The Sphinx's Lair - 2017-09-22

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12:05 AM

Anyone up for the weekly contact game?

2 hours later…

1:35 AM

Two cats asking for food

5 hours later…

7:02 AM

0

Q: Generate a valid string

I have been observing her for just over a week now. She had seen me but didn't know she was being watched. As people pass she hands them a piece of paper. Some even stop and put money in a cigar box at her feet. When that happens, I write down the word found in the discarded piece of paper—but I ...

cipher pattern calculation-puzzle story password

3 hours later…

10:26 AM

0

Q: My relatives do love to bind. Who am I?

I can't hear a word you say. I haven't come to aid. I can however help you sway, And maybe turn a head. I can be loud, I can be sweet. But I do not speak. Made for seeing, I don't see. Attention's what I seek. While to you my pretty case I wish to submit...

2 hours later…

12:26 PM

2

Q: Middle out: A puzzle that won't behave

Ah, jeez. You'd think making puzzles was easy. What kind of fool thinks he can turn up and instantly turn in a working puzzle on his first try? I guess the middle one was easy, but that's the only one that just tells you what it is. The corners still seem to be undergoing some kind of nondeterm...

logical-deduction pattern visual

2 hours later…

2:53 PM

0

Q: Number Theory Class v2

Inspired from: Number Theory Class Our magician was unhappy because his magic was revealed so fast! so he made another magic and gave a calculator to an audience and said: Pick any number, Multiply it with 23, Take the sum of its digits, let's call it A, Multiply the number you pick...

0

Q: Angelic Protection

Instructions: Answers are entered normally in the grid, but there are clashes. Some clues contain extra letters in the wordplay that are not entered in the grid; when taken in order they provide instructions on how to resolve the clashes. After resolution solvers must identify a cryptic repres...

cryptic-crosswords

3:48 PM

@Sphinx If anyone wants to help with this, I can't find explanations for 1A (BESHADOW), 8D (SYRIAN, partially coming from AIR in reverse), and 12D (DETOX).

For detox, 10 is X... Can't get rest

(note that clues can have an extra letter in their wordplay here - they spell out a message)

Is 8D definitely SYRIAN or can it be SYRIAC?

1A feels like E (natural log base) + SHAD (fish) in BOW[l] with extra letter L from wordplay answer rather than wordplay in clue?

4:11 PM

Definitely SYRIAN.

Hmm no idea then, synthetic clothing -> SYN seems weird and there's not much that can be dropped...

My drops right now spell LET DEKE SUE E, which doesn't seem to spell a historical event.

Some of my explanations may be wrong, though.

(Or a way of resolving the conflicts in the grid.)

user image

There's my grid.

15a is ambiguous about whether D or T is dropped (D as you have there makes more sense, but just putting the alternative out there)

hm, you're right - actually, I think T does make more sense

if I can find some way to resolve K[[K]]+HAN to not have an extra letter, then we can start the phrase with LETTE(r?)

here's the sheet I'm using, if you want to see my explanations:

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/…

19A feels like it could be a lot of rivers o_O

4:25 PM

yeah, it does

TYE was the most common one I found though

(to a significant extent)

Scotland maybe? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Tay

"Kids's" o_O

yeahhhhh

I wonder if 18A is drop M hmmm

(feels a bit weird though)

yeah, that would be incredibly unsatisfying

4:46 PM

I can't believe you people couldn't see the obvious inherent brilliance in this outstanding answer

5:14 PM

@Rubio I have never seen anything more beautiful

i know, right?

bg, don't encourage him

awww.

(Un?)related - my current hobby is answering calls from these "lower your credit card rate" people and feeding them a credit card number that passes their validation but is to an account that's been dead for years, and then seeing how long I can get them to stay on the phone troubleshooting why they can't "pull up my information".

That's hilarious.

Time on this current call is 10 minutes and counting

they wanna waste my time with their scam, I'll happily waste theirs with mine

Sometimes just to mess with them I give them actual information on an actual prepaid Visa that has something like 56¢ left on it, so they can look it up to their hearts' content. One enterprising spark actually managed to figure out that's what it was, after about 15 minutes. I laughed a lot on that one

If they want the 56¢ I figure it's a fair price for the amusement I get.

5:21 PM

@Rubio LOL. I should do something like that too... :P

"Please verify your card's expiration date" -

And I'm like, ok, tell me what you have and I'll verify it

That is really hilarious... I am still laughing..

I'm tempted to give this guy this phone number 605-475-6965

Hm?

Anything special with that number?

5:28 PM

Jury duty prank, it seems.

freeformatter.com/credit-card-number-generator-validator.html is useful fun

I've occasionally gone along with car accident company calls, despite the fact I'm still two years away from being able to get a driver's license :P

i'm at 25min with this guy

Wow. this guy is persistent

Heh, I have had calls from "kind" people who offered to unblock my debit card. Except, I never had a card from the bank they were "representing"

5:37 PM

this is hilarious

Seriously though, how do these guys actually make money? I mean the chances of someone picking up the phone with (in your example) a blocked debit card from that particular bank who doesn't realise its a scam must be tiny.

now they're mad and swearing and threatening to forward to me to the FBI as a scammer.

Pretty awesome.

Ha! You're the scammer?

And now is the point where a lovely little button called 'block' comes into good use :P

LOL. The thing that happens when people lose their sense. :P

5:38 PM

and then one of them started talking in a low voice and said "This is blah blah from the FBI" - which is epic because the background noise went on uninterrupted the whole time

These guys are desperate :P

this just keeps getting funnier

Finally ended

I'm surprise they didn't hang up as soon as they realised you were faking the whole thing :P

The last guy wanted to know where I got the bogus cards from. I told him it was from his mother.

5:40 PM

it's amazing how they have someone from the FBI standing by in case someone gives them an incorrect card number! that's definitely how legitimate businesses work

The irritating thing is they usually call from a caller-id that's utter noise, but sometimes randomly these days it says "CHASE CARD SERVICES" and I have a Chase card

so they've gotten me to answer a couple of times and then been all "Damn you guys!" when the recording starts

@Rubio Let's see if he asks his Mom that. :P

I do let them know if they call and waste my time I'll be happy to waste theirs, but something tells me they're not very receptive to the message by that point :)

I can't believe they actually got angry at you :P

I mean others must have done it to them before

for 25 minutes straight? I doubt it

5:44 PM

yeah maybe not that long...

So, Rubio/BG/Sid - no ideas on that crossword I linked earlier?

I started some of the clues, only got a few and you got them all

Tries to find the extra message but no luck...

I just imagine 'angelic protection' is a reference to the final answer

Well, I still need explanations for some clues.

Yeahh, it probably is.

Which clues?

@Deusovi Sorry, Mom was just showing me some of her college photos, so... a tad busy here.. will look at that now

5:50 PM

8D (SYRIAN, partially coming from AIR in reverse?), and 12D (DETOX).

You seem to have solved everything. What is it that you are missing?

Explanations

Explanations for the clues, extra letters from the wordplay (the gimmick of the crossword), and the hidden event.

Also how to resolve the "clashes" I've found, which should be revealed by the extra letters read in order.

For DETOX = first drug = D, ten = X. Somehow need ETO... 19th letter of alphabet is S - extra letter?

19 is a reference to TOXICITY - it's part of the def

5:54 PM

Hmm?

oh right

You probably have to get E from "introduced"

no idea for 8d except that SYnthetic surely must be the start of syrian?

If "first" gives D somehow, then we have D + E + T_ + O_ + X

@BeastlyGerbil possibly, but I can't find any indicators that let you do that

yeah I was looking at DETOX and got nowhere with it

so the gimmick is the wordplay can give letters that are not in the (5) ?

yup. some clues have the wordplay giving a single extra letter

5:57 PM

which is a bit tricky...

first drug (D) introduced to (T) start of (O) ten (X) but I don't see an "E"

yeah, that's what I said, except with "drug" becoming E

(slang for ecstasy, I've seen it in cryptics before)

oh that'd work yeah

so how does first = d...

Introduced to =met?

6:00 PM

dunno. it might not

it doesn't, probably. "using" probably gives the D

@Apep ah, there you go

D_ + [[M]]ET + O_ + X

so extra letter m...

ahhh. that works nicely

"sum" is in the message

adding the "clashing" letters mod 26 gives IRAQ

6:03 PM

angelic protection though?

Perhaps one of the operation names? They were quite... creative with those.

dunno

The weeping jackal

^ no idea if it's an actual military operation. Just came up with it.

certainly not something I expected, though. international politics are not a common theme for puzzles (and for good reason)

Yeah, touchy things...

Let's hope it isn't for politics.

6:37 PM

@deus post a partial?

6:58 PM

@deus why [[E]]PIC for 17d? Shouldn't it be PI+C[[D]]?

7:15 PM

the extra letter for KHAN can be an R too (rex=king)

0

Q: What counts as a yes/no question?

I'm trying to decide which answer to accept for this question. My problem stems from disagreement as to what constitutes a yes/no question, in particular with boboquack's answer. Upon checking, I discovered that there doesn't seem to be a consensus as to what a yes/no question entails. Any though...

1 hour later…

8:26 PM

0

Q: You can't go past without me about. Who am I?

One can say that my words help you out, or that you can't go past without me about. I may be old and rusty, and phased out but I'm trusty! I was once on this site up above, Gold, silver, or bronze that users love! Maybe I'm the turning point that changed all history! ...

9:13 PM

@ffao Oh, is that a crossword abbreviation?

@ffao Explain? That seems better than mine, but I'm not sure where it comes from.

I've seen it used, and I don't do that many crosswords

pi: (Brit) short for pious

and CD is a recording

Ah, thanks. Never heard "pi" as short for "pious".

for 13, we can give it an M to make the extras have "SUMMED" if "I" is unused

Gareth McCaughan

"Good" in a cryptic clue (at least in the UK ones I'm familiar with) means PI at least as often as it means anything else.

Well, I must not have done enough UK cryptics then.

the dictionary does give it as British English, so that isn't too surprising

9:45 PM

@BeastlyGerbil Just did.

Could the Iran outside Iraq be relevant, or just a coincidence?

Ooh, it could be relevant.

1 hour later…

11:11 PM

0

Q: Irrationality in the balance

Sensibilly -T ™ scales were out of stock, so Gramazon filled the order with a lousy Lopside® from Irreturnable Irrationals International, Inc.73205080... How irredeemably irritating. Sigh, might as well unpack it anyway and just start weighing things. Parts • One factory-calibrated lopsided...

mathematics no-computers weighing

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Sep '1722

The Sphinx's Lair

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