The Sphinx's Lair

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oAlt

2:45 AM

@Stiv Thank you!

1) I didn't expect the answer to have two Q's

2) Yeah, Weird Al's... quite surreal LOL

The "Word Crimes" song was more entertaining than weird so I decided to check out his other covers and... it was certainly an experience

Jafe

3:02 AM

damn i considered queue for line but i was trying to put the q at the start

oAlt

3) I did think of "11-minute song" as the definition but I stopped my search early

oAlt

3:44 AM

Wow, I've only gotten 3 words in today's (Sep 15) Independent crossword after 23 minutes

oAlt

4:05 AM

4 words... I give up

1 hour later…

oAlt

5:35 AM

Jul 19 at 4:23, by oAlt

I left this crossword for a while, but now it's time to come back to it

It's time to come back to it again... it's approaching 3 months

Jafe

6:11 AM

diamonds take long to form

Jafe

6:21 AM

meanwhile i still have no grid for gladys part 72 because i can't make a working ripple effect to save my life

oAlt

Lol

Stiv

6:46 AM

CCCC: New-yet-old truck is noisy - cut it out! (4,4,6)

TakingNotes

@Stiv WENT COLD TURKEY anagram

oAlt

oh wow, I thought new would be the anagram indicator

Stiv

@TakingNotes Yep!

TakingNotes

7:07 AM

CCCC: Root around cycling tracks, twice in secret (10)

Sphinx

7:21 AM

Q: Logic Test: Room 1

$\leftarrow$Part 2 The door clicks open and a light flickers on. In front of you, you see a shiny black floor, and you step onto it. However, you find that you have stepped into nothingness and you lose your balance, before falling into a pitch-black abyss. When you finally hit the ground, you ...

2 hours later…

Sphinx

9:13 AM

Q: Are these colored sets closed under multiplication?

A set is called closed under multiplication if the product of any two elements of the set is always a member of the set. For example, the integers are closed under multiplication. Suppose that every real number is colored either green or blue such that the product of any three green numbers is a ...

mathematics construction

1 hour later…

oAlt

10:18 AM

I don't see twice as a repeating indicator but rather something meaning twice, like bi- or bis which seem useful

msh210

@oAlt if it's "bis", and cycling tracks is "ackstr", then we almost have "backstairs" = "in secret". But not quite, afaict.

oAlt

11:05 AM

@msh210 @TakingNotes oh, it's beet around ackstr (tracks cycling twice, where once would just give rackst) to give backstreet (in secret)

TakingNotes

11:46 AM

@oAlt that's it!

oAlt

Thx msh for the assist, definitely would not have thought of just cycling "tracks" itself

msh210

heh, my pleasure

oAlt

@juicifer CCCC: Reciprocated after relapsing - it becomes a real stinker after some time (6)

msh210

@oAlt Is (6) a typo, perhaps? Should it be (5)?

oAlt

@msh210 Nope, it's not a typo

msh210

11:54 AM

hm. okay.

Jafe

12:11 PM

diaper<

oAlt

@Jafe correct!

Jafe

CCCC: The South of China is ruled by him in fall (5)

msh210

@oAlt oh nice clue (& I was totally on the wrong track there)

Jafe

saw a 4-way scrödinger in the wild in an old NYT crossword and completely failed to appreciate it before looking up the answer :/

msh210

@Jafe Xi (China…him) in die (fall) = Dixie (the South)

Jafe

12:19 PM

that's right!

msh210

@Jafe share, please

CCCC: Spectacle: a Sailor Moon actress with two genital organs (12)

oAlt

@msh210 thx

Jafe

the clue was something like "location of all themed answers", and then the locations were all over the country in florida, arizona, oregon, etc (there were 8 of them)

i got rot13(gur fbhgurnfg) as the revealer answer and wondered what on earth's going on

had to look up the explanation online to find out that rot13(gur (fbhgu|abegu)(rnfg|jrfg)) all work with the crosses!

msh210

oh cute

Jafe

feeling like that pianist who listened to art tatum and was like "that's it, i'm never touching a piano again"

msh210

12:30 PM

heh you've done stuff as impressive as that

(also, people listen to me at the piano and then say "that's it, I'm never touching a piano again"… but out of disgust)

Jafe

hahah

TakingNotes

@Jafe i remember solving that puzzle on release (it's not old ftr, quite recent) - i was very impressed by the construction there

msh210

I should clarify — "as impressive as that" — as impressive as that Schrödinger clue — not necessarily as impressive as Art Tatum. No offense, but….

Jafe

right it's from march this year, so no old old

@msh210 then again you haven't heard me tickle the ivories

msh210

@Jafe fair enough

2 hours later…

Jafe

2:33 PM

emi is the name of a sailor moon actress that could start a 12-letter word

1 hour later…

Gareth McCaughan

3:46 PM

some scaly lizards' males have two penises, each called a "hemipenis", but nothing derived from that seems to have 12 letters. There's a female analogue called a hemiclitoris, which is 12, as is what I guess would be the adjective "hemiclitoric" or "hemiclitoral", but if either can be clued by "Spectacle: a Sailor Moon actress" then I don't see it.

Alternatively, perhaps "two" is II and we're looking for the plural of something genital whose singular ends -ius. (Maybe there's something ending -gladius, but though that seems like it might be a plausible metaphor I don't know of any suitable words.)

1 hour later…

oAlt

4:50 PM

@msh210 a Sailor Moon actress with two genital organs could be Extra-Vag Anza

msh210

@oAlt it could indeed. Well found.

I thought it was kinda funny that @GarethMcCaughan was getting all scientific and meanwhile my clue was using gutter slang.

Gareth McCaughan

oh, that's fun

oAlt

@msh210 Thanks, I was too lazy to search at first but I did remember that Japanese manga have stage-play/live-action adaptations

CCCC: Negative number (2)

Stiv

5:10 PM

@oAlt NO ddef (number = no.)

oAlt

@Stiv No

...is indeed the correct answer

Stiv

Cool

...is a good thing to keep in summer

CCCC: Tank tops for children? Everything's sold somewhere (probably in Taiwan) (7)

msh210

5:32 PM

@Stiv cesspit (initials)

Stiv

@msh210 Same to you

By which I mean yes

msh210

CCCC: While absent, making your voice heard and boosting male signals, with victory for men (5,6)

1 hour later…

Sphinx

6:55 PM

Q: Chess 960 and retroanalysis

How many Chess 960 positions have no retrograde past (which I mean as: can't be played from a different Chess 960 position)? Example: If you look at the standard chess starting position, it might be possible that it wasn't the starting position at all, but the game started with RNBQKBRN and the p...

pattern chess retrograde-analysis

4 hours later…

Sphinx

11:23 PM

Q: Stories with hidden/subtle impossibilities or inconsistencies?

I'm in search for books or other resources of a certain kind of puzzle stories, where each story is seemingly "normal" and perfectly believable, if not for one detail that can't be true (i.e. anachronism, or subtle physical impossibility, or internal inconsistency in the narrative). The point is ...