I don't suppose you'd answer this question - is "the inner colors seem to be dependent on the underlying color on the screen at that specific pixel." reliably informing us that the output color is only dependent on the underlying color of the pixel, exclusive of its x/y coords? Or are we not meant to know that as a given
I think it was a bit unfair for @GentlePurpleRain to say that Sid's answers were all entirely wrong when the Star Trek one mentioned "Gene", since it now seems pretty clear that it was actually about Gene Coon. Admittedly, Sid almost certainly had a different Gene in mind :-).
(I had, in my notes, "noct- -ing + iio -- nope!" I can't believe I noticed neither NOTICING nor IO at that point. Oh well. To be incredibly stupid is human.)
Actually, if I parse it a little differently, it could be PRO (a good) and RATE (score) to give PROSTRATE... Anyone think of a way to get ST out of "active Athenian"?
Also, how important is a surface reading? Would a clue still be valid if it made no superficial sense (eg. just a seeming string of random words)? I assume it just marks it as a low quality clue as opposed to an outright "invalid" clue?
@GarethMcCaughan Yeah, you are right.. I had the "other" Gene in my mind. I was desperately thinking it could be related to something in the human body, possibly DNA,chromosomes,etc..
Just got an upvote on an 18month old question. For some reason, that sort of thing always makes me imagine a hermit living in the ruins of a city, that was once a thriving metropolis, but is now run down and long forgotten... And in wanders some intrepid explorer... "Where have you come from traveller? By what path did you find this place?"
Thanks. I now have the awesome privileges of Editing Tag Wikis Without Approval and Casting A Few Kinds Of Vote. I hope the power doesn't go to my head.
If Maria's hints are all truthful then the two remaining groups are obtained by taking {snow, havoc, trip, surprise} and {castle, music, candle, small}, picking one word from each of those groups, and swapping them.
If we make the first group either {snow, havoc, trip, castle} or {snow, havoc, trip, music} we can make a pretty good case for it matching books from the "A song of ice and fire" series.
so anyway, is there a series of books or movies or something whose titles contain words matching {music, candle, small, surprise}? Or {castle, candle, small, surprise}?
@Alenanno Isn't "salve" a greeting you can use any time to anyone? IIRC it's more formal than Ciao, more informal than Buongiorno / Buonasera and can be used at any time of day?
Since a lot of movies/books may have similar things in their story line, the words do not point to the story line - just the title. — Maria Deleva7 hours ago
This puzzle can be solved as puzzle on its own, but its solution is also part of Deusovi's Community Metapuzzle.
Above is the sheet music for the universally acclaimed "The Unfinished ________ Waltz", by renowned composer, Alconja (1763 – 1844). A deeply moving piece, to be sure, though sad...
It is kinda fun how you keep hitting the right vein and still not figuring out the answer. The third group is almost peeking at you. And then you will be left only with the words for the fourth. If you simply combine your latest thoughts...
well, Song of Ice and Fire should stick together Snow, Music, and Candle? Which means that Havoc or Trip must go with it... Probably Havoc? Storm of Swords, Clash of Kings, those seem more likely than Trip at least
Oh, wait, I misinterpreted, Snow, Music, and Candle would have to go with Castle or Small, Castle being a fit for Thrones and Kings
@Alenanno Oh, I see. Well, some puzzles just aren't amenable to plain-text versions. If yours is one, that's just how it is; I wouldn't worry about it.
@GarethMcCaughan Is my title correct in English? I'm having doubts about the order of "cubic" and "colored", or even the use of "cubic" to mean "made of cubes".
but I am having trouble with the stuff in the middle
Unless I'm confused it's obvious (given one piece of information I haven't divulged here) what the next-to-last word has to be, but at least half of the clue then fails to make sense to me.
meh, dunno. For the benefit of anyone who cares: the user it's addressed to is clearly Avigrail, the last word must be RAIL, but then if the previous word is AVIG then I don't know how that clue works.
The AVI file format was invented in 1992 but I don't think there was a famous wreck called the AVIG in 1988
@randal'thor Then it's just me who has a dumb theory for it: "Open this not while having tea" - You take the letter "t" (tea) from "not", and then "open" it (like a knot)... I'm a noob in cryptic clues, and just read now that every clue has to include a definition half, so I'm not sure where that is. — Lukas Rotter2 mins ago
Should we add posts to the list of questions of the fortnightly topic challenge even if the asker explicitly said that it's not meant to be a submission to it?
I don't think there's any reason to force it to be in there if the asker doesn't want it to be. Might be worth clarifying if they are saying that it shouldn't be included, or just saying that they didn't intentionally make it for the challenge. If it's the latter, then you could go ahead and add it.
Sconibulus's last one conformed fairly well to the rules, so I suspect this one does as well. My guess is that there's some obscure word that we're not getting.
I notice that "after active Athenian" has the initials AAA, which is a good score (triple-A) when it comes to rating some things (like sports teams).
The best I've been able to come up with (which is manifestly not enough) is that a TEN would in some contexts be a good score and that e.g. GREATEN begins with "Gr" (which could be short for Greek ~= Athenian) and ends with A TEN and means something a bit like "worship". Unfortunately it (1) doesn't have anything to do with "active", (2) doesn't have 9 letters, and (3) doesn't fit together in a way that matches the clue.
There might be other words ending in TEN with a similar sense but the wordlist on my computer didn't come up with any plausible 9-letter ones.
(I notice that my CCCC clues have included ass-grabbing, being turned on, and seduction. So far as I know this is mere coincidence. Paging Herr Freud...)
Arbitrary Kangaroo seems to have disappeared abruptly and completely after the MBB affair. Does anyone know whether he left voluntarily, or got kicked off for plagiarism of the Cowper thing (I hope not), or is still around but inactive?
... Ah, I see a note on his profile page: temporarily suspended for plagiarism, 7 days.
But, I dunno. The Cowper poem is long out of copyright, so it wasn't an actual copyright violation. It wasn't originally intended as a puzzle, so he didn't steal someone else's puzzle. I'm struggling to see that there was much of an actual offence there.
Well, no, that's going too far
Someone posting that as a puzzle and not deliberately intending to plagiarize should have credited Cowper. Actually, no, because that would have been a giveaway, but they should have said something like "There is an important note I will add once the puzzle has been solved" and credited Cowper in a spoiler block at that point.
So yeah, there was an offence, but one that merits a 7-day suspension? I suspect that anyone who did the same for purposes other than to say how terrible PSE is would have been treated more leniently; i.e., the 7-day suspension is punishment for being annoying and obnoxious as much as for plagiarism.
@GarethMcCaughan It has more to do with the blatant and intentional attempt to provoke a reaction by violating the rules of the site than the minutiae of what was or wasn't under copyright.
Sorry, "I dunno" wasn't an answer to BG's question. BG: AK was "Mushroom Bang Boom" and the last puzzle MBB posted before AK owned up to being MBB was a poem about a snail, with the giveaway first and last stanzas removed, presented as a riddle -- with no acknowledgement.
AK said it was meant to see whether anyone caught the plagiarism and reacted accordingly.
As a mother, I could say that it is natural - if my kids did something on purpose, I would be much more harsh with them, rather than if they did it without realising it is wrong.
If AK wanted to test the community's ability to detect and sanction plagiarism, he should probably have contacted one of the mods and said "I am going to do X and see whether anyone notices; if it goes uncaught for a week I will own up to it and fix it up". Especially in a case like this where there wasn't anything actually illegal, I would hope that that wouldn't be met with any sort of punishment.
... Though I can imagine the mods being quite unhappy about it for other reasons.
Hmmm... I'm looking at ATTRACTION as a possibility, but I can't quite make it fit. It's ten letters, means "seduction" (more or less), and contains an anagrammed ("casual") ACTOR. But I'm not sure how to get the ATTIN letters. (IN could come from the literal "in", but then I'm left with ATT and no more words...).
Maybe that will kickstart someone else's thought process.
@Deusovi Another cryptic clue question: can the indicator word and the word it's acting upon both be part of the same compound word? e.g. peanuts -> APE
And are there ever cryptic clues with 3 parts (two definitions + wordplay or definition + 2 wordplays)?
I have seen things like peanuts -> ape before. They would I think generally be considered a little naughty and might get an exclamation mark or question mark at the end of the clue. There are certainly triple definitions (i.e., the clue consists of 3 -- or indeed more -- definitions, with no more-wordplay-ish subsidiaries); I don't think I've ever seen one with >3 parts that aren't all definitions.
(note: Deusovi is a more expert cruciverbalist than I am and if his opinion differs you should probably trust his rather than mine.)
This puzzle can be solved as puzzle on its own, but its solution is also part of Deusovi's Community Metapuzzle.
Above is the sheet music for the universally acclaimed "The Unfinished ________ Waltz", by renowned composer, Alconja (1763 – 1844). A deeply moving piece, to be sure, though sad...
