@Sphinx some people have a pretty recognisable style around here... i read the first 4 or 5 lines of this and was like "this looks like a SlowMagic puzzle"
@msh210 CLOTH ? Stuff is another name/synonym for cloth, so both "some stuff" and "put over wood, perhaps" (e.g. tablecloth is a cloth often over a wood table) define 'cloth', maybe a double definition?
> The definition half of a cryptic clue must be one acceptable as a standalone clue in a standard crossword. This means it can be a single-word synonym of the answer word, or something far more complicated. It does, however, have to agree in tense, conjugation, pluralization, and other aspects with the answer word. This means "becomes taller" would not be a valid definition for "GROWING", but it would be a fine definition for "GROWS".
I wasn't sure if maybe the ! meant the whole thing could be a definition, or that something exceptional to the rules could be going on. But I'll keep looking
Okay, I'm not really familiar with many traditional crosswords, but the Quick crossword in the Guardian seems to follow the rule that clue and answer must agree.
The exclamation mark can indicate an &lit. clue, that's right. And something special (or loose clueing) going on could be signalled by a defensive question mark. (The question mark can also indicate a def. by example, so it can take the role of "perhaps" discussed here yesterday.)
@GarethMcCaughan hmm. That is very interesting. Two words beginning in a similar fashion, have the same meaning but are derived from two different languages
@Amoz Nope, you'd need something like "It's often found ticking". In regular crosswords, you can clue words with a description if you include the pronoun and make it into a complete sentence - for instance, "He played Bond" for DANIELCRAIG. But "Played Bond" alone doesn't work, in either UK or US crosswords
@Sid iirc there are four distinct etymologies for the various meanings of the English prefix mis-.
Hm, etymonline.com/word/mis- has only two. I wonder what the OED has. (I haven't got access to it.) Or maybe I can find where online I read that there are four.
Ah, sorry, it was three, not four. The third, not listed on that^ page, is in misanthrope, e.g.
I'm sure you know how the word 'ghoti' can be interpreted to be pronounced 'fish', by taking the sounds from the words 'cough,' 'women' and 'action.'
But can you find a word in which the letters 'wo' are pronounced as a standard 'u' (as in 'hut')?
The word isn't used much nowadays, but fifty year...
The bathhouse you work at is being visited by some of the primordial beings from the pools of chaos. You have been tasked with finding out which pools they came from, so that the proper form of chaos can be made for them.
Unfortunately, the primordial ones can't speak, so you can't ask where they...
The question in Stiv's #6 makes me think that the bottom right icons (2 girls and a hand mirror) somehow represent "The Shining". But the other icons seem sufficiently generic that I can't get a neuron-hold on them.
If #6 remains unsolved in a couple of days I will add the missing [item] from that row as a clue... A lot of people will already have the knowledge to work this one out, if they consider what things are shown in that sub-puzzle; it's not hugely obscure. In fact, I was able to back-solve this one myself with some targeted googling based on certain elements in the image. (Then again, I had the advantage of already knowing what I was looking for!)
Hm. When I search for "book" plus some stuff and the search engine can't make sense of that stuff, it sends me to a helpful page of the NY Public Library on how to find books when you have forgotten its title. Of course, one of the tips there is "Try Google!"
ah. I was thinking more likely movie or TV series than book. (But I am only guessing at random and there's no particular reason why I should be right.)
@AncientSwordRage Thanks for the tip, but it isn't that urgent. As I said, it's not really a book that I need identified. I tried to find an answer to one of Stiv's puzzles. But I can just sit and wait until Stiv reveals it or someone else solves it.
A water puddle? And there's the rumour that cats are afraid of water. So perhaps a theme of someone being afraid of something else. The question is "Who's been scared off?"
I thought it might be a book or perhaps a series of five books or, as Gareth suggests, a film or TV series, where a book plays an important role. Or maybe even a nursery rhyme.
A quiver of hydras are approaching your bathhouse. Hydras, generally, are a rather impatient kind, and need lots of space and care for their multiple large tails. Currently, you can see 4 hydras: a five-tailed one wearing a coronet, a six-tailed one wearing a cape, a three-tailed one wearing a ti...
For @Stiv's puzzle too, I think it would be cool if somewhere in the answer the person who solved a part's name was mentioned somewhere, maybe next to the number, just so everyone gets some credit
Might not be possible for all if some where more joint solved, but someone may be able to go through the edit history and work out who did what
You have been kidnapped by aliens. You have counted 5 individuals: a mercurian, venusian, martian, jovian, and saturnian. You have been lock in the maze found under the bathhouse you work at. You know the layout of the maze, and that there are 5 elemental creatures in the maze: the pyrausta, wobb...
The two girls and the mirror in #6 remind me of the cover of the book Stranger with My Face. But the rest of the pictures don't make sense, then, I don't think, so that's probably not it.
Which celebrity completes this four square?
Thanks to Megaptera novaeangliae for inspiring this puzzle. See here:
Who am I? (visual puzzle)
