovate to lanceolate, with an entire or crenate margin; they are often aromatic. The blue or white flowers are pollinated by butterflies and bumblebees. The fruit is a four-valved capsule containing four seeds. Species Caryopteris forrestii Diels - Guizhou, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan Caryopteris...
Another near miss, and another wonderful P word: Pooktre
Tree shaping (also known by several other alternative names) uses living trees and other woody plants as the medium to create structures and art. There are a few different methods used by the various artists to shape their trees, which share a common heritage with other artistic horticultural and agricultural practices, such as pleaching, bonsai, espalier, and topiary, and employing some similar techniques. Most artists use grafting to deliberately induce the inosculation of living trunks, branches, and roots, into artistic designs or functional structures. Tree shaping has been practiced for at...
Okay, there they is, the P words for my favrite puzzles. Pleach and plash.
Pleaching or plashing is a technique of interweaving living and dead branches through a hedge for stock control. Trees are planted in lines, the branches are woven together to strengthen and fill any weak spots until the hedge thickens. Branches in close contact may grow together, due to a natural phenomenon called inosculation, a natural graft. Pleach also means weaving of thin, whippy stems of trees to form a basketry effect. == History == Pleaching or plashing (an early synonym) was common in gardens from late medieval times to the early eighteenth century, to create shaded paths, or to create...
 
3:10 PM
Once in awhile my tunnel vision broadens to the starboard side.
"Thank you for leaving" was code for "Thank you for showing up."
And "Irritable vowel syndrome can lead to inconsonants" (not "inconsonance," I'm pretty sure my poetry teacher meant). Signed, silly stenographer.
C'mon fingers, give me a chance to catch up
 
3:25 PM
@humn Could you figure out the importance of number 3?
in the puzzle
It's the number of your messages shown on the starboard.
lucky stars
 
3:37 PM
3 is the minimum phase required for continuous motion
2 can get stuck in polar tension
... I'm just amazed whenever anyone has the guts to blurt here ... my recent career has been based on others' being funded to blurt out, but here it's voluntary.
... only reason I dare to do so is to echo all my teachers, almost all gone by now.
... they filled my mind like a sponge until it burst like a balloon.
 
if we put a limit on max chat messages per day, would we call it a humnvernor?
Or would that be a limit on the direct intelligibility of messages?
 
Sid
@Rubio Now that you are here, could you again explain that last CCCC you solved? I am still not quite getting it.
 
which one?
oh ALBEDO?
 
Repertoire? (= 10) (out of sync)
 
Sid
Yes.
 
3:48 PM
BED is rest (as a verb)
ALOE is a liniment
Sconibulus confirmed "languid" was meant to be "without energy", thus -E
so you end up with AL(BED)O
 
Sid
Oh, got it.
 
@Rubio , after so many rounds of helping others to print, i realized that here is a gallery to stray freely.
When the canyon stills.
 
We're happy to have you :)
fray steely
 
In real life, all that brings me out of my shell is someone on the ground begging a beggar.
Here the fingers skip ahead of my thoughts.
 
That clue was a bit too clever for its own good, in my opinion. The def is a rather obscure word, which would be okay if the wordplay were clear. The "languid" thing has one level of indirection too many: "without energy" verbatim can mean "cut the e", but languid meaning without energy, which in turn tells me to remove the e is a bit unfair.
 
3:57 PM
I have heard tell of this "Real Life" thing. what is this?
 
It's a fantasy meant to entice.
 
(But I'm probably just a bad loser, because I coudn't go anywhere with it.)
 
@MOehm yeah "albedo" doesn't really mean brightness, and it was just a wild guess that got me to realize languid was somehow a subtraction indicator - and I still didn't get how it worked until Scon explained the intent
We've some indirect indicators, but - not that indirect :)
 
The people on 15² often say that they didn't know a solution word, but that they could get it from the wordplay. I'm with them and think that a good rule of thumb is that you can either have an unusual def or unusual wordplay, but not both.
 
And after seeing you and you understand so much, nobody has still solved springtime:
5
Q: Spring is here!

humnDoes springtime get you all wound up? If so, feel free to consult what resembles the Staff of Asclepius below. What panacean prescription therein could help you uncompress this spring? Only Os and os carry the message.   's and .s are present for anti-aliasing and should be regarded as  space...

It was offered as a giveaway.
 
4:02 PM
But speaking of 4C: Shouldn't your clue be "act! perhaps"?
(I'm exploring some avenues that look promising at first sight, but then fall flat pretty quickly.)
 
Act factorial?
 
@MOehm I don't know that it makes a difference here
 
Well, "act perhaps!" sounds a bit tame. I think the "perhaps" is meant to mark a definition by example and you couldn't use a question mark, because there was already an exclamation point.
(You don't have to react to that. I'm just thinking aloud.)
 
(Completely out of sync but, again, don't know where else to muse this: TV shows are being time compressed. To see people actually think before they type here is a relief from the hyperattenuated garbage on TV.)
(Really, sometimes I call the fastest talker I know just to reassure that my ears aren't deceiving me.)
(But TV, and radio no doubt, are being time compressed to an extreme.)
(As if anyone asked.)
 
Even as def-by-example indicator, "perhaps" wouldn't require a ?
 
4:11 PM
No, a question mark is an alternative to "perhaps", I thought.
 
Interesting idea. I don't know that I'd use it that way. I generally use "?" for either surface, or for "this definition is wrong but right" so to speak
 
Maybe I misrember things.
 
... information theory is a fun puzzle ...
... what is the least that can be known?
Favorite book: On knowing what we don't know
(Haven't even read it. What would be the point? But it got to my treasury from a dumpster.)
 
I haven't read 90% of my library
 
Thank you for supporting authors!
 
4:24 PM
@humn so have a lot of mine
 
Bibliophiles! Fortunately there isn't a law.
 
On information, Symmetry 2 ed. by I. Hargittai.
I might go check it out today
 
Yuah! True information is a symmetric commodity.
It is fluid without loss.
False information is a different story.
Back to true information, wait until real-life physicists figure out how surface information is conserved in real time.
... another outburst beyond control ... there is no such thing as real time ... or such persons as real-life physicists ... though I know some ...
 
Probably a repeat:
 
Tag, manshu! When I try to channel you it resolves one way or another. Work in progress.
(Wow I listened to that before watching it. Rough on the retake!)
 
4:39 PM
"work in progress" reminds me that I could not get the time/heart to complete my part of "Heart and Soul" (yet). Sorry.
 
same here, sorry too
Promises, promises!
 
Promises! Can't live with them, can't live without them.
 
Can't even believe them.
I'm still reeling from believing the brochure.
 
Some scientists believe that they don't even exist.
 
!
Say that about philosophers. Three times and tap your toes.
 
4:43 PM
Some scientists believe that philosophers don't even exist
Some scientists believe that philosophers don't even exist.
Some scientists believe that philosophers don't even exist..
 
There you did!!!!!!!!!!
 
tapped my enter key instead of toes.
Another nice repeat:
 
bring it around
 
From the recommended section of youtube:
 
(that has a fun half beat that gets strummed across during the middles of many bars)
 
4:50 PM
I think it's 6/4 (?)
 
Don't ask an arranger. It's 6/4 sometimes.
It really challenges notation. (And typing)
 
finds a non-arranger
 
I'd say a corrupted 3/2 actually.
 
finds none
how do you find that the note is 4 or 2?
 
6/4(8) has a 2 feel.
3 has a 1 feel.
But that piece knew all that and broke many rules.
 
4:54 PM
 
I feel, therefore I think, or so I believe.
Hear?
(Coming from someone who has worked many boundaries between others who never had or no longer have the luxury of each sense.)
 
The musician releases the note as half probably (on beats)?
 
A smile as if nobody will notice.
 
Now I think that I must have made a mistake but I don't know what. :/
 
If it turns out that you mustn't've made a mistake by accident, keep trying!
 
5:03 PM
dinner time
 
Lap it up.
 
For the record, Martians also use hands to eat.
 
Finger food.
 
Talk to you soon... hibernates chat
 
... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ...
 
Sid
5:16 PM
@manshu gasp Martians have hands??!
 
I think "people are the greatest fun":
Suit yourself, whatever crosses your mind.
(That was another for you, @Rand al'wordsmith.)
(No need to respond, you've presponded.)
 
5:33 PM
hey
@humn
 
I still don't believe you're a prebusescent female, but don't you see how I play along as if doesn't matter.
Even if you are, I've been there. That's the way to hang along.
Welcome to the ride.
(misspellings apologized and inconsequential)
 
eh?
thats a thing?
 
That's why I don't want an official vote on my attempt to gallery puzzles.
4
Q: Puzzle gallery via comments

humnThis question is meant to serve as a trouble-free gallery of puzzles deemed noteworthy by anyone. Whoever wants to contribute, feel free to post a minimalistic answer, something like the following, and add comments that link to any puzzles for whatever reasons. Puzzle gallery comments from [...

Sooner or later more will dare.
(just realized, I've fallen behind even before others took the lead. So many good puzzles.)
 
Sid
@BeastlyGerbil yeah, I have noticed that happen before. I think that is for lack of answers or something, not sure..
maybe the mods can tell you..
 
It's automatic, but the text there seems clear enough.
 
Sid
5:44 PM
Does that happen to every puzzle that has a lot of answers?
 
I think it's only on meta, and it happens to questions with lots of answers but no accepted answer. There are probably some other criteria too.
 
@Deusovi, thank you for sheathing your claws.
(That's sincere, you know by know, no matter how it looked.)
 
but there is only one answer?
 
The softest paws sheathe the sharpest nails. On a good day. (again out of sync... oh well)
I'm still smarting from the first time Deusovi closed a puzzle. And still dizzying from what followed.
 
Oh, have I closed one of yours? Huh, I don't recall that.
Oh right, the "zen crossword".
3
Q: More-than-Two-Dimensional Crosswords from Atomic to Zen

humnFollowing Peter Taylor's answer to The smallest crossword  >   It's not hard to construct a 1x1 crossword:   . . . A single-cell crossword could be called atomic. _______ Surreal: |10 | Across Down Up Diagonal (no black | ...

 
5:56 PM
Hall of shame.
 
Sid
That was before Deus was mod..
 
There was such a time? :P
 
I was amused by the first one, which could at least be considered a puzzle. The "zen crossword" seemed to be more of a meditation on what constitutes a puzzle than anything else - which, while interesting, wasn't really on-topic.
 
You solved it and then closed it.
How life churns.
 
Sid
What constitutes a puzzle- isn't on topic? I thought you could write about puzzles here..
 
5:58 PM
I solved the former, and then when I was confused by the latter, you declared that my reaction was appropriate. I'm not quite sure that constitutes a solution.
 
Hadn't we known how to roll with each tumble, none of us would be here.
(deleted)
 
Sid
6:38 PM
A question on CCs- What can 1 mean? I or A? Or both?
 
1 can mean I, because they look similar. It's like zero, which can mean O.
I've also seen first for IST, because it looks like 1st. I don't think the digit 1 can mean A, but one/a are usually equivalent.
The 1=I can also be explained with Roman numerals and it is common to have 4=IV and so on.
 
7:38 PM
Zif it weren't obvious I only reach for X.
(That came out short. I had lines and lines about all my Xs.)
O
 
7:52 PM
@Deusovi No, it's on both main and meta (but rarely happens on Puzzling main, because nearly everything is answered). And the question doesn't need to have lots of answers - it just needs to have no accepted or positive-scoring answers.
@BeastlyGerbil noob :-P
 
(not their best piece but a good video with a good title)
 
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