The Sphinx's Lair

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12:11 AM

Q: I have more than one face, but I have no eyes. I roll out of hand during multiple tries

Riddle me this: I have more than one face, but I have no eyes. I roll out of hand during multiple tries. I very much often do not roll alone; I have a partner, who like myself, enjoys being thrown. To you, we roll; but to us, we dance. We are closely assoc...

stacksfiller

12:28 AM

is it two vases or two faces or a vase

Gareth McCaughan

@Sp3000 The solution to the CCCC is SANTA (def. "Presents one"; S + (f)ANTA).

@stacksfiller If you were already there but just didn't feel like saying it out loud, feel free to claim credit :-).

stacksfiller

Nah, I had been thinking GIFTS, even before the T

and then that confirmed it even more

but wrong

"Presents one"

what a def

Gareth McCaughan

I'd been trying to make "presents" (noun rather than verb) be the def and was looking for things like ISOKE or ASOLA, with of course no success.

Eric Tressler

I was trying for "JULEP" or something, with soft = P

or, AEONS (A = one, E = epsilon = small), but that was too much of a stretch.

Sp3000

12:46 AM

To confirm: yup. Wish I could have made the def a bit more satisfying, as is it's admittedly a bit awkward.

Gareth McCaughan

It may not be satisfying, but it's funny.

Deusovi

Ha! Yeah, that's clever.

Gareth McCaughan

CCCC: Bands of soldiers, Death's associates (5)

Alconja

Feels very much like it should be CORPS, but i don't see how to drop the e for death's associates...

Eric Tressler

I was looking through the Roman Legion wiki entry to see if it could somehow be TAXES

though I think I used that already, so probably not

Gareth McCaughan

1:12 AM

... Oh, so you did. I haven't been paying attention. The answer is indeed TAXES (a taxis was a band of soldiers, the plural is "taxes", and mumble "death and taxes" mumble). Ordinarily I wouldn't give everything up in the face of what at the moment is just a guess, but it would be unfair to let solvers think "it can't be that because it was used recently". My apologies.

Eric, I suggest that you take the next one. Or I can make another and actually check I'm not reusing a word.

Eric Tressler

I think you should go ahead; I've been otherwise occupied, so I'm rusty. I'll take a good look at your next one

Gareth McCaughan

(I was feeling so happy about the surface, too. Oh well.)

Sp3000

To be fair, checking something's used before is rather tedious, and there's already been several cases of wordplay duplication (if you count the reverse direction) in the archives already

I was trying to fit taxis to the left for the ddef, but I guess I had trouble with looking up biology

Gareth McCaughan

I wasn't expecting it to be a difficult one :-).

Gareth McCaughan

1:50 AM

CCCC: Leave cleverness to sheriff's assistant (6)

Sp3000

2:02 AM

Leave = DEP (deputy, "sheriff's assistant") + ART ("cleverness")?

Eric Tressler

2:14 AM

it could be DEP+UTY (depart + utility abbrev.)? = sheriff's assistant

Eric Tressler

2:30 AM

There's a band called Sheriff and the Ravels. Could it somehow be T+RAVEL?

2 hours later…

Sphinx

4:07 AM

Q: Welcome to my Island

I just bought my own island-country the other day, and, as ruler of my new land, I've decided to be a major dingus. I'm not gonna follow other nations in the world like some subservient lemming and use internationally accepted road signs, I'm gonna make up my own, but I need help. I've set up ...

word pattern

Q: Which yellow answer completes the sequence?

Which yellow circle is next in the sequence and why?

logical-deduction pattern

3 hours later…

Sphinx

7:26 AM

Q: Can you solve this puzzle?

this trick is listed in twitter in this link https://twitter.com/islamusman1/status/1011190927577223168

riddle

Sid

7:43 AM

@GarethMcCaughan Hilariously, I was drinking fanta when I pinged sp3000 for a hint. :P

Sphinx

8:16 AM

Q: What are the references from the Simpler Times Festival shirt from woot?

Today's shirt.woot has has references to various things from (mostly 1970s-1980s) pop culture: Each item uses a font derived from a logo in that category. What properties are referenced by them?

visual

Sphinx

8:32 AM

Q: Mr.Q : How to make a potion

Mr.Q got a magical potion recipe. But he could not decipher the contents of the recipe and asked you for help. Here is a recipe for potions. 1. Magical water...........50 L 2. Petal extract.........1050 ML 3. Fermented wine.........200 CC 4. ......................1009 What does the last line...

riddle

Puzzling Meta

8:43 AM

Q: How do we deal with lightspeed self-answering?

As seen in this question, the OP answered instantly (the timestamps are the same) to his question. I left a (barely mean) comment and I downvoted the answer, but what is the appropriate behavior with this kind of reputation-grinding?

discussion questions

Sphinx

9:37 AM

Q: Confessions of a Riddle Junkie

I'm $\bbox[#fff9c3]{\color{#fff9c3}{\textbf{NO PEEKING!}}}$ and I am alcoholic. I sometimes also take pot; it makes me kind of casual. And crack too, because it makes me highly skilled. As you can probably see, I'm so long it's almost impossible, and I turn into a slightly cocky prodigy whenever ...

riddle wordplay story

1 hour later…

Sphinx

10:44 AM

Q: Is Grandpa right? Another Grandpa mystery

Grandpa prefers Warren Buffet but not Bill Gates Grandpa prefers Prince Harry but not Prince William Grandpa prefers President McKinley but not President Clinton Why is that?

riddle

Mithrandir

11:14 AM

@rub puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/50161/nba-draft-2018 puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/50197/royal-ascot-2018

dcfyj

12:08 PM

@Mithrandir You want to rub a couple profiles?

Gareth McCaughan

@Sp3000 DEPART is the correct answer and your parsing is correct. My apologies for posting an easy clue and then going to bed :-).

Sp3000

Nah all good

CCCC: Artist who famously wrapped wild ostrich (7)

Gareth McCaughan

12:42 PM

@Sp3000 The solution to your CCCC is CHRISTO, an anagram of OSTRICH and the name of an "artist who famously wrapped".

Sid

why is Art=Cleverness?

John Dvorak

Con artist = clever trickster. They don't paint pictures. They paint people into corners. Still called art.

Sp3000

Confirmation probably not needed, but: yup

Gareth McCaughan

1:24 PM

"art" is cleverness or skill more generally, too.

Sid

I mean, I can think of Art as skill(as in the Art of lying). But, I can't think of it as cleverness...

John Dvorak

Skill ~= cleverness

> Ill-fitting shoes are a sole-crushing experience

Sid

@JohnDvorak I don't know whether you mean, "Almost equal to" or "Not equal to" with that symbol. :P

John Dvorak

... apparently real mathematicians write that as "skill ~ cleverness"

2 hours later…

Sphinx

3:44 PM

Q: Give me more than all that you have, you can do it! Say it with me!

Perhaps you've heard of me, I am the first, Closest to winning, I am not the worst, You think I'm the brass, nearly top of my class. Chasing the ones before, a prize I long for. Conducive of rounds, I will keep you up, Beastly I'm bound, if three of me form up. Indicating ...

enigmatic-puzzle rhyme

Sphinx

4:34 PM

Q: Code Movie Wall

An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #36: Twisted Classics 1 I'm thinking of a movie. The Connecting Wall below (click it for a bigger version) should have made guessing the movie really simple, but apparently some cruel hackers used a 0day vulnerability in Puzzling.SE and replaced all movi...

enigmatic-puzzle computer-puzzle movies connect-wall

GentlePurpleRain

in Contact, 16 secs ago, by GentlePurpleRain

Defending: C

3 hours later…

dcfyj

7:21 PM

Um, who approved this edit? It completely changed quite a few of the answers

Oh, nevermind, the OP approved it

Mithrandir

@dcfyj If @rubbing them will get rid of them...

dcfyj

>.<

Mithrandir

I doubt they'll be mithed.

dcfyj

Would work better if it were spelled correctly :P

Bass

Hmh. Looks like the Epic badge (still far away) got scared, and is throwing roadblocks at me.

Got an earlier answer unaccepted today, so now the cap is keeping me at 185.

Now I finally see the wisdom in Rand's habit of never ever accepting any answers, all those +2s might still save the day :-)

1 hour later…

downvote-flagger

9:03 PM

What is a Gucci Color™?

1 hour later…

phenomist

10:30 PM

rot13(eto pbzcbaragf ner cevzr ahzoref)

Sphinx

11:20 PM

Q: Try this little puzzle I made as a bit of promotion out!

Puzzle here Best of luck to everyone UPDATE: Prize has been claimed you are now just solving for fun

enigmatic-puzzle computer-puzzle

Eric Tressler

11:41 PM

@Sp3000 (CHRISTO)* = artist who famously wrapped (an island)

Sphinx

11:55 PM

Q: Jumping Spiders in the Holy See

reduce(15:93) Jumping spiders in the Holy See From a battle entertainer in the royale court The answer is two words, and will fit into the sentence, "Video games these days often contain _____ _____." Hint: