The Sphinx's Lair

Sphinx

20:06

0

Q: Issues with Graph-It (Geometry Homework)

You are working on your geometry homework (graphic quadratics) and become bored of drawing the axes over and over again. Instead, you find an online tool called Graph-It that you use to graph the quadratics easily. For the first couple graphs, it worked fine... but then, you started to get an err...

Voldemort's Wrath

I spent some time making this puzzle: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/102456/…

So I would appreciate if someone could get a bit of a head start on solving it! I am very curious as to how this will go.

Avi

20:22

somebody needs to make a MASSAGE &lit with definition - it's rubbish?!

matt

hm

bobble

That reminds me - I made an &lit for my latest Around the Bend before scrapping the CC idea

Rotating body part! (5) BOWEL -> BOW EL -> ELBOW

jafe

nice

matt

@bobble interesting

jafe

i like how well the unusual wordplay component fits the def

bobble

20:30

Yeah, I was quite satisfied with how it came out

matt

so why'd you take it out?

bobble

I made the crossword a non-cryptic one

matt

ah ok

bobble

Two other favorite clues that I didn't use:

Legislator (and gentleman!) trades one for English alliance internally. (7)

"Good, about 51 aces" - Blackjack opener by top two leaders. (8)

matt

[continues to think about my stegangraphy puzzle...]

Voldemort's Wrath

20:33

[continues to worry that my puzzle has 14 views but 0 votes] lol jk

matt

anyone wanna solve the cccc?

bobble

want to: yes. can: no

matt

:(

jafe

i like RAMM or AIM for exeter museum

throwback could be reversal or moving the letter A towards the back?

matt

lets try both

jafe

20:38

not sure whether the def is "(quaint or) rubbish?" or "stuff from long ago"

matt

the ? might be an anagram indicator but i cant find any anagrams

of "rubbish"

jafe

rubbish was the anagram indicator in the previous clue, i suspect it's used for a different purpose here

matt

hm

what about "quaint"?

jafe

i wouldn't focus on quaint since the hint says the clue would work without it

matt

ah right

ummm

@jafe "aim" reversed is "mia" ... might come in handy

jafe

20:45

memorabilia could be stuff from long ago but that's 11 letters

not that i see how that would work anyway :P

bobble

@jafe, the pun in your title is just too good

jafe

hehehe

bobble

Jeremy, I'm going to be out for a bit (~1hr?), in case you care for when you post that puzzle

Sphinx

2

Q: No Holds – a barred crossword

Across 1. Country girls finally returning home after being swallowed by snake (6) 6. Strong desire to omit essential part in writing important text (1,5) 11. Error usually eliminated within split seconds (4) 12. The woman's a stepmother to 21 across? (4) 14. Leave one's country to golf in Abu Dh...

cryptic-crosswords

Jeremy Dover

21:01

@bobble Might not be tonight. It is done, but I want to do a quality check. Tomorrow morning?

@jafe Curious if the "No Holds" is descriptive, or just a clever name. Looking forward to finding out

bobble

21:17

Tomorrow morning I'm tutoring an then I have school

(hehe, got out of one obligation)

matt

21:32

@bobble ? i am confused

anything in the c4?

Avi

can anyone list CC indicator types?

ones I can think of are insertion, concatenation, removal, spoonerisms, reversal, homophones, containers

letter selection - firsts, lasts, odds, special (e.g., primes)

msh210

@Sphinx @jafe you used "Island dweller" to clue "islander" . . . sketchy IMHO.

. . . because it uses the same word, I mean.

I'm not saying it's illegal (and I might even do it myself), just that it's weak.

matt

yeah i agree on that msh210
can't spell today

Deusovi

yeah, I was going to point that out but forgot

matt

?

the fact that i can't spell today? /s

Deusovi

21:41

I wouldn't use that either - I'd say it's illegal even (for the same reason that "skier's tool" -> SKI is illegal in a non-cryptic crossword)

matt

:P

Deusovi

no, the ISLANDER thing

Avi

hidden word, example (e.g., "for example", "perhaps") indicators as well

although the latter might be better labeled hypernym indicator

no, definitely hypernym

matt

hm

Avi

wouldn't really count it as an indicator at all, imo

ohhhh i almost forgot anagrandma

msh210

21:48

@Avi huh?

Avi

anagram indicators exist

msh210

ah

there are also rare custom indicators

like I used "decays" once to indicate U changing to TH

and then there's "moved toward the front" or "shuffled rightward" or the like

Avi

rotation for the latter

decaying is super custom lol

matt

yeah

"ah yes,Pthzzling"

gosh thats hard to say

Avi

fortunately puzzling isn't decaying just yet

msh210

21:52

and I don't know if you call this an indicator but there are also copulas

like "becomes", "is", et al.

and there's "exchanging foo's end for bar's heart" to indicate an O becoming an A

dunno what you call that, either

Avi

the first part I'm calling a def-wp link or wp-def link

msh210

okay, sounds good

Avi

last one should clue swapping

or could just say

"exchanging foo's end for bar's heart" clues O->A

would rather say exchanging indicates SWAPPING

end indicates LAST

bobble

@matt jafe's latest cryptic crossword

Avi

heart indicates CENTER

and then in the breakdown just show what actually happens

_O->_A_

there's stuff like "Wings"

that'll be FIRST_AND_LAST

msh210

22:02

@Avi you're compiling a list of indicator words, categorized by type? I think such things exist on the Web already.

. . . though they're doubtless incomplete.

bobble

cryptics.fandom.com/wiki/Cryptipedia

under "Setting and solving aids"

Avi

22:14

right so

I'm only looking for the types

I'm making my own personal list (api) so I might as well get a long list of the generally used types

msh210

@Avi I wouldn't call primes common. Evens, though, yes.

Avi

public enum IndicatorType
{
INSERTION,
CONTAINMENT,
REMOVAL,
SPOONERISM,
HOMOPHONE,
REVERSAL,
CONCATENATION,
HIDDEN_WORD,
HYPERNYM,
ANAGRAM,
DEF_WP_LINK,
WP_DEF_LINK,
FIRST,
LAST,
CENTER,
FIRSTS,
LASTS,
ODDS,
EVENS,
FIRST_AND_LAST,
PALINDROME,
SWAPPING,
MOVEMENT,
ADJACENCY,
OTHER
}

this is what I have so far

oh, that reminds me - I have to remove hypernym

matt

@Avi why the fancy {} stuff and the "public enim"?

msh210

If you want to include all words not used as words as indicators then you need to include hypernym.

Avi

I don't intend to directly include all words like that

matt

22:21

why not?

msh210

There's also CENTERS

Avi

I have the intent of doing something like "word" clues "another" or "indicator" indicates "indicatortype"

msh210

What's PALINDROME?

matt

palindromes, like "kayak"

msh210

And what's ADJACENCY, different from CONCATENATION?

Avi

22:23

palindrome a la:

It turns down, but it could turn up (7) - ROTATOR

from Enigmatist

msh210

Oh.

Avi

adjacency is like "A on B" for AB

msh210

@Avi then what's CONCATENATION?

Avi

concatenation is redundant

matt

then why is it in the list?

Avi

22:25

I have removed it

matt

for some reason this got me thinking about grammatical cases

Avi

23:15

Person with intense fear of palindromes: "I have aibohphobia. ... ... darnit"

bobble

how do you pronounce that?

Avi

ay bo phobia?

or possibly ay buh phobia

the latter

matt

@Avi ironic b/c it is a palindrome

Avi

yeah, whoever named it was being mean to the people that had it

matt

wait until you hear about hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

(fear of long words)

bobble

23:25

what's the name for "fear of pickles"?

Avi

rational behavior

or, irrational behavior - depending on which way you look at it

matt

@bobble nvm it doesn't have a name

@Avi yes

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