The Sphinx's Lair

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oAlt

03:12

Assuming there's a legit theme hidden...

Mar 9 at 0:49, by oAlt

@Stiv Oh wow, you did it again :P Nice!

3 hours later…

Jafe

05:54

heads up i heard could be FOR (homophone of "fore!") for the 3,5 answer

or FOUR for the 4,5, come to think of it

four weeks probably more likely than four years

oAlt

06:19

@Jafe to twist could be to skew so I think you've got it. Still don't know what the theme is though... but I guess we're gonna find out from that duration

oAlt

06:36

May 7 is five weeks away, but there is a month long gap between that and April 2 when Stiv last posted a clue, so the theme probably started a week after May 7

or more than a week

May 7-16: The thin end of the wedge, Arthurian legend, stage fright, conversation stopper, misunderstanding
May 22 onward: Least common denominator, constituency, snowed under, eat humble pie, Siegfried and Roy, We have heard the chimes at midnight, Nessun Dorma, diamondbacks, Statue of Liberty, overshadowed, Lithuania, The Life of Riley, Get behind me Satan

M Oehm

Lots of directions and positions, but not every clue has one. And then there are the common cryptic staples like "midnight" for G.

oAlt

07:36

True

And I just realized why the enumeration was like that... it's for the case that it lasts longer than four weeks. So May 7 being a starting point becomes more probable...

Or anything other than four weeks, I guess... hmm... but I still think it's probable because of that gap

Stiv

Once you spot it, you'll know you've got it right...

M Oehm

08:10

I think the enumeration is just for the alternatives for/four weeks.

oAlt

08:33

Yeah

So when it's anything other than four weeks, it's still for weeks

Stevo

09:06

first chat rejoin in a long while

ive thought of a coin weighing puzzle that i think ive never seen on pse before, but i forgot how to write questions

M Oehm

Write whatever comes to mind, then tag as [enigmatic puzzle]. :)

AncientSwordRage

09:33

@oAlt I started thinking it was prepositions or directions: end/edge, end, right, top,under,on,east,on,now/under... But then it breaks down

oAlt

In any case, I found it. And it's right after the sequence about presidents too

It starts here

Mar 12 at 22:11, by Stiv

CCCC: I'm back, following lunatic aunt's catastrophe (7)

The answer, tsunami, contains Sun, or Sunday in it. And the next six answers each contain Mon until Sat respectively

I'm too lazy to check, but I have a hunch that that goes on three more times, for a total of literally four weeks – seven days hidden four times

I'm also too lazy to list each example down, but just so that there's not just one example, note that the last one "Get behind me Satan" has the fourth "Sat" in it

... Never mind the first one, as I checked and there were exactly twenty-eight :)

cc: @Stiv . Nicely hidden sequence and I love the double duty that the answer is doing :D

M Oehm

@oAlt Well done!

M Oehm

10:00

In the end, rather short hidden snippets in some rather long clues.

1 hour later…

oAlt

11:22

@MOehm Thanks, and well done to Stiv too

Just for completeness: as Jafe found, the wordplay for the actual clue is FOUR/FORE (homophone for fore, "heads up") + (everyon)E in SKEW (twist) reversed (about)

FOR*

I got them mixed up since that's a third homophone :p

Stiv

12:13

@oAlt That's correct :) Over to you...

@MOehm Indeed. One of the answers was MONK so I didn't want to have too many of a similar length as I thought the game would rather be given away...

The full list: TSUNAMI, MONK, STATUESQUE, SWEDEN, ENTHUSIASTIC, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC, ISLAMISATION, POLES ASUNDER, HITMONTOP, PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE, THE THIN END OF THE WEDGE, ARTHURIAN LEGEND, STAGE FRIGHT, CONVERSATION STOPPER,

MISUNDERSTANDING, LEAST COMMON DENOMINATOR, CONSTITUENCY, SNOWEDUNDER, EAT HUMBLE PIE, SIEGFRIED AND ROY, WE HAVE HEARD THE CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, NESSUN DORMA, DIAMONDBACKS, STATUE OF LIBERTY, OVERSHADOWED, LITHUANIA, THE LIFE OF RILEY, GET BEHIND ME SATAN

oAlt

@Jafe you wanna take this next one? I couldn't have found the theme if you didn't find the actual answer to the clue

Stiv

I tried not to use them at the start of words too often. TUE was the hardest by far to come up with good, different words each time that did not rely on 'STATUE'.

oAlt

@Stiv Ah thanks :)

Stiv

@oAlt I'd say you got the wordplay first too though, with your mention of skew...

I also occasionally tried to fit into any clue themes that were currently doing the rounds at the time, which made it even more tricky!

oAlt

@Stiv Yeah true, though I'll still wait for Jafe :)

@Stiv Yeah that one with poles asunder and Islamisation haha

7 hours later…

Jafe

19:49

this one's yours @oAlt, nice job figuring it out

stiv coming up with some banger series back to back

2 hours later…

Sphinx

22:00

Q: Weird puzzle with circles and dots

This item was posted on reddit and there is not a clear explanation for the solution. https://www.reddit.com/r/cognitiveTesting/comments/1dgkakw/answer_and_explanation_please/#lightbox

pattern

1 hour later…

Sphinx

23:03

Q: Largest sequence of adjacent numbers less than 11 such that adjacent number divides the other

Friday writes different positive whole numbers that are all less than 11 next to each other in the sand. Robinson Crusoe looks at the sequence and notices with amusement that adjacent numbers are always divisible by each other. What is the maximum amount of numbers he could possibly have written ...