The Sphinx's Lair - 2020-01-17

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1:25 AM

After drawing that the other day, I said I was going to have a go at making a "Gareth" ambigram... Which I did... But then I decided I should do one for all the mods... Which I did... I tried to do each one in a different style (with varying degrees of success), but hopefully they're all readable if you squint a little...

@GarethMcCaughan:

user image

@Deusovi:

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@GentlePurpleRain:

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@Rubio:

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@Alconja That's sick

Also

What's an ambigram

Ohhh it's the same thing upside down

@North Yeah, same thing when rotated 180 (though strictly speaking an ambigram can be anything that is still meaningful when viewed differently)

1:56 AM

@Alconja I may need to stick that in my profile :)

I appreciate the effort, very nicely done.

I’m jealous of Gareth’s name now though - that one came out amazingly good hehe

2:29 AM

@GarethMcCaughan BOOST - ST(reet) = BOO.

@Avi making this #BadC4Solution remarkably close to perfectly serviceable:)

D: so close yet so far

2:45 AM

@Rubio explanation?

CCCC: Hype? No way -- I disapprove (3)
Hype? = BOOST
No way = remove ST, an abbreviation for a Street/Way

Boost is hype. Street (as ST) is a (road)way.

BOO = def, "I disapprove"

huh

yea

What Avi said.

2:47 AM

still not sure about the def

kinda iffy on hype

I feel like the actual rules are way stricter than the CCs people write

def works i think

Hype as a verb is very plausibly “boost”

The def is the only weak part. Gareth’s clues are usually tighter than that.

So yeah I’m not sure I have it, but feel it’s a good guess.

tfw crossword compiler costs 300+$

with all dictionaries and stuff - yikes

2:55 AM

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Sus?

i think not

user image

I think they want me to buy the music

Just a hunch

0

Q: Compoundoku wants BIG

Rules of Compoundoku: Solve both left and right Sudokus. In addition, the board below them is the Compound Board of both Sudokus. Each number on the Compound Board should tell either: (1) the number on the left Sudoku, or (2) the sum of both numbers on the left and right Sudokus;...

logical-deduction grid-deduction sudoku

3:39 AM

@North It's usually not worth it though - I don't know about violin/guitar, but most of the time a piano sheet can end up being pretty lackluster without being able to ear-check the whole thing

god knows how many times I've been disappointed trying to find a playable version of various songs

3:55 AM

^ never mind, figured out the wordplay

1 hour later…

5:04 AM

@Rubio :) No worries, anyone may do with them as they will (and if anyone wants higher res for whatever reason, I have the vector files).

@Rubio And yeah, I think Gareth's probably came out the best (though looking again I think I need to narrow the R a little). Your name was definitely the most challenging symmetry-wise (followed by GPR).

1 hour later…

6:25 AM

0

Q: Nature's Police - Who am I?

I pull you down, I'm nature's police I've been with you since birth, and you I'll never release You have to obey me, you have no choice I'm also invisible and I make no noise. Some one found me, under a tree Some one found me, who could they be? What am I? Hint 1: Hint 2:

@Rubio They're synonyms as… interjections, or something. I mean, "Boo!" = "I disapprove!". I think you've found the right answer (and I think it's a good clue for it).

7:06 AM

1

Q: Jazz and all that

Across 1/4/9. Isn't Satchmo sad during the final parts of Miles Davis song? (5,5,5) 7. Baron von Richthofen's rank above the king? (3) 10. Assistants have a bit of chlorine added to aqua regia and other similar substances (5) 11. People getting advantage as Benfica tries getting ...

cryptic-crosswords

1 hour later…

8:13 AM

@Alconja those are really well done!

And in such different styles, wow.

Yes, very pretty. Do you have one of your own name, Alconja? (I guess mirrored symmetry works better in that case.)

(Here's another take on Rubio, but you have to squint quite hard. If you don't squint enough, it reads "rabid", hehe.)

1 hour later…

9:44 AM

@msh210 Thank you :)

@MOehm No. Hadn't even thought to do my own, maybe I should....

I like that Rubio alternative too, I'll have to get some gothic fonts and try that style at some point. (I also have a second Rubio variant that I started because I want 100% sold on my version above, but was going for "unique". Away from a computer for the better part of a week now, but will post it if/when I finish it. The starts of a Rubio collection perhaps. :P)

1

Q: Put the numbers $1, 2, ...,16$ in circles

Put the numbers $1, 2, 3, ..., 16$ in circles so that the sum of the four numbers on each side of the triangle should be equal.

mathematics no-computers

Hadn't really made them before (with one spoilery exception), but was enjoying the process. Kind of an art puzzle... Might try a few more when I get back (though msh210 and M Ohem may be a bit challenging).

Yes, it's fun to try to come up with ambigrams, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. I did one once for a wedding card, with the names of the couple.

10:07 AM

That's awesome. Hopefully something convenient like Sal and Les and not Jacqueline and Ed. (Note to self: start prescreening potential friends by ambigram name compatibility.)

I wanted to make it so that one name turned into the other, but it didn't work out and I ended up making a less satisfying one where each name rotated into itself; they only changed positions.

10:31 AM

2

Q: Hints, with a bit of love ! (5)

Inspired by this page and some other pages, I made some cryptic clues. Start growing before rain! Needles , before first sewer! (8) Dirty, dirty room! (9) Eleven plus two makes... (6,4,3) Dust, head in power! (6) Bad astronomers!! (2,4,5) Messes up the classroom! (12) Lived Badly! (5) Sadly, ca...

wordplay cryptic-clues humor

1 hour later…

11:53 AM

1

Q: White to mate in 2

This is a cryptic crossword puzzle. Clues are normal, however some entries clash with one another. Each such clash is resolved by adding the clashing letters using the standard A1-Z26 numerology, subtracting 26 as needed and converting back to a letter. If a clash should fall on a shaded squ...

knowledge chess cryptic-crosswords

1 hour later…

Gareth McCaughan

12:54 PM

@Rubio Correct, of course! Well done.

@Rubio I personally am 100% comfortable with "boo" = "I disapprove". I've made other clues whose definitions I feel a bit guilty about, but this isn't one of them.

@Alconja Very similar to mine, except that I use a lowercase "g" at the start instead of a capital "G". (And I don't join the a/e to the letter before/after it, but that's merely a matter of taste rather than the structure of the ambigram.)

1:14 PM

0

Q: My prefix is wet, my suffix is cheap

My prefix is wet. My suffix is cheap. My infix can be expensive. As a whole, I am happily devoured. What am I?

1:39 PM

CCCC: Write short key-bindings for sentences (9)

@Rubio PEN+AL(-t)+TIES

Aye

figured that’d go quick, but not THAT quick hehe

CCCC: Illegal plan of criminals: robbery at sea (10)

1:55 PM

4

Q: It is a very big state: Says Grandpa

"Wow, this is a very big country, our USA" Said Grandpa. He was looking at the USA map. "Everyone knows that" My two cents. "Did you know that California is twice as big as Nebraska?" "Could be" I kind of agreed. "And Florida is twice as big as Louisiana?" He muttered. "Georgi...

riddle knowledge

@jafe cons+piracy

that's right

If I'm right, I'll try to post the next one tomorrow night (my time. Meaning in about 26 hours).

@jafe Oh, then never mind, I'll post it now

CCCC: A Persian chicken follows most of the wildlife home (9)

2:33 PM

My power grows, day by day! Now I am, at 3k!

proceeds to not abuse power because that's too much effort and I'm lazy

@Avi Yea, Ik. This one's okay, but it's meh at best bc the og score is full orch.

@Avi Dang you were at 2k like last week

3:03 PM

nah I plateaued pretty hard for a while

user image

basically I just stopped posting puzzles as regularly

also massacred my rep with bounties lol

when i havent contributed for a week

I guess you could say they were EX PENSIVE

;)

Contribution to becoming a murderer?? (8)

OFFER-ING

becoming an OFFER (murderer)

hmmm

I wouldn't put that in a cryptic crossword

everybody would groan (also, I don't have any 8-spaces in my current one)

do you know how to use the word ladder solver, by the way?

user image

This is what happened when I tried to make one

3:20 PM

you need same letter count?

yeah - I tried that as well, but it just gave some words when you hover over the word

it doesn't actually make any ladder

:O It made one

3:34 PM

Actually, that's good enough for me to save

3:51 PM

@Avi That's kinda sus

meanwhile i haven't posted a puzzle in forever

im working on some music stuff for puzzling though

but my software won't load

Gareth McCaughan

@msh210 Your Persian is, of course, ZO ROASTER.

@North very sus

Gareth McCaughan

OFFER for murderer might be OK, but Xing doesn't generally mean becoming an X.

yeah

just like how "goding" isn't becoming a god - that's apotheosis

on the other hand... "goading" might put you in a bad spot

Fired/2 by final 3/4*Behold = ~2% of world

CAN(-ned) + (-t)ADA = CANADA!

Canned goods lol

interesting

4:03 PM

0

Q: Are we there yet?

Quotations, but melt? Have you found the answer yet?

alright gotta get that generalist badge going - here's one for anagrams

@North Here are some homophones, try to make a CC out of some:

decent/descent/dissent

although I'm more skeptical of "decent" being a homophone there - you might want to go with dissent/descent

@Avi Oh that badge is hella difficult

we can't get it on puzzling yet, until we have 40 tags with 200 questions each I think

anagrams is at 199 now

hmm ic you are doing us all a service

The answer is quite clever though

it'll all make sense once you find it

i'm sure

4:16 PM

^ also good enough to keep lol

0

Q: Are we there yet?

Quotations, but melt? Have you found the answer yet?

@Avi You had one recently that was something like "Bed September, the escort". Did anyone get that one?

no idea

it was _BER TH_

little bit skeptical it was valid anyways

Ah, I had a suspicion that it might have been SLEEP and you were trying out some wordplay where LE was "escorting" SEP.

hehe

with a little bit of improvement I'm sure the surface could have been quite misleading

Wreath's placed over the final brave (7)

4:45 PM

Yey, somebody answered the question first try :D

@Stiv Please make Rubidoku

Rubik's + Sudoku :)

5:05 PM

coincidentally - 27 mini-cubes as part of a Rubik's cube - THIS PUZZLE IS CALLED A RUBIDOKU - 27 characters long

@Avi Ha! One for the future! I have a few other hybrids and variants in the pipeline right now that might be of interest soon...

but rubidoku gets 2 tags we need D:

it's difficult, I admit - the primary problem for me is that I never solved a rubix cube without the solving guide lol

0

Q: How to load balls on conveyor belt?

A conveyor belt that carries one ball in each of its fixed size slot has to be mechanically loaded from a crate full of balls. The balls are different in size but no ball is greater than the size of slot on conveyor. Conveyor moves every 3 seconds. Loading balls should be done without using any...

mechanical-puzzles

5:20 PM

word of the day: "heritrix"

that's a nice word

Guide to deception: perhaps aghast misters try it? (6-3 10)

even north should be able to solve this one

with an anagram solver :)

meanwhile I can't even solve my own CC, shame, shame

5:43 PM

What are these words??!

TWEE, BIJOU, QUAINT?

QUAINT/DAINTY I knew, but twee/bijou are definitely new

Gareth McCaughan

6:12 PM

@Avi If that's an anag of AGHAST MISTERS TRY IT then it can't be 6-3 10 because it's only 6+7+3+2=18 letters long.

you're right - I missed the X

it was the THIRTY-SIX STRATAGEMS :(

6:40 PM

James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.[5] - Wikipedia

I swear I've seen something related on PSE

Gareth McCaughan

I think I saw a recent question asking something about how many identical words you can get in a row.

I vaguely remember it was a rather unsatisfactory question somehow so it's possible it's been closed.

Is "side sea" equivalent to "seaside"?

e.g. Side sea we <insert action here>

well, hopefully it is - I'm going for it

To mean: By the sea, we ...? That doesn't sound right to me.

well, it could also be a side sea that we <action> on

as in, not a "main" sea

as long as it parses correctly

Alright, puzzle's up

a longer/tougher anagram this time

7:02 PM

0

Q: Rearranged recounting stirs the pot

My friend always speaks in anagrams (he's very clever). He was describing a dispute that tore his family apart: Side sea we toast, "Winter moon!" Shortly after that, I terminated my friendship with him. What happened? Show your cleverness by finding a single line which is an anagram of the...

I'm afraid this question will provoke national disasters

^that is not a hint

7:55 PM

:o I'm repcapped

Gareth McCaughan

Well done!

Maybe "'side sea", with an apostrophe suggesting it's a sort of lazy version of "beside"?

That doesn't work because punctuation is anagrammed as well

In any case, the question is already up, so you can check it out for yourself

I know people who speak in riddles, but in anagrams?

Gareth McCaughan

Ah, OIK

er, OK

He's on the next level

Gareth McCaughan

7:59 PM

wasn't meaning to call you an oik

looool

next thing you know he'll be speaking in rubiks-cube and sudoku

... until he masters to speak in enigmatic-puzzle.

at that time explanation of his speech will be unsolved-mysteries

Very good.

So, using only words from the Princess Bride

make an Inconceivable (TM) Word Ladder puzzle

8:43 PM

"Someone said, 'We are not twits!'"

first part is right

first two words to be precise

Funny that that works though; I had had a prediction that something like this would happen xD

Yes. I think longer anagrams don't work well, because there are so many possibilities.

Nobody would get into an argument over you saying "we are not twits" though

would definitely not tear families apart

Some people will pick a fight over anything, just because ...

(Not in my family, of course ...)

anyways, since I'm the one who terminated the friendship, I decide :P

you're very very close though

8:55 PM

@Avi How do you put the tags in?

[tag:whatever]

^that

-3

Q: What is the snake trying to tell us?

My friend's pet snake told this below message to us... What is the message it is trying to tell us? What is the pattern? PL,MKOIJNBHUYGVCFTRDXZSEWAQ

pattern lateral-thinking

why is this question so downvoted but the answers so upvoted?

what measure of quality do the answers embody that the question does not that could cause that?

@Avi The question looks like some random garble of text

Without any way of deducing the method of encryption besides pure guessing

It's a lot like other really poorly made ciphers where someone's like dfcxuiyfdr87dredhn7redn7 and then they tell you to solve

makes sense

data.stackexchange.com/puzzling/query/6856/…

The answer on the other hand, is about the cleverness of the solver themself, and the helpfulness

9:01 PM

looks like all the mods have high standards D:

But the answers have found a pattern. The total score of the question is +17/-20. Perhaps it was downvoted for the reasons North has at first, but then, as solvers found a pattern, it was upvoted again?

yea

I think more people downvoted but some didn't retract their downvote

@Avi More like those with higher rep usually have better chance of getting elected

Shows dedication to the community, experience, etc.

Remember, the community picks the mods

"high standards" wasn't based on high rep, but ratio of votes/upvotes, I think

anyways I'll be back later

@Avi oh that's what you're talking about

that link feels intrusive

9:23 PM

"Worst in a tweet"? "Write a test now"? I give up and go to bed. Good night!

9:34 PM

oof, too many possible solutions

I've edited the question to give a better constraint

0

Q: word chain puzzle

I don't know the real name to the puzzle so I chose "word chain". The rules: You try to get from one word to the other only by switching one letter at a time. Every you switch, though, it has to form another word. For example, FOR to FIX would be: FOR -> FIR -> FIX So I made some puzzles. Tr...

not sure what's the actual riddle there, but I fixed the tag

10:15 PM

Abandoned dog robot with Vietnamese soup personifies force - it's to be feared by some (10)

11:04 PM

This is SO good that somebody's SURE to have come up with this before

The final for a test! (5) (-a,+_E)SSAY (&lit)

either that or they're etymologically the same

Gareth McCaughan

11:44 PM

I think they are etymologically the same.

Yup, they are.

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Jan '2017

The Sphinx's Lair

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