The Sphinx's Lair

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Q: Teapot Riddle no.9

Teapot Riddle no.9 rules: I have one word which has several (2 or more) meanings. Each of the meanings is a teapot (first, second ...) You try to figure out the word with my Hints First Hint Second Hint Third Hint Final Hint Good luck and have fun :) Last riddle

riddle word wordplay

10:13 AM

hey @as4, long time no see

Seems like I should give a less-uninformative hint for the C4. If anyone's reading this who cares: what sort of hint would be useful? (One or more letters? Something about the structure of the wordplay? Whether or not any words involved are super-obscure? Something else?)

as4s4hetic

10:31 AM

@Mithrandir o/ hey mith ^-^

@GarethMcCaughan some sort of vague hint about wordplay would be good, probably - or even just showing where the clue splits, though that might perhaps be a bit much

admittedly i haven't given it a ton of thought, but the thought that i did give it turned up nothing much

> just showing where the clue splits

hahahahaha

"just" showing that, yeah

thought i may as well push my luck

but yea honestly any nudge couldn't possibly be a bad thing

whoops, sorry for foiling your plan (well, a vague hint could be good, but showing the split would reveal half of the C4 in one message)

:P

true!

10:39 AM

Why not go the whole way and ask for the target word?

that's less helpful than you might think, actually

how would you explain it?

which is why it might pass

I'm not sure it's even as helpful as the position of the split

Split position is indeed generally rather too big a hint (this is not a comment on the structure of this particular clue).

(yeah, that's implied by "generally")

10:47 AM

Just wanted to make it explicit that I'd actually thought about the issue and wasn't inadvertently leaking information about the clue :-).

you never know what you're doing inadvertently ;-)

</nitpick>

Sure, I could be leaking info despite trying not to.

Can you do something while knowing it and still do it inadvertently?

you usually get to know it when it's too late :-)

(which doesn't imply a specific point in time relative to the moment of the fact)

Of course you might think I leaked just a little information when asking what sort of hint y'all would like because there are clues -- cryptic definitions -- for which there's no actual wordplay, and maybe listing "something about the structure of the wordplay" as an option implies that the clue isn't a cryptic definition. But of course it might be misdirection...

10:52 AM

a ddef &lit would be nice :P

Anyway. We have one request for some wordplay information. Anyone else got preferences? (For what it's worth, I think my default option -- which I might pick anyway -- would be to reveal one letter. After all, that's how you get hints in an actual crossword.)

wow one letter?!

a single letter can be a big hint

yeah

that's why I said wow

(anyway, no hints for an hour or two -- I have to be AFK for a bit.)

Q: Distinct digits but Close Enough

11:29 AM

0

Using the digits from $1$ to $9$, Form four numbers, such as ($X$,$Y$,$Z$,$T$) Then take $X\div Y$ and $Z\div T$ where both values should be different than each other. You need to use all digits from $1$ to $9$ but once. What is the smallest difference between these two values?

mathematics

12:49 PM

0

Q: Riley Riddle - 09/17/18

My prefix has a classy house My infix is a sneaky vermin My suffix is the past of consumption What am I?

riddle word wordplay

2:58 PM

0

Q: Teapot Riddle no.10

Teapot Riddle no.10 celebrates inside Rules: I have one word which has several (2 or more) meanings. Each of the meanings is a teapot (first, second ...) You try to figure out the word with my Hints. somebody told me i should make my hints not hidden First Hint My first teapot is godlike M...

riddle word wordplay

3:08 PM

C4 hint: The first letter is M. (Earlier very small hint: it used to say "the sensation of motion" but I deleted the "the" to make it slightly more accurate.)

chucks parsing of VENOMOUS out the window

Q: The Boy of Fire: Into the Stronghold

3:46 PM

0

When we last saw our heroes, they were resting after a long week in the Sea of Fire. They battled the great King of Serpents who despite his rage against the human race, assisted our heroes with a riddle. Let's take a peek at where they are now! The temperature's dropping, get ready to move; ...

riddle wordplay rhyme lateral-thinking story

5:23 PM

0

Q: A Musical Rebus

So I've never made a rebus puzzle before and I figure I'll give it a try! I hope you all enjoy it! Can you name the song?

riddle knowledge rebus

6:04 PM

Some possible 8-letter M-words that may be related to the 4C (supposing the definition is either "noxious" or "After taking drug, what may make you sick": MALARIAL, MECONATE, MENACING, MIASMOUS, MIGRAINE, MISUSAGE, MONOKINE, MONOCYTE, MORBIFIC, MYCELIUM, MYOKYMIA

I can't make any of them work, but maybe someone else will have more luck...

(some of the connections are tenuous at best)

My money is on the wonderfully Garethesque MEPHITIC, which has the sensation of motion and a drug in it, but I cannot perse the rest, ie what may make me sick. Maybe I'm using the wrong drug?

That sounds like a correct answer, but I can't figure out the parsing either.

6:34 PM

Oh, yes, I had that in my list as well, but neglected to transcribe it.

Do you want me to tell you (1) whether that is the correct answer and (2) if it is, how it works?

Would it be kosher to start downvoting all Rileys?

ffao

if it does turn out to be the answer, it would be really funny that even all of the eight letters was not big enough of a hint

I'll let others say if they want any sort of confirmation

@JohnDvorak I would say it's important to evaluate each one on its own merits. Downvoting just because it has the word "Riley" in the description (or because it follows a certain pattern of wordplay) isn't fair. If you don't think it's a good post, then by all means downvote, but evaluate each post individually, not under the black cloud of previous posts.

@GarethMcCaughan I would say I would welcome a confirmation if that is in fact the word (or a denial if it is not), but I don't think you should reveal the wordplay; let us figure it out before it's considered solved.

I've put iot out there in the same spirit as GPR did: To share what I know so that maybe others can solve it. Maybe we can chew a bit more on this.

In the light of point (2), I now think that "taking drug" does not mean ingesting it, but taking it away to get METIC.

6:43 PM

EMETIC - E = METIC

E for Ecstasy

Ah, yes, I just looked that up.

PHI is a sensation of motion?

ffao

appears to be, I just looked that up

I think posts should be downvoted on their merits, but it's OK for that to be their merits in context. If the context is that PSE already has a hundred Rileys posted every hour then it's fair enough to think that they are less interesting puzzles for that reason.

Yes. I didn't know that either. See here

(I knew the effect, of course, but didn't know it was called that.)

6:45 PM

There you have it. I credit M Oehm with the solution for that one.

Looks like you collectively got it! EMETIC about PHI makes EMEPHITIC; "after taking" E [away] we have MEPHITIC, which means noxious. It looks to me as if @MOehm did most of the work as well as being the first person to give the word itself, and should set the next one.

Well done!

(It was a tough one, I freely admit.)

If no-one objects, I can do that. But you'll have to lower your standards ... :)

The important bit is that the CC is valid. Being of reasonable quality comes (closely) after.

7:03 PM

@MOehm no worries, we're not all Gareth :P

ffao

as a matter of fact, as far as I know, exactly one of us is Gareth

unless a few are Gareth's AIs...

<conspiracy theory>...

Q: What to do if you're a Luke in trouble

7:31 PM

1

Q: In Constant Sorrow

I've decided to tell another story, though this one already exists. I'll give an overview and you'll have to tell me what story I am telling. Digging for punishment, our story begins; a story about, three unfortunate men. As fate would have it, three became four; one sold their soul, for...

riddle rhyme knowledge story acrostic

0

My infix has 99 names. My prefix is more. My suffix comes after XI. My whole is a dirty surname. What to do if you're a Luke in trouble?

riddle wordplay knowledge

Just to expand on my downvoted-on-their-merits-in-context remark above: I like Riley riddles, taken in isolation. It's a good format, when done well they're challenging but solvable and reasonably satisfying, and if we had one a week I'd be glad to see a new one. As it is, though, when I see yet another Riley my heart aches and a drowsy numbness pains my sense.

(Except that when Keats wrote that he meant it in a good way, and I very much do not.)

@GarethMcCaughan for the time, just try to get used to it :-) we used to be riddled (see what I did there?) with "make 2, 0, 1 and 8 into X"

complaining over and over again doesn't really help ;-P

Both Keats and Rileys must be seen in context, apparently.

of course, a riley may as well be written in a very creative, enigmatic way

@MOehm in fact, we would object if you didn't set a CC as that would have rather ṵ̼̜̝̻̫͎͞n͉d͍͖̞͕̞͕ͅe͘s̲̙i͚̦͘r̩̝̟͘a̸̝͚͙̰̤̬b͏͔̩̟̣͚l̸̪̺͕̫͎̯̳ę̼̮͙ ̖̪͇̱̟̤͙c̙̠̭̥͕̳͚o͈̲̤͉̘͡ͅn̲̺̼͎̱ͅs̛͉̖̳̯̦̜̠ẹ̱q͓̰̘͟u̼̻͚͙̫en̟̙̬̻ͅͅc̤̙̪e̕s͇̮͍̤̺̘̰ ̥̙̻f̰͈͖̠ͅo͕̖̱͔̪r͚̜ ̹̭̱̖͉u͖͘ͅs̤̗͎̙͇̪̣ ̷̗͇̮a̼͍̦̘͈̯͘l̲̺̳̹̠̮̼l̼̫͡.̳͇ͅ

7:41 PM

some chains better not break...

Are you trying to put pressure on me? I don't want to be the unlucky person who breaks the chain, don't worry. But give me a break, I'm working on a new clue already.

@GarethMcCaughan Completely agreed. This trend has gone on for a lot longer than many of our others - you made a comment on it nearly a month ago, and we were already sick of it then.

^

How long did it take for PPCG to ban code-trolling?

less than a year

7:47 PM

Well, code-trolling was inherently opinion-based. This is just a format of puzzle that isn't inherently bad, but has been done to death for the past month and a half.

> Well, code-trolling was inherently [hell]. [...]

also, never did PPCG get such a trend that has kept on for months

Time for a "Riley sandbox"? :P (just joking, in case anyone was in doubt...)

8:06 PM

Hmm. I'm still not entire sure I get Cryptic Clues, but I've been trying to puzzle one out for that Clue series that I never finished. I thought of something - not great surface - but I was wondering if someone'd be willing to check if it was valid for me.

Sure, I'd be happy to.

@Deusovi Thanks! onetimesecret.com/secret/384wgy43m3drzsapmgnww6tecn6tvvh

Yep, that one's valid.

Great! :D (although easy, I take it ;))

Yup, but it doesn't have to be difficult - nothing wrong with easy cryptic clues.

8:11 PM

Right.

Well, now that I know that I've gotten the basic method correct, maybe I can try my hand at forming one with a better surface...

Q: Had some real trouble with this logical sequence today

Anyone up for a game of something?

sure

Which "something"?

eh, Codenames?

0/

9:07 PM

0

Reasonably sure I didn't get the job, but this particular part of their test really baffled me. The numbers of angle brackets in each row and column should probably add up to ten, so the missing element is one of the last four options. I was thinking << because the first two columns have a 7/3...

logical-deduction pattern sequence

CCCC: Appear in first class island destination (10)

Q: An eerie warning from the other side

9:23 PM

1

I often enjoy hiking through the trails near my home, and I try to ensure I do so at least once a week. Yesterday, I decided to go for a hike, and as I wandered through a lesser known trail I stumbled across a crumpled up piece of paper. This was odd as the trail was mostly undisturbed and hadn't...

riddle knowledge story history acrostic