The Sphinx's Lair

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PolygonPotpourri

00:31

Maybe a perAAAAAAAA word?

Jafe

00:45

morning coffee hasn't kicked in yet

Prince North Læraðr

@msh210 huh

Prince North Læraðr

01:36

meervoudigepersoonlijkheidsstoornissen is a 38 letter word

overeenstemmingsbeoordelingsprocedures As well but both are German words

Jafe

01:49

dutch, i think

Jafe

02:01

think the answer's some kind of camelcase band name like MacManamans or something

oAlt

02:27

There's probably numbers in there that would make the enumeration longer if they were spelled out, but I doubt that's what's going on here

Jafe

02:48

kaksikymmentäkaksipistepirkko is a bit too short

Prince North Læraðr

4 hours later…

oAlt

07:11

I still don't see what this one is, but then one could ask if I've searched enough

The answer is probably no, but either way I'll take this as my cue to get off the Internet for a bit

Sphinx

07:45

Q: My enemy sent me this puzzle!

My lifelong nemesis unexpectedly sent me a box of chocolates, accompanied with this love note. I don't know what's going on! Maybe I have misread our entire relationship? I haven't opened the chocolates yet. Do you think I should try them? How do I love ❤️ thee? Let me count the ways. I love the...

Lukas Rotter

@Sphinx 🤔😱

Jafe

08:09

heheh

Ankoganit

lol nice

msh210

Huh. I don't remember sending chocolates.

Prince North Læraðr

08:26

me neither

Jafe

(checks nemeses tab) okay this is becoming an avengers-level threat

Lukas Rotter

08:39

I think your enemy doesn't actually love thee, but three...

1 hour later…

msh210

09:43

@Jafe thanks for this idea. Because of it, I Googled band mac and, happily, discovered Mac Sabbath.

Jafe

10:16

hah

PolygonPotpourri

10:46

I don't think people are cruel enough to put really obscure band names in the CCCC. Is juicifer cruel enough, though?

msh210

Well, I'm of the firm belief that juicifer is a person, so I guess that's a no.

PolygonPotpourri

So, I don't think it's going to be an unknown Mac________ band.

I don't think it's any musical band, either.

I can't be sure, though...

msh210

There are lots of other kinds of bands.

like lap, brothers, rubber, and wedding to name a few

these are bands from Georgia, perhaps

PDT

11:04

@Jafe was my interpretation of the second clue correct?

msh210

@PDT why "LLL"?

PDT

I meant those to be 111

msh210

11:22

Jafe

11:47

yeah tic-tac-toe is what i meant there

PolygonPotpourri

Alright, but what about one with camelcase?

oAlt

12:16

I still don't get the second clue, I don't see how X becomes 1 in the context of tic-tac-toe. (Why the diagonal specifically?) There's probably some notation that I'm not aware of

PolygonPotpourri

I think it's just looking diagonally.

+++.

PolygonPotpourri

12:29

Hello?

1 hour later…

oAlt

13:42

@PolygonPotpourri Ah I see, but then that now leaves the 1's unexplained...

I feel like there's something obvious that I'm just not seeing

(If anyone could clarify it that would be great)

Ankoganit

Maybe "winning diagonal" just refers to the line you draw through the X's, not the X's themselves

Jafe

augh the missing bit is i'm an idiot... there's a clue missing for the 1's

Ankoganit

Ah oof

Jafe

i'll try to fix it in the morning, sorry about that!

Ankoganit

I've got a handy excuse for you in the message above if you wanna pretend nothing was wrong

juicifer

14:02

something something roentgenium

oAlt

@Jafe ahhh that explains it, no worries

PolygonPotpourri

Alright, but what about C4?

juicifer

14:27

I've heard it's really blowing up

2 hours later…

juicifer

16:54

CCCC hint 3: oops, I'm [REDACTED] on the right side of my screen and it looks like this is actually only the second hint. I [REDACTED] for the confusion, although y'all are smart, so [REDACTED] about it

Prince North Læraðr

What

juicifer

oAlt

17:24

uhhh well "apologize" and "forget" certainly fit the second and third redacteds

"looking" for the first?? Even then, I'm not seeing the significance of figuring out the redacteds

juicifer

@oAlt you will see the significance of the redacteds if you figure them out

oAlt

👌

msh210

I thought the third was sorry.

And (I'm on mobile so not checking now, but) I think from juicifer it'd be apologise rather than apologize.

Ryan M

18:03

Profile location says "massachusetts", so that sounds like American English ("apologize")

juicifer

can confirm I would spell it with the z, but will also state that it doesn't really matter how I would spell it

msh210

18:57

@RyanM oh right, of course. For some reason I always think of juicifer as a Canadian.

Prince North Læraðr

@juicifer wait hint 3?

msh210

Keep reading.

Prince North Læraðr

oh duh

juicifer

@msh210 new england is basically canada, eh

Prince North Læraðr

canadia

msh210

19:00

ayuh

1 hour later…

Sphinx

20:03

Q: What was I thinking when I made this grid?

Inspired by this post and a true story :) I was going through some old PDF documents on my computer, and I found one that I'd forgotten about. Among the contents was this grid: Here's a CSV version: X,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 1,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 2,2,1,2,3,4,5,,6,7,8,9 3,3,2,1,4,2,6,3,8,4,10 4,4,...

knowledge pattern number-sequence

1 hour later…

msh210

21:07

I suppose the last redaction could be "unconfused" or some synonym.

Sphinx

21:32

Q: Where should the chess pieces be placed in 4x4, 6x6 and 9x9 chessboards?

Here are 3 related chess problems. The color of the pieces is not important. Unlike a legal chess game there are no limits to the number of pieces of each type in these puzzles. Puzzle 1: On a 4x4 chessboard, place some bishops and some knights (and no other pieces) so that: Each bishop attac...

chess checkerboard construction

2 hours later…

oAlt

23:39

@juicifer Wait, is this OneRepublic (band) = one republic (Georgia [the country], perhaps)?

(a unitary parliamentary republic, specifically)

The redacted words would then be Counting Stars (referring to the starboard), Apologize, and (probably) I Ain't Worried, which are all titles of OneRepublic songs!

Ryan M

that sounds very likely, though I am really curious about that first hint

not sure how I feel about "Georgia" cluing the two-word phrase "one republic"

(disclaimer: very much a cryptic newbie; perhaps this is common)

oAlt

23:57

@RyanM "perhaps" is included

Ryan M

err, yes, I meant to say that

oAlt

Ahh

Ryan M