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12:52 AM
Actually this is a better way to word the same clue
CCCC: Quiet announcement included in modern art exhibit to attract attention (6)
Mar 30 at 18:50, by Ankoganit
ugh one of these days I'll type a clue right first try
Any day now
 
0
Q: I'm stuck on a puzzle, some help would be appreciated

ApexPolentaLink to puzzle. Here's where I'm up to so far. Red lines indicate the path, and solid black lines are walls (ie. I've determined it's impossible for a path to go through). Did I misread the puzzle? One of the rules states that in the left room, "You must step on every tile in the s-shaped region"...

 
 
2 hours later…
2:38 AM
Why do I not know what this is
Is there such a thing as an "Are" museum?
If so then we can make p + ar(ad)e, but unfortunately I don't think there is such a thing
And also to parade is to present so as to attract attention, not just to attract attention
Although I just realized "exhibit" can be part of the def
Oh I get it
@Ankoganit is this "parade" (exhibit to attract attention) = p (quiet) ad (announcement) included in "art" (modern "are")? Though I think it would have to be the other way round, old/ancient/etc. rather than modern
Wait no never mind I mixed the two up in the explanation
The clue is correct as it is. Modern "art" = are.
 
3:06 AM
@oAlt that's correct!
 
Before I make art gallery clues, I'd like to pick up where we left off last time...
CCCC: Country with not much arable land has grand year after grand year – finally, enormous harvest, one covering a generation (10)
 
0
Q: Can you tile a 15x16 rectangle using eight rectangles whose sizes are 1x2, 2x3, 3x4, ... 8x9?

Will Octagon GibsonCan you tile a 15x16 rectangle using eight rectangles whose sizes are 1x2, 2x3, 3x4, ... 8x9? No two rectangles can be the same size.

 
 
1 hour later…
4:39 AM
G y. after K yr. + _s _t + an = kyrgyzstan, a country with not much arable land
 
@Jafe yep!
(i'm assuming you already know where the z is and just forgot to put it)
 
oh damn right gen z is the generation
 
ye
 
in my defence it's not an easy word to spell
 
hahaha
 
4:44 AM
CCCC: Maybe Victoria, maybe Tasmania...? I must go for this state! (10)
couldn't get the brain into central asia mode to continue the theme
 
5:07 AM
9
Q: What is the longest Wordle game?

Dave RIf you play Wordle in hard mode, with unlimited guesses, then you must solve any puzzle eventually. This is true because there are only a finite number of valid five-letter words, and it is not possible to repeat an incorrect guess in hard mode. What is the longest possible game of Wordle, if unl...

^ tried to brute-force this on my laptop for fun... it did not go well
gave it a 150-word dictionary and had to kill it because it would have taken forever
the actual wordle dictionary has 13k words
 
5:34 AM
@Jafe Queen (maybe Victoria) + (-I)sland (maybe Tasmania) = Queensland, an Australian state
 
@Jafe Is it valid to pick a target word with repeated letters (e.g. vivid, woozy, mummy) and try all zero-match words before actually starting to solve it?
 
5:52 AM
@oAlt yessir
@Bubbler for finding long sequences, sure... don't think it helps to find the longest though
like how do you know your result is the maximum, you'd still have to check all the other options
 
6:20 AM
I actually think it is a good approach to finding maximum
choose a target word, choose the order of letters to lock, search all words that share 0..4 chosen letters with the target word
yellow matches are a bit of a problem, but a yellow for the same letter can only appear at most 4 times (if I interpret the rules correctly), which can be added separately I guess
 
right i see, the number of matching letters has to be ascending in any correct sequence
and the same goes for the number of greens
 
CCCC: Key European backing art gallery taking a look at Rembrandt's first piece from a distance (9)
 
6:42 AM
surely irrelevant here but rembrandt's first piece is apparently the senses
 
 
1 hour later…
7:46 AM
@Jafe Also I don't believe that Wordle is 2 years old already lol
 
8:05 AM
hehe
 
 
3 hours later…
10:56 AM
what seems kinda promising is PRINCIPAL = key where PPAL< = european backing and R = rembrandt's first... but i don't see any way to make up the remaining letters, or indication of them being in the middle
i mean i'm sure i could find an art gallery named INC or NCI or ICN or CNI just because every TLA has a thousand meanings but that just seems like the wrong way to go here
 
yeah there's a better answer than that
(i.e. "principal" is wrong)
 
that's good to know
 
 
1 hour later…
12:25 PM
1
Q: 11x13 Chocolate Banana Followup

Sunny LuYour goal is to maximize the absolute difference of the numbers marked ?. (? marks indicate region areas. They may or may not belong in the same region which another number or ?. They may or may not be shaded.) Answers must prove their claim (and provide a construction). Normal Chocolate Banana ...

 
12:40 PM
@oAlt kilo met e r_
 
-re also works i think
 
@juicifer not my intended parsing but I'll pass the baton to you. intended was K (key, CMYK) then Met E as you said, but taking I (a) LO (look), at R_
 
@Jafe yeah you're right it does
@oAlt ah, that makes sense. I figured "taking a look at" might just be a long winded way of saying "is next to"
CCCC: Take a look at key European gallery (3)
 
this is now _ey e_, the mythological "gallery" as a substring indicator in the wild!
 
hehe
you're up
 
12:50 PM
@Jafe i just saw it lolll
 
CCCC: As this clue is underground, getting up t—
(11)
keep forgetting about the multi-line markup limitations
 
@Jafe haha this is INTERR(UP T)ED
 
that's right
 
@Jafe hahahah
 
1:13 PM
CCCC: Secret agent perched on top of grand art gallery near northern city, cut short by placing second of thieves in cuffs (17)
 
oh wow
 
1:27 PM
I'll be really surprised if second of thieves ≠ H
 
0
Q: A final Colombian Sudoku... for the time being

Bernardo Recamán SantosThis too is a Colombian Sudoku by Xavier Castillo. The usual rules apply. The dots outside the board on top indicate how many cells in the corresponding column or row of that board contain precisely the same digit as is to be found in the same cell of the solved Sudoku below. Additionally, digits...

 
Oh wow, it doesn't help that "cuffs" has a lot of synonyms...
 
1:57 PM
bond- seems like a promising prefix for a long word meaning "in cuffs"
 
I think I found it
@juicifer this has got to be sp(_h_)y G MoMA Nome ters(-e) but I don't know what the "by" is doing
 
@oAlt yes it is!
I guess the "by" isn't really doing much of anything
I guess you could say it's ... near nome, (with) ters by
let's say it's that
 
Ah that's probably valid yeah
 
if only it was about a danish by
nice find
 
Thanks. I was looking in Quinapalus hoping against all odds that the word contained "moma", and then I saw the cuff and realized the g + moma was probably it
CCCC: Key European backing art exhibition finally staying in Chile (7)
 
2:18 PM
1
Q: 9x13 Chocolate Banana Puzzle $\pi=\frac{43}{3.7^2}$

Sunny LuSince 37 is my favorite integer and π is my favorite number, here's another puzzle: Normal Chocolate Banana rules apply. Rules: Paint some of the cells black. Black cells linked orthogonally must always form a rectangle (or a square). Non-blacked cells linked orthogonally must not form a rect...

 
 
4 hours later…
6:17 PM
So I've been messing around with the Godot game engine lately and trying to make a puzzle game. I have a very rough version up on itch.io; if anyone wants to playtest and offer feedback, that'd be fantastic
2
note that it's a very early draft: the title isn't a funny gag or anything, it's literally untitled as of now. I'll flesh out the world and all at some point, for now I'm just looking to make sure the puzzles are fun and/or fair
(also might not work on macOS, sorry)
 
0
Q: The mystery of 107 numbers

web adventurerFind the algorithm that was used to create the following sequence of numbers: BAH BAA BBA BAD BBD BAG BBG BAJ BBJ BBC BCC BBF BCF BBI BCI BCB BDB BCE BDE BCH BDH BDA BEA BDD BED BDG BEG BDJ BEJ BEC BFC BEF BFF BEI BFI BFB BGB BFE BGE BFH BGH BGA BHA BGD BHD BGG BHG BGJ BHJ BHC BIC BHF BIF BHI BI...

 
6:54 PM
@Jafe first known piece. First piece was some doodle with charcoal when he was two or something.
@oAlt central (key) = E + (n_ tra)< , staying in CL
 
 
5 hours later…
11:31 PM
@msh210 yep!
 

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