The Sphinx's Lair

4:32 AM

Q: A Non-Platonic Riddle

On the outside I may sound Like some holy thing. Paint on me a halo, Seven colors I require. Since I'm wrapped around the void, You may fill me up with air. Let me hold your language while you hold me in the morning. You recall they called it all But impossible but we a...

riddle word poetry

3 hours later…

7:28 AM

@EricTressler S(PIN)NAKE + [fo]R.

A spinnaker is an additional triangular sail hosited when the wind is good to get more speed. And tacking is a method to sail against the wind. It's all in the same theme; very nice.

6 hours later…

1:58 PM

@MOehm that's correct, and thanks

1 hour later…

logical-deduction visual optimization

3:14 PM

Q: Red Fish Blue ꟻish

You are presented the following six cards. The red cards are rotations of F, and the blue cards are rotations of ꟻ. Your goal is to make it so that the red cards are rotations of ꟻ and the blue cards are rotations of F in the minimal number of moves. Allowed moves: Rotate a blue card 90 deg...

3:52 PM

Q: hard IQ test puzzles

Hey guys i have some iq test question or puzzles that i cant figure out and i would love if one of you solved them while explaining it to me. Thank you. ]4

visual

2 hours later…

5:51 PM

CCCC: One-sided foreign articles Los Angeles Times included (10)

Q: Iq puzzles for smart people

Hey guys i am obsessed with iq test puzzles at the moment and i want to know how to solve these. Thank you.

visual

6:21 PM

I think I know the answer, but I have to look up all these words

Yes, it's an easy one for Sunday afternoon that milks the LA Times gimmick once more. (But "all those words" shouldn't be that many, really.)

well, I think it's UNILATERAL, or possible UNBALANCED (but probably the former)

I recognize UN, and I think ERA is spanish, but not a definite article. In fact, I'm looking at a list I compiled of every definite and indefinite article in Spanish, French, and German, and I can't decompose either one of these into those + LAX/LAT.

So maybe I don't have the word

ManyPinkHats

AL is one way to transcribe the definite article in Arabic

The articles are all from the same languiage, but it isn't any of the ones you listed. (But I think it's from a reasonably common language. You're actually close, if we exclude MPH's suggestion of Arabic, which I know next to nothing about.)

Sid

6:37 PM

@EricTressler Where did you get an "X" here?

"times"

Sid

Oh!

I am stupid. :/

no, it was just used that way 2 clues back

Oh, Wikipedia lists these en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_(grammar)

Almost no Bs in there. I don't see how to make Unieral from any others yet, though (not many Rs either)

What you need is there, but parhaps you are trying to express too much with articles.

6:53 PM

Is it UN+I(LAT + ERA)L?

I can't see a way to justify using TIMES both for T and for ERA, though. If anyone watching this conversation can jump in with the answer, be my guest

ManyPinkHats

I suppose because it's plural it can count for time=T and time=ERA, so your answer makes sense

Yes, that's it. (My next hint would have been that ERA is not only a Spansh word.)

And ManyPinkHats is correct about T + ERA: They are supposed to be Ties, plural.

@ManyPinkHats that's how I was trying to justify it, but it seemed unusual.

I have a devious clue that I prepared earlier:

CCCC: Quiet, supple bushes (9)

We had "behind bars" to clue BAR + BAR, although here the times were different, but without explicit indication, so maybe that's not exactly kosher. Anyway, I thought the def was easy enough to crack, so I went with it.

I think it's fine, I wouldn't want to discourage things like that. I was just getting stuck in a rut looking for articles to fit around "LAT".

7:00 PM

@EricTressler SH! + RUBBERY, I think.

That's right. Rubbery can mean too many things, it seems like a pretty worthless adjective.