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juicifer
juicifer
00:13
@Stiv I've got something that I'm working on and will definitely post by the end of the month, just trying to figure some things out
Stiv
Stiv
Cool. Just thought it would be a shame if this one passed us by, given that the XKCD themes tend to have been among the most popular in the past.
So here's one! I'll try and get at least one more out this month too...
Sphinx
Sphinx
0
Q: Chemistry Nobel

StivThis puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #16: Restricted Title: xkcd 2000-2500. When this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded, an exclusive group of 12 still-living previous recipients was invited to the ceremony as special guests. However, when the award was presented to the t...

knowledge pattern word-property science chemistry
Jafe
Jafe
00:57
eyes the word-property tag
oAlt
oAlt
:)
Jafe
Jafe
Hell is a funny name, there was a military chaplain named that when i was in the army
not exactly a fitting name for a man of god, but there were two of them and the combination was just perfect
because the other one was named (and i'm not kidding) Waris
can't imagine a better combo for a pair of military chaplains than Waris Hell
2
in case someone thinks i'm pulling that out of my a-- (and i wouldn't blame you), here's the first guy and here's the other (links in finnish)
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
That's awesome. Second link calls him Wariksesta and Wariksen; I assume both are inflected forms, but is there really an inflection that turns -s into -ksen or -ksesta? Well, when I feed the thing into Google Translate it turns them both into "Waris". So I guess there must be. I do not find Finnish an intuitive language...
AncientSwordRage
AncientSwordRage
01:14
Play doh is a putty that's prefixed with PLAY and is made by mixing salt, flour and water which I guess first involves dissolving the salt?
Jafe
Jafe
yeah some of our word endings cause weird changes to the suffixes
like -is, but only in native names, if it was Paris or something it would be Parisista and Parisin instead of Wariksesta and Wariksen
and yeah i would probably hate learning finnish from scratch as an adult, my wife did it but she's braver than i am :P
wiktionary has the declension of varis which is the modern spelling
Gareth McCaughan
Gareth McCaughan
01:49
so expletive many cases
 
2 hours later…
oAlt
oAlt
03:54
@GentlePurpleRain that last statement is what I've been thinking as well
msh210
msh210
04:37
@Jafe what's her mother tongue? (obviously, only if you don't mind saying)
 
2 hours later…
msh210
msh210
06:46
C4 hint: The C4 is topically related to this puzzle I posted recently.
So you don't have to click through, here it is again: I recently saw someone checking what looked like the following list of numbers: 789, 64, 513, 2. What was he looking at?
msh210
msh210
07:03
user image
Jafe
Jafe
@msh210 russian, she's from belarus originally
hmm
msh210
msh210
Russian also has a rich case system IIRC.
Jafe
Jafe
yeah i think they have 6
msh210
msh210
So, not as rich. :-)
Jafe
Jafe
the finnish one might be unnecessarily rich hehe
msh210
msh210
07:07
(The "2" in the picture is squished because the guy who wrote it didn't leave enough room on the pad, not because it's meant to be squished.)
@Jafe well, the cases give the nouns a nice finish
2
Jafe
Jafe
heheh
looks like a connect-the-dots instruction to draw... whatever shape that is
msh210
msh210
(Likewise, some numbers are in blackboard bold because the guy who wrote them didn't get them neat the first time so had to go over them, not because they're meant to be bold.)
oAlt
oAlt
07:24
@msh210 interestingly, that has 9 numbers (1-9), which is also the length of the answer to the C4...
Daniel S
Daniel S
@msh210 three-legged hopscotch?
4
msh210
msh210
I've… never heard of three-legged hopscotch.
Daniel S
Daniel S
@msh210 I think I see. This is a baseball team positions: 1 Pitcher 2 Catcher 3-5 bases 6 shortstop 7-9 outfield
msh210
msh210
@DanielS that is the correct answer to my side-puzzle
Well found, especially for a Brit.
oAlt
oAlt
Yeah, nice find
And so maybe the "play" is a type of baseball play, then
...or it could still be a play about baseball
Daniel S
Daniel S
07:43
Baseball dramas
Jafe
Jafe
08:32
maybe it's some kind of play you'd need to use a baseball metaphor to explain in polite conversation
Stevo
Stevo
oh i found out why discord disabled my acocunt
im "underage'
Stevo
Stevo
08:54
dang it i didnt get to see that
AncientSwordRage
AncientSwordRage
09:27
@Stevo it wasn't anything exciting
Stevo
Stevo
okay good
Sphinx
Sphinx
10:19
1
Q: Presidential Middle Names

JafeThis puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #16: Restricted Title: xkcd 2000-2500. Each down clue in this crossword is missing one middle name of a US president.1 The missing names are below, listed in order of prettiness to honour the xkcd comic this is based on.2 Find a place for each n...

cryptic-crosswords
oAlt
oAlt
10:51
@Sphinx am so tempted to abandon my homework
 
1 hour later…
Dannyu NDos
Dannyu NDos
11:57
Help. I'm coming up with a new puzzle involving a poem, and I cannot rhyme.
msh210
msh210
@DannyuNDos That happens to a lot of people, all of the time.
(Anybody want a peanut?)
4
 
1 hour later…
juicifer
juicifer
13:30
@msh210 gro(undo)ut
Daniel S
Daniel S
14:02
@juicifer Ah! Well done! Isn't it two words though?
(Lovely clue in any event)
msh210
msh210
@juicifer there you go. I figured once the North Americans wake up it'll go :-)
@DanielS usually one now I think (when it's a noun)
@DanielS thanks
juicifer
juicifer
14:35
@DanielS yeah I would use it exactly as msh describes
fwiw the mlb also uses it as one word
I'm sure opinion differs, though
oAlt
oAlt
15:06
Jun 9 at 0:08, by oAlt
@juicifer thank you very much for putting it to rest lol
juicifer
juicifer
pfft
CCCC: Caught a glimpse of that woman; also heard Times reviewed a grandmother's play (6 2 1 6)
Apr 19 at 16:46, by juicifer
Apr 14 at 5:45, by Rubio
probably unfair. This is me not caring. Buahahaa
oAlt
oAlt
Yeah this is a sign I should go back to my homework lol
Sphinx
Sphinx
15:40
0
Q: As short as possible

Prim3numbahWhat shape should replace the question mark? Ordered

visual
 
2 hours later…
Sphinx
Sphinx
17:12
0
Q: Counting puzzle #1: Function combinations

CrSb0001Not in conjunction with my function optimization puzzles, also sorry for the extremely difficult discrete mathematics puzzle So as you may or may not know, I have recently uploaded 2 function optimization puzzles which were only part of the inspiration for this puzzle. The rest of the inspiratio...

mathematics combinatorics
msh210
msh210
18:05
@Jafe this made me look up the Finnish word for Hell, and I was surprised to find that it (as well as the word for Hell in the Scandinavian languages, from which it's borrowed) is the ~same as the Latin word for Switzerland. Not sure what that says about Switzerland.
Sphinx
Sphinx
18:44
0
Q: A Hidato, but with no given numbers?

CrSb0001I can be a bit evil sometimes. Today, I am going to give you a Hidato with no numbers! It gets worse: This puzzle is on a Mobius Strip Y[1] However, I will give hints as to what the numbers are, so this isn't going to be plain impossible. Also, to make this a bit easier, this is only a 3x3 Hidato...

logical-deduction grid-deduction no-computers
Sphinx
Sphinx
19:30
1
Q: Vegas Grand Prix - Ideal Grid

JGibbersI can't wait for the F1 race in Las Vegas this weekend! As much as I like the current grid in its state, I always make a fantasy grid of all the drivers I wish was racing instead. There's a number of drivers to choose from, but I like to pick the ones that would have the best odds to win a champi...

knowledge enigmatic-puzzle
 
4 hours later…
Stiv
Stiv
23:52
@Jafe That was hard! (But fun) Thought it would have gone while I was at work, so that was a pleasant surprise tonight, thanks :)
How on earth you managed to pull together a full pangrammatic cryptic crossword, with a fully functional theme, in just the few hours after you said you would do something for the MTC, I do not know... Well done!
Jafe
Jafe
hehe nice job, i was already worried there might be an error somewhere when it was unsolved when i woke up...
@Stiv i didn't btw, i had the grid and most of the across clues done and just decided to add the theme last minute :)

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