The Sphinx's Lair

12:11 AM

0

I can be a bit but not a lot. I can be a deal but not a rip. I can be an ally but not an enemy. I can be an Ange but not an Andrew. What am I?

Gareth McCaughan

12:53 AM

CCCC hints: (1) At least two speculations above are correct. (2) First letter is S.

Jafe

huh, there go the macaroni theories

HTM

Macaroni was an impasta

This new hint could indicate that "Haggard queen" = SHE

Problem is, Qat does not seem to have any eight-letter words beginning with SHE that mean anything close to "beau"

And nothing useful for *EHS* either

Jafe

how about S(MOOT)H(I)E? it means smooth-talking person apparently

moot is uncertain

Gareth McCaughan

bingo!

HTM

@Jafe Ooh interesting, I'm assuming you're interpreting the "'s" as "has"?

Nice find!

Gareth McCaughan

1:01 AM

and yes, "'s" here is "has" not "is"

HTM

That's really sneaky, I like it

Jafe

that was a hard one

CCCC: They dance whenever they're able to find blokes that hunger dancing (7,2,3,5,5)

Gareth McCaughan

(I realised about 10s after posting mine that it would have been better with "Haggard woman ..." rather than "Haggard queen ..." because the latter was a bit of a giveaway. Though it was pretty tough in other ways, so maybe making it harder wouldn't have been an improvement :-).

@jafe I have the solution to your C4 and am suitably amused. I shan't post it because I need to go to bed now rather than thinking up another clue.

HTM

@Jafe This is KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE = (TO FIND BLOKES THAT HUNGER)*, def "They dance whenever they're able," which might be referring to this though I'm not certain of that part

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

Well that was quick

HTM

1:12 AM

Really nice anagram btw

Gareth McCaughan

It's a Monty Python reference.

Jafe

that's the correct answer

Gareth McCaughan

Glad that my abstention didn't actually delay the solve more than a few seconds :-).

Jafe

heheh

HTM

@GarethMcCaughan Ah, I see, blame my cultural deficiencies for missing that

Gareth McCaughan

1:13 AM

I do.

HTM

:(

Jafe

it almost worked as an &lit. but the definition would have been pretty unfair

Blokes that hunger to find dancing? (7,2,3,5,5)

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

Not as elegant, yes

Speqking of which, my quest of a perfect cryptic clue goes on: Again, leg sounds are not worrying (5)

HTM

CCCC: "He" inspired original urban legends! (5)

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

I think I saw a post somewhere that says all of HTM's CCs that end with exclamation marks are &lits but I can't seem to find it in the transcripts :/

Jafe

1:23 AM

yeah i think you're right

HTM

Mar 31 at 7:05, by HTM

@msh210 Oh man, that's really clever, but it's not the intended solution - if I had intended the clue to be an &lit, I would've marked it as such with an exclamation point

(Sorry if this pings you msh)

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

Oh, thanks! Now I'm sure it's an &lit, now for the wordplay...

Jafe

counterexample:

Oct 22 '19 at 3:32, by PiIsNot3

CCCC: One top liar warping the truth first! (9)

:P

samm82

@HTM I thought this might be H{O_ U_ L_}E, referring to Réjean Houle, a hockey player and urban legend, but unless I'm missing something an initials selector is missing, so it's probs not that

HTM

@Jafe Hehehe

Sphinx

1:26 AM

0

Q: In Blue Eyes puz. Why don't they all assume completion of days 1-98 and start on day 99, as they all know that 99 is the smallest perceived # of B.E

It is clear to any perfect logician that, by observation, the lowest possible, perceived # of blue eyed people is 99. They will further deduce that the most logically, efficient technique to determine the # of blue eyed people on the island would be to assume the completion of the first hypotheti...

riddle blue-eyes

HTM

If I had to rewrite that clue, I would've included a question mark at the end

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

@Jafe Oh...

@HTM Was that a hint? :P

HTM

Oh, that was in reference to that non-&lit &lit clue

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

That one was evil btw, using ! as a factorial sign doesn't seem fair to non-mathematicians.

HTM

@samm82 Not that, keep looking...

Jafe

1:29 AM

that was a pretty funny pair of clues like 4 months apart... let's see if i can multi-quote without spamming the room

Oct 22 '19 at 3:32, by PiIsNot3

CCCC: One top liar warping the truth first! (9)

Oct 22 '19 at 4:08, by jafe

i'm searching the dictionary to see if "factorial" has meanings i don't know about but doesn't look like that's the case

Deusovi

factorial is pretty well-known

Jafe

Feb 25 '20 at 17:59, by hexomino

CCCC: Piece of truth spoken about self! (9)

HTM

Ouch, outsped

Jafe

Feb 26 '20 at 7:21, by jafe

FACT+OR(I)AL would fit the wordplay but don't see how the definition works unless that word has another meaning i'm not aware of

like, not being able to solve that after seeing the solution with the exact same trick just a few months ago

HTM

Some urban guerilla! (4)

samm82

1:33 AM

@HTM Very nice :)

Jafe

hehe

samm82

A while ago I thought it might be fun to do something with an interrobang until I realized that'd be way too obvious

Jafe

In winter, rob Angolans‽ (11)

samm82

Alternatively: "Put away or put back bat‽ (11)"

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

1:54 AM

Btw, completely out of context

Feb 28 '20 at 11:02, by Gareth McCaughan

I doubt that cryptics are impossible in Bahasa Indonesia because the language isn't expressive enough; you can say almost anything in almost any real language. (There are exceptions -- e.g., pidgins -- but even those, once they start having actual native speakers, turn into creoles and rapidly become expressive enough to say anything.)

It happened

Gareth McCaughan

2:13 AM

Actually, I think it had already happened: athin had already composed the crossword, and posted it to PSE the following day. (It was pretty stupid of me to bother saying "I doubt ..." because I knew that the person I was replying to had already made a Bahasa Indonesia cryptic crossword and therefore clearly didn't need telling that the language is surely expressive enough to make one.)

bobble

3:50 AM

Requesting CVs: puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/109585/69582

Jafe

also known as résumés

HTM

Using diacritics correctly is not my forté.

bobble

"Look at how many times I tried to post the same question! It shows my persistence, determination, and refusal to listen to anyone saying something I don't want to hear"

HTM

Can't access the site atm, but hopefully that can be dealt with

bobble

Question was hammered closed.

Hopefully that will get the message through, and they won't post it again

Sphinx

4:54 AM

-3

Q: In the Blue Eyes puzzle, why couldn't the actual hypothetical process start with the assumption of 99 blue eyed people on the island?

It is clear to each of the perfect logicians on the island that, by observation, the lowest possible, perceived # of blue eyed people is 99. They will further deduce that the most logically, efficient technique to determine the # of blue eyed people on the island would be to assume the completion...

meta-knowledge blue-eyes

Stiv

7:01 AM

@HTM Well, it did take us a year and a half (and three hours solid last night), so not that quick! ;-) Really creative puzzle - enjoyed it in the end, although there was an awful lot of head-scratching in that time!

@LukasRotter And thanks :) It's also partly a true story... I might provide the detail in a comment below the post itself...

Sphinx

9:23 AM

0

Q: Advanced Fetching Alchemist II

This is a puzzle in the Fetching Alchemist series. From now on, you complete quests at the place you start at as well. How to Play You are looking for the shortest possible path that allows you to complete all the quests. You choose where you start. The red numbers indicate the distance of each...

optimization graph-theory video-games

Jafe

10:34 AM

@HTM god is referred to as "He" so maybe this is GO(U_+L_)D &lit.? that could refer to science writer Stephen Jay Gould, although i don't think i'm familiar with any urban legends he inspired, original or otherwise...

(what i really want the answer to be is HOMER, which contains some letters inside HE and is also someone who's inspired all kinds of legends... but i don't see that working)

msh210

12:30 PM

For the C4: The "He" in quotation marks makes me think it's someone thought/assumed to be a he but not actually a he, like George Eliot. But I doubt the answer is ELIOT: I don't know that she inspired urban legends, nor do I see how the wordplay would work. But maybe someone else like that.

msh210

12:40 PM

EL ("he" in Spanish) + I (inspired original) + OT (urban legends, which are off-topic on PSE) #BadC4Solutions

samm82

1:24 PM

@HTM Another crunchy "solution": GA(U_+L_)S, where the "He" in quotes denotes Helium, a GAS, and a group of people, not an individual "he". I doubt that putting something in quotes can serve the same function as "perhaps", but if it can, then the quotation marks serve a purpose in both the cryptic and surface readings....

Sphinx

1:52 PM

0

Q: Champion, with a smirk

The answer to this puzzle is a 16-letter sentence. Good luck!

knowledge enigmatic-puzzle visual

0

Q: A Dull Dull Word

Here is your riddle for the day! I am a five letter word. With five I'm made of three With four I might give a raise With three I'm a good friend With two I like to react What word am I?

riddle word

bobble

2:04 PM

I answered a riddle o_O

Sphinx

2:24 PM

0

Q: one is where delicious treats are served named for the friends of victoria. answer must pertain to maine

I am looking for any help with the answer to this riddle. I have been working on it for days.

riddle

Sphinx

3:23 PM

0

Q: The Dispute at the Milky Way Restaurant

Fifteen related guests visited a restaurant and got into an argument about who was the greatest among them. To settle the dispute, they asked the owner to decide. He thought for a moment, then said “While you are eating, write down as many stars as you can name. After the meal I will tally the re...

word word-search

HTM

3:50 PM

All good attempts for the C4 (especially the ELIOT one), but none correct

@Stiv Thanks, I wanted to try something different from the usual cryptic clues and riddles this site sees

Some more HNQCCs, a couple of which are based off of fairly old HNQs:

in The Grove, 12 hours ago, by HTM

Bishops capturing castle is a blunder (4)

Truncate small fractions? (4)

Restore twice-discovered, early second-person novel (5)

Some candidate showed up ready (3)

CMC: Inspired by the title to this past HNQ - "Off brand bearings for hubs?" - create a CC where "Off" is an anagrind for "BRAND (insert word here)"

Sid

4:05 PM

@HTM this is obviously BOOB

HTM

@Sid Yep :check_mark:

Sid

@HTM is this BIT + S?

or is Truncate -> Bit a tense mismatch?

HTM

@Sid Close, I intended BITS(-y)

Sid

@HTM why (-y)?

HTM

AFAIK, "bit" as a verb is past tense of "bite," but "truncate" is present tense

@Sid "Truncate small" = remove letters at the end of a word meaning "small" as if it were a decimal number = BITS(-y)

Too unfair maybe?

Sid

4:11 PM

@HTM This is SET inside "candidate showed" and backward

HTM

@Sid Dang, you're on a roll!

Sid

@HTM feels a little indirect to me but I am no expert

@HTM that's pretty much all I have, lol

Sphinx

0

Q: World's smallest puzzle

I reproduce here the "world's smallest puzzle" - a crossword etched onto the head of a pin - purportedly created by one Allan Boardman, taken from a YouTube video, and to which I don't know the answer. Can you solve it?

crosswords unsolved-mysteries

HTM

@HTM Since this is just for fun, I'll reveal the solution: RENEW = (-ea)R(-ly) + pErson + NEW, def "Restore"

Couldn't find a way to keep the original question statement intact, this was as close as I could get

@HTM Bonus if the definition is "hub" or "hubs"

samm82

5:10 PM

@HTM Off brand shoes missing bit of height and width (9)

Sphinx

1

Q: Fetching Alchemist, Grand Potion I

This is a puzzle in the Fetching Alchemist series. There's no selling in this puzzle, just one potion to brew, but with a lot of ingredients. Please note that, in my opinion, imperfect solutions should be up-voted so long as they work and are lower than previous guesses. This makes them useful, ...

optimization graph-theory video-games

HTM

@samm82 Nice! This is BROADNESS = (BRAND S(-h_)OES)*, def "width"

samm82

Yup! :D

msh210

5:26 PM

@HTM It didn't.

@HTM probably not it, but Gabonese soccer player BULOT? I don't know that he inspired any urban legends, but it is BOT with UL…

HTM

5:44 PM

@msh210 Not that, but (early hint!) you're getting closer to the intended solution

msh210

@samm82 nice

HTM

Well actually, most of the previous attempts have a couple parts of the wordplay correct

msh210

6:40 PM

Also probably not it: Cyclist BOBET certainly had a colorful career and personality, though I don't see that he specifically inspired urban legends. He is, though, BOT with _B_ _E_ (looking at "urban" and "legends" as number lines, b and e are at their respective origins).

John Wayne BOBBET did inspire urban legends, and is sorta deserving of the quotation-marked "he" (after his, um, unwilling surgery), but doesn't fit the wordplay afaict or the enumeration.

Oh, and a Web search tells me it's spelled BOBBITT.

Sphinx

10:20 PM

1

Q: On which date was Marina born?

The puzzle is as follows: In 2012, which began on a Sunday, Marina was happy because her birthday was on a Saturday and she celebrated it with her friends. We know, Marina was born in a year where there were more Fridays and Saturdays than other days of the week, and that the day of the week she...

logical-deduction word-problem time

0

Q: A walk after dark

This is a Palisade (or n-Cells) puzzle. The rules are: Thicken some of the squares' sides so the thick borders outline cells. One such cell comprises just one square; one cell comprises precisely two squares; one cell comprises three squares; and so on up to a ten-square cell. Any square with a ...

logical-deduction grid-deduction

msh210

10:38 PM

@Sphinx Besides entertaining/challenging people, an aim of posting this was to get the idea out there so it can be stolen, since I'd personally never seen a published Palisade puzzle with a variable number of cells.

bobble

11:00 PM

@msh210 you entertained me, at least :)

samm82

@msh210 Me as well! It was a fun solve (once I read the rules correctly lol)

msh210

Thanks!

bobble

I don't think I could have done a hard one; mentally drained after a long day of tests

msh210

@msh210 (Not that my not having seen it means anything.)

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