The Sphinx's Lair

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oAlt

01:58

@bobble I think he means he wants to be young again

5 hours later…

Sphinx

06:34

-2

Q: which course do students prefer after 12 in defence academy?

including Best NDA coaching in Dehradun which gives good knowledge about defence coaching

Q: 6 x 6 Sashigane puzzle

Sashigane rules: Divide the grid into L shaped blocks - one block wide. All blocks must be L shaped. Cells with open circles form the knee (bend) in a block. The number in an open circle shows the number of cells in its block. Open circles without numbers may have any number of cells. Cells with...

logical-deduction grid-deduction

oAlt

07:27

I am developing another cryptic family reunion idea... I need to make one more puzzle before classes start again

2 hours later…

AncientSwordRage

09:38

@DanielS "gratuitous displays of youth" could definitely be misinterpreted

Jafe

10:20

"your face is a gratuitous display of youth!" "oh thanks!"

AncientSwordRage

10:48

@msh210 Teletubbies famously being a precursor to Goggle Box (🤭)

Jafe

11:09

true story, one time an army sergeant was not happy with our performance and asked (in angry sergeant voice) "what do the teletubbies say?"

(expected answer was "again, again")

someone piped up from the back row and said "big hug, sir!"

i think "sneaks out of television network" could be a synonym for sneaks minus some abbreviation for a tv network

"out of" works both ways as an indicator like that... i'm out of here vs i'm out of money

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe It could have been TELEVISIONNETWORK-SNEAK = eeiilnoorttvw, but there's also an 'A' owed

Jafe

and two s's in "sneaks"

AncientSwordRage

oh there's two of them...

oAlt

@Jafe ok that is funny lol

AncientSwordRage

TWIN PEAKS could be the TV show

2 hours later…

Daniel S

13:29

C4 hint: This one was written in a hurry and was just riffing on the theme of previous clues.

2 hours later…

Sphinx

15:06

Q: A tale of two: What's my friend trying to say?

My friend keeps sending me weird messages.. one of them was this list of absolutly nothing: Number 6 Logotherapy Brings bad luck Directed and was in 🦁♥️ P.S. remember that you mostly only need the first

knowledge enigmatic-puzzle

3 hours later…

oAlt

17:43

Sneaks can be infiltrates but I'm not seeing the wordplay

Stiv

18:01

Well, if this is following on from the X-FILES links you have inFILtratES which may be useful...

In fact, I imagine its eXFILtratES being 'sneak out' but the full wordplay...

'sneaks out' even

juicifer

E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable television network. It is owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel focuses primarily on pop culture, celebrity based reality shows and movies. As of November 2023, E! is available to approximately 71,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2011 peak of 99,000,000 households. == History == === Movietime === E! was originally launched on July 31, 1987, as Movietime, a service that aired movie trailers, entertainment news, event and awards coverage, and interview...

Stiv

E! is your television network

AH, snap!

juicifer

lol

Stiv

and escort=tart as in prostitute

juicifer

Stiv

18:05

So it's E! + XFIL(TART<)ES @DanielS

juicifer

well done putting it all together

Stiv

oALt's 'infiltrates' idea put me on the right track at last!

Daniel S

18:49

@Stiv It is indeed!

Stiv

The truth was out there!

CCCC: Asian partner's dad 1, Boss 0 (8)

juicifer

19:24

@Stiv FIL (as in father in law) + 1 + PIN (as in kingpin? not totally sure tbh) + 0

second half could also be parsed as PI + NO but unless you happen to work for a private investigator idk why PI would be boss either

Stiv

@juicifer Correct in general, though boss=pin here in as in "boss = a rivet, or pin with a large head" :)

GentlePurpleRain

When I saw this, I thought the dad could be PA, the 1 an L, so you could end up with PALOALTO, which would make @oAlt the Boss! (Not sure how Palo Alto would be an Asian partner, though...) :P

juicifer

@Stiv ah ok

I looked briefly but couldn't find that for some reason

CCCC: Small shirt in youth section (4)

Sphinx

Q: No Queen is red herring

We played a game of fairy chess Upon a sandy plane, a mess I lost a little and lost a lot I found myself a Ferz, aghast! A faerie borrowed body Taken fair for fare- ante Passing liege and carts before the horse Fought a battle staid and stayed course A farther four further went I hid, breaking ru...

riddle wordplay chess

Stiv

@juicifer TINY (Small) = _T IN Y_

juicifer

20:16

@Stiv ʸᵉᵖ

Stiv

(thumbsup)

CCCC: Finger food is fashionable - grasp with fashionable fingers (essentially) (7,4)

juicifer

@Stiv chic ken w/ in _g_

Stiv

@juicifer Yesss

juicifer

20:37

CCCC: Perhaps Mars colony at extreme locations? (5)

GentlePurpleRain

21:08

@juicifer Not confident, but could this be ALERT, a colony at extreme locations, where MARS is an alert system?

juicifer

@GentlePurpleRain not a bad answer, but not what I was going for

Sphinx

21:25

Q: "Smallest" cryptarithm

Can you find an unique cryptarithm (alphametic) with all 10 digits used and only 10 digit symbols occuring at all? Like $AB\times CDE=FGHIJ$, but than one is not unique. You may peruse all special keyboard characters like . (period) or ! (faculty), but ^ (power) suffices (I know at least one work...