The Sphinx's Lair

Gareth McCaughan

00:01

@Deusovi thanks for restoring my edit to Dan's answer to the crossword

Deusovi

Yeah, no problem

Gareth McCaughan

anyway, sorry, I need to get some stuff done so will be AFK for a while, perhaps many hours

TheGreatEscaper

Alright

Hmm I'm certain there has to be some constraint here that we're missing

Deusovi

The top layer looks almost like an L in perspective to me.

Display name

00:55

Welp. So here's the question that features an answer as a clue. Is this really allowed?

Sphinx

0

Q: Why am I being sued

I was getting dressed one morning. I was almost finished, I had my socks on my hand, when suddenly my brother yelled up the stairs, "Rick, mail's here, and there's something for you!" It was a very odd letter "Hi This is just to let you know that we are suing you for damages amounting to $10,0...

enigmatic-puzzle

Display name

01:18

Looks like Matsmath is also in on it

Rubio

01:39

I believe they asked about it in here and were told there was nothing wrong with it, at least from the using-a-sock-puppet angle

I suppose someone would have carped if the premise itself was flawed.

In any event, both from the chat conversation and from the puzzle itself, it seems that the initial post is sufficient to solving it, the hint is just helpful.

4

Q: Breaking the rules for a purpose

Note: This question may spoil a future puzzle, thus it is in spoiler tags. However, I don't want to be banned, so I am asking it anyway.

discussion question-quality

so it was in Meta, not in here. Sorry. :)

Display name

that explains why I also didn't find anything in chat... (also remembered some conversation about it in chat) Thanks

But it's not an answer, so shouldn't it be removed?

Sconibulus

02:21

@TheGreatEscaper Would a K have to involve crossings? Might it be written as |<?

It's cheatish, but sides we see have bends and loops, why not sides we don't?

Rubio

@Sconibulus I know you're having fun with the cube, but it may be time for a hint on your animals puzzle. I've ground to a halt on it after getting that far, since it's unclear what kind of answer is being sought and thus how to arrive at it; and nobody else seems to have had any other ideas.

Sconibulus

I don't know what other hint I can give really, you've got like 95%, you just haven't turned it into a valid sentence

or well, maybe you've got like 120%

I suppose that's technicallyish a hint

Volatility

"Mob mentality"?

Rubio

Herd mentality is the scourge of army intelligence. isn't a valid sentence?

I suppose it could be mob mentality, sure, but now we're just dabbling in subtle semantics. I don't recognize it as a saying

Sconibulus

That's rather a step too far

Rubio

02:31

Hmm.

Sphinx

0

Q: What is a Fortunate Word™?

In the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee, a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles. If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Fortunate Word™. Use the following examples below to find the rule. $$\begin{array}{|c|c|}\hline \bbox[yellow]{\vphantom{Yy}\t...

pattern word-property

Sconibulus

the whole sentence is constructed of the words you're choosing from, a close sentence would be good enough, even if it wasn't the one I was specifically thinking of

Rubio

Mob shrewdness is the scourge of army wisdom.

so that would be a valid construction, even though its meaning is ... well ... clunky

Sconibulus

yeah, that's a little clunky, but I'd probably give it a check, it's a sentence someone might feasibly say

ugh, the foundation of this puzzle I'm building SUCKS, I hope you guys like it eventually

Rubio

I can't really find a better reading set of choices, so I went with that. Edited to add.

I'm curious now what you had in mind for it :)

Sconibulus

02:38

I had "Troop Shrewdness is the Scourge of Army Wisdom", which is a paraphrasing of something I read once which my brain has over the years paraphrased to "The Army Way and a clever recruit are sworn enemies"

actually, I threw that in a comment, yay comments!

Rubio

Whee

Sphinx

0

Q: What is the hidden message in this email?

What is the hidden message in this email? You recently purchased an item from Chicago Zires: Product Name: TI-06 Thermometer [FANCY] Product ID: 2016196120160206206240312172617201809010 Price: $122.61 Shipping: FREE 32-day Shipping from Baltimore Method of Payment: Credit Card...

word enigmatic-puzzle

Sphinx

03:25

0

Q: Hickory Dickory dock

Hickory Dickory dock, The MOUSE ran up the clock, The clock struck one The MOUSE ran down, Hickory Dickory dock. Hickory Dickory dock, The OX ran up the clock, The clock struck two And down he flew, Hickory Dickory dock. Hickory Dickory dock, The TIGER ran up the clock, The clock struck three A...

lateral-thinking animals

Puzzling Meta

04:17

0

Q: Edit ruined my puzzle!

Unfortunately, I can't explain what happened without spoiling the puzzle, so only read on if you want a puzzle ruined for you.

discussion questions answers

Ankoganit

05:12

VTCs (unclear what you're asking) were cast on these three questions, but I don't really understand why:this, this‌,this. Maybe I'm just being stupid, but I thought it might be worthwhile to let you all know.

Rubio

I imagine mods can see who those VTCs were made by, and can tell if one person is just out to piddle in people's corn flakes today.

Ankoganit

Whoa, interesting phrase ("piddle in corn-flakes")! Is that a common idiom?

Rubio

Well, I bowdlerized it slightly

but yes, common enough forr cdn.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/… to be a thing

Ankoganit

Cool xD

Learning something everyday

Sid

07:14

As for @Deusovi's crossword puzzle, Can I post some findings here? I think, I have got a couple, but nothing significant to warrant an answer..

Yet, I can't completely satisfy the clues apart from the definitions.. so probably wrong..

Deusovi

07:31

@Sid Go ahead!

Sid

I feel 1D is "conciliator" by definition. I had got another one... I am forgetting which one it was..

18A is "gave" (gave away donations, halved might mean only taking the 1st half)

Volatility

Ha, actually now that I think of it, I have 18A

It's one of the double wordplays

...I think

@Deusovi is "heartlessly" supposed to be a synonym of "spiteful"?

Deusovi

No - that would have to be "spitefully".

Volatility

Yeah, thought so, nevermind then :-)

Thought it was SPIT (TIPS<, SPITeful), which almost fits but not quite

Rubio

07:59

man, that's messed up.

Sphinx

1

Q: How do I become a sub-15 cuber?

Right now, I can solve a Rubik's Cube with an average of 17 - 20 seconds. Sometimes, I may get 15 or 16 second and my record is 12. I am currently using the Fridrich method and below is how long I take to complete each step. Cross: I almost always solve the white cross, and on rare occasions I m...

rubiks-cube

0

Q: Being played (fourth)

Killing me right from the front, the soil will turn over, without you won't be able to live for long. Stab me in the back, I'm faster gone than you can run, and yet you don't want to live without. Rip my innards out, all what's left is an old shiny antique and yet you can't hold what you just r...

riddle word

Rubio

the dude who put up the bounty on Techidiot's clones riddle, just awarded the bounty to someone who answered, incorrectly, well before he put his bounty up, instead of awarding it to me who actually got the damn thing right.

IAmInPLS

@Rubio Link?

Sid

Err, that's unfortunate.

Rubio

Nice!!! Hey, even though you hit the right answer, I gave the bounty to Tom, because I think he spotted the essence (repetition) first. — Tinkidinki 27 mins ago

25

Q: Riddle-Yet-Another-Riddle!

Let us tell you a story about nothing but us. Unbleached sometimes, sometimes not, that's what they discuss! We were fabricated by some type, and that type had a needless lane. Magical we might be, the future probably, we shall never go in vain! One of us resides in each line he...

riddle wordplay rhyme

Sid

08:02

The answer was clones?

Rubio

I didn't "hit" the right answer, I worked on that riddle every day for entire week it was up. finally got it. and then got shafted. :)

Yeah. (Don't get me started.)

Sid

Bah.

IAmInPLS

Shame

Sid

Magical? Clones are scientific inventions. And what's the size and lie stuff? I must say, I was slightly disappointed by the answer.

user61230

@GarethMcCaughan Would you like to be a room owner for TSL?

Rubio

08:09

So was I. He didn't have a good answer for the size/lie thing either.

@Emrakul chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/14524?m=34120294#34120294

user61230

Oh, sweet!

Stack Exchange

Deusovi has added Gareth McCaughan to the list of this room's owners.

Rubio

@sid it's TechIdiot. What more can I say. :)

IAmInPLS

Next step: Gareth's first puzzle!

Rubio

Buahaha

He's probably been slowly building a 500 image imgur-maze for the past several months, just waiting to spring it on all of us as a Christmas gift. ;)

Sid

08:17

Good luck to anyone who manages to make such a puzzle and whoever manages to solve that.

@Rubio I don't think the riddle was too bad. Had "repeat" been the answer, I don't think anyone would have had any qualms over it. It's only that the intended answer does not fit better than other "wrong" answers.

IAmInPLS

@Rubio I think Gareth knows that his puzzles would be too hard for us, simple humans.

Rubio

Nah. I'll give the riddle this much - clumsy as parts of it are, you know when an answer doesn't fit well, and when I finally got through "copied" to "cloned" I knew it was right.

"repeat" was only a good fit for, what, 3 lines of the riddle? it fit those well, but nothing else

and pretty much all the other answers were far worse.

@IAmInPLS Yeah, I think you nailed it :)

Sid

Clones had to be fit in a couple of lines. It did not fit in naturally with everything.

Rubio

That or he's been secretly posting questions from a sock puppet all this time. and he'll turn out to be.. I dunno ... Avigrail or something :)

Sid

I did accuse Gareth once of being a sockpuppet of M Oehm(Only because both of them never post any questions, are super-smart and have their own websites linked in their profile). :P

IAmInPLS

08:25

@Rubio Damn, you're reading my thoughts! I was looking for someone with decent reputation who posted only questions, but it's hard to find

Sid

Except, neither of them would have benefited from it..

Rubio

@Sid Btw, I thought you were going to be disappearing from here for a while. Glad to see you still around :)

Volatility

So I realised like a minute into dinner that 18A is SPIT, just that the second wordplay is SP(-L)IT rather than SPITeful (hope I got the notation right)

Deusovi

08:49

@Volatility Notation is flexible and not fully standardized. As long as it makes sense, it works.

IAmInPLS

Gareth's CCCC is still unsolved?

Damn

Mithrandir

So that's how you get relegated to an extremely faded avatar very quickly...

Deusovi

Yeah. Long anagrams are hard.

Sid

09:08

@Rubio About that.. I am going to disappear around new year's time as my exam schedule says that my exam starts from 3rd Jan to 16th Jan. Then, another exam in 1st week of Feb, main important exams last throughout March, followed by competitive exams from April to May after which I would be back full time from June. I might sneak in sometime during the next few months but nothing regular..

Mithrandir

@Volatility That suggested edit should have been a comment.

@Sid Then we won't have that picture with our avatars on chat anymore...

Rubio

that's a lot of exams.

Mithrandir

#DarkAvatars

Rubio

best of luck to you!

Mithrandir

Be smart :P

Sid

09:10

I still have exams going on now... but they are not too important and tomorrow is the last one(That damn, biology) after which I am free for around 15 days and I can safely work on the puzzle that is brewing in my head for the past few days..

Oh, Thanks. :-)

Mithrandir

Has @GarethMcCaughan been promoted yet?

Volatility

@Mithrandir I realise, but didn't want to pollute the comments, and plus, received clearance previously

Rubio

@Mithrandir Yes he has

Volatility

Should I rot13?

IAmInPLS

I'm glad I don't have exams anymore :-D

Techidiot

09:20

@Rubio - Agree. Thw bounty was not fair.

The*

Mithrandir

09:41

@Volatility Ah, didn't know that.

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

5

Q: Gdansk Knight to you

More than surprising, and slippery to the core, I give resistance. I hide my secrets, until you come upon me, revealing myself. Evening stars of, transcendental quality, illuminate me. Unravelling the, centrally coiled hemisphere, signifying me. The source of gold eggs, si...

riddle word cryptic-clues anagram haiku

Volatility

I'm thinking 33a is UMPIRE, but not sure how "uire" has anything to do with dogs

Volatility

10:08

If I have the correct solution, 30a seems to be the same type of clue as 24d, with extra words

Actually no, I just can't spell -.-

Gareth McCaughan

10:58

I promise I am neither M Oehm nor Avigrail. I promise to use my godlike powers of Room Ownership only for good, or at any rate not for outright evil, or at least not for severe outright evil when I'm likely to get caught.

6

@Rubio wow, that's pretty inappropriate bountying behaviour. (I can imagine something similar being reasonable -- imagine e.g. that you'd got 15 upvotes for your answer and the earlier one had only 5; I can see someone thinking that spotting the significance of repetitions was worth a reward. But as it is? Nope.)

Should I give a hint for my CCCC clue?

Rubio

@GarethMcCaughan Yeah, I'm a little peeved. (And commented accordingly in response to his bounty award msg)

I haven't been trying much on the C4 but it seemed like those who were at it harder than me were uniformly stuck on anagramming "any that Hermione and Willow"

If you're feeling benevolent, you might offer a hint on whether or not they're wasting their time at that.

Otherwise the concensus seems to be "Do no harm" is the most likely 2,2,4 to start off, and nobody's found a convincing followup to that for the rest.

IAmInPLS

Do no harm, when at...

user61230

"Do no hurt, me-am so very be mads."

Techidiot

Can anyone think about this? Seems like its an easier one. I got the idea but not the word due to my lack of skills.

Rubio

Do no harm, when at Tiny El Wail. nailed it

oops. word order. :)

Gareth McCaughan

11:10

ooh, my name is in italics now. Exciting.

Rubio

Heh, cool. Didn't notice that

Deusovi

Wait, but I don't get blue italics? I want a refund D:

IAmInPLS

@Deusovi Haha, take it, D

Ankoganit

@IAmInPLS Does the 'D' mean you are laughing with your eyes closed? :P

Techidiot

Haha

IAmInPLS

11:13

@Ankoganit :D:

Where are my eyes now?

Gareth McCaughan

oh, shut up, four-eyes

Ankoganit

@IAmInPLS Nice beard

Gareth McCaughan

I hereby confirm that the people trying to anagram "any that Hermione and Willow" are on the right path. The answer does not begin "Do no harm", as it happens.

IAmInPLS

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/46760/… close this please

Rubio

VTDWEP. (Vote To Delete With Extreme Prejudice)

Ankoganit

11:18

Damn, I have an anagram searcher that supports enumeration, but this is way too long

user61230

Possible four-letter words (not necessarily complete, but likely contains at least a couple of 'em)

Deusovi

WHEN/WHAT looks promising.

user61230

(I'm looking at four-letter words first, because two-letter words aren't likely to discriminate a solution)

Ankoganit

'HALO' 'WANT' 'MORE' 'HINT'

user61230

changes username to Halo

Gareth McCaughan

11:23

halo to you to. but no more hint just now.

Ankoganit

@GarethMcCaughan ahah I was just listing some possible subanagarams xD

Gareth McCaughan

@Ankoganit I know you were. (Though I did think you might be arranging them to sound like a hint request on purpose.)

IAmInPLS

@Deusovi Yep, thought the same

Deusovi

I need to buy a set of Scrabble tiles...

user61230

Hmn. The only four-letter synonym for "summary" is "curt."

Deusovi

11:29

No, I think the entire thing is the summary. Like "do unto others what you would have them do unto you" or something

user61230

Yeah, that's gotta be true.

Sphinx

-2

Q: Why are puzzles puzzling?

Why are puzzles hard? Is your brain confusing yourself? Already tried doing puzzles - they are hard.

logical-deduction

user61230

I'm looking specifically at the (4,4) in the middle

Deusovi

Onelook doesn't find any phrases with that enumeration.

user61230

Maybe this?: onelook.com/?w=????_????&scwo=1&sswo=0

user61230

11:31

Free will?

Gareth McCaughan

@Emrakul I think that's identifying (4,4)s that are on their own standard phrases.

Deusovi

Yeah.

Gareth McCaughan

Of course it's possible that the (4,4) within my clue's answer is itself a standard phrase -- I am explicitly not commenting on that -- but there's no particular reason to expect it would be.

user61230

@GarethMcCaughan Yeah, it is. Just fishing for words and ideas, or if it's a common (4,4) phrase.

Sphinx

11:58

0

Q: What is a Hanging Word™?

In the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee, a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles. If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Hanging Word™. Use the following examples below to find the rule. $$\begin{array}{|c|c|}\hline \bbox[yellow]{\vphantom{Yy}\tex...

pattern word-property

Sphinx

12:53

0

Q: How are the Japanese planning to corrupt the youth of the west?

1980 - Location Classified "Commander, we've received a message from a deep cover asset in Japan". "Well decode it then, what does it say?" "Well, erm. This asset is a little eccentric boss. He doesn't trust ciphers, never uses them. But he's sent us this. Apparently though the message will sh...

enigmatic-puzzle

Sconibulus

14:12

@GarethMcCaughan wow, that happened quickly

dcfyj

?

Sconibulus

(secret edit for context)

Techidiot

@Rubio- Tom get's a wiser medal :) 100 bounty on your way!

Gareth McCaughan

@Techidiot @Rubio Oh, well done Tom.

Techidiot

Also, I have added a couple of extra lines to my riddle

To make it extra unique though not sure how arrow fit many lines.

Lol @GarethMcCaughan :D

All the best. Hope you get them all right

Gareth McCaughan

14:23

sorry

dcfyj

Nifty, your name gets Italicized when you're a room owner.

Although, that's a little too subtle

IAmInPLS

@dcfyj I think it's enough. I think Gareth himself doesn't want a big blue bold italic Gareth all over the place

"I think" a lot

Display name

14:38

Does the anagrammed part of an anagram cryptic-clue necessarily have to give any additional hints? Or would e.g. "Disaster: Pets or a chat" be a completely valid way to clue "catastrophe"?

dcfyj

I think that's an indirect anagram, if so, I can see why Deusovi doesn't like them

Ankoganit

@Displayname IMO anagrams without some indicator is bad

@dcfyj indirect anagrams are a different thing: it's when you don't give the actual fodder, but some synonym of that

dcfyj

oh

Ankoganit

e.g. One who thinks about liquid (5) for MUSER (anag. of SERUM)

Display name

@Ankoganit Oops, I forgot about that. I didn't mean if it's OK to not indicate an anagram, but whether the actual anagrammed part can be anything or must also be an actual clue.

Sconibulus

14:42

the anagram fodder doesn't need to be a clue

Ankoganit

It's not ususally a clue, actually

Display name

Ok, thanks.

Gareth McCaughan

Anagrams with particularly appropriate anagrammed-bits are much loved by crossword setters and solvers, though. Here are two classics by the sadly deceased "Araucaria":

O hark the herald angels sing the boy’s descent which lifted up the world, -> While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground

(used, of course, in a Christmas-themed puzzle)

and

Poetical scene with surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3, 3, 8, 12)

whose answer is "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"

and to appreciate how clever this is you need to know that that's the title of a poem by Rupert Brooke (hence "poetical scene") but the building in question is also the home of Lord (Jeffrey) Archer, who was the subject of a minor sex scandal as well as various other legal to-dos.

I will at this point drop another hint for the current CCCC, which is that my anagram text is also particularly appropriate.

Techidiot

@GarethMcCaughan- You may get some info here and here

dcfyj

@Techidiot Why are we linking hammers?

Gareth McCaughan

14:48

ah, today I learned something about eyes.

@dcfyj Because of a puzzle Techidiot posed and I answered.

Techidiot

@dcfyj- Nailed it with a hammer :)

Or may be umm hammered it

@GarethMcCaughan- Here's one more hint

dcfyj

You know, hints to puzzles should really be place in the question rather than in chat. Otherwise that makes it rather unfair to the non-chat folks.

Display name

@GarethMcCaughan That's what I feared :D I know nothing about Harry Potter or Willow (assuming it's the film), but I hope it's easily googlable. (I'm not requesting any answer from you whether or not it is)

dcfyj

I never even thought about Willow >.< I was thinking about a tree

Sconibulus

@Displayname Hermione knows little of morals, her forays into rulebreaking usually have horrific consequences. I don't remember Willow very much though, it's probably been a decade since I've seen it

Techidiot

14:53

@GarethMcCaughan - According to the archaeological dept of India, hammer's and chisel played a crucial role in building the Taj. Which is also a symbol of love

Gareth McCaughan

ah!

Sconibulus

...hammers probably played a part in every building ever made?

well, maybe not quite all, but the majority

dcfyj

I was about to refute that :P

Gareth McCaughan

@dcfyj I already solved the puzzle; this is just about getting the last details of the clues in the riddle.

dcfyj

ah ok

Gareth McCaughan

14:54

(I agree that in general it's bad form to give hints where not everyone can see them)

Techidiot

I believe you will add them in your answer. So, I have no worries

Sconibulus

I think the 'little guy who stands upright' is probably a nail

Techidiot

@Sconibulus Exactly

incesterror21

Hello everyone

Ankoganit

@incesterror21 Hello!

incesterror21

14:56

What are you guys up to?

IAmInPLS

Then, for the hint?

Techidiot

Also, not many know about the piano hammers.. Hence, "not many sense the truth,"

IAmInPLS

Solving Gareth's CCCC @incesterror21

incesterror21

CCCC?

dcfyj

The white star on the right

incesterror21

14:56

Why not say C4 or 4C

dcfyj

I usually use C4 to avoid being found in the searches :P

Techidiot

And Thor fits perfectly!

incesterror21

How can I access it?

dcfyj

It's just sitting there on the right hand side of the chat

incesterror21

So it's only the few lines there?

I see. I thought it was only an excerpt

dcfyj

14:58

If you can't see it I can link it. Yes, it's a chat cryptic crossword clue, thus C4

Techidiot

@GarethMcCaughan- You can add @Sconibulus comments in there. "Nail" is that little guy who stands upright

dcfyj

If you think you can't see the whole message you can always click the timestamp and it'll pull up the chat log for that message

incesterror21

@dcfyj What about the second message? Also some kind of 4C?

dcfyj

What second message?

Techidiot

Also, skull part is again simple.. It has a head.. And being a non living thing, it can't think!

Display name

14:59

@incesterror21 To summarize: Gareth confirmed that anagramming "any that Hermione and Willow" is the correct way to approach this C4, and also that the anagram is particularly appropriate (i.e. it actually has something to do with Hermione / Willow). The def is most likely "Summary of morally acceptable actions"

Gareth McCaughan

@Techidiot no, that won't do: having a head doesn't guarantee having a skull. Hammers have heads but they don't have skulls.

incesterror21

HTML has head(er)s

dcfyj

?

Techidiot

Ah, okay. I intentionally didn't add head to make it a little tougher to guess

Gareth McCaughan

<head><title>This is the title</title><skull>This is the skull</skull></head><body>Blah blah blah</body> :-)

Techidiot

15:01

Yeah :)

dcfyj

You could create a skull tag :P

Gareth McCaughan

Then it wouldn't be HTML any more.

Techidiot

google.co.in/…

dcfyj

I forget which one it is, but there is a form of HTML that allows for custom tags.

Techidiot

The first synonym I get is "Skull

Display name

15:02

XML?

Techidiot

So, that was the reason

dcfyj

@Displayname I know that does, but I think this was a web thing

incesterror21

@Displayname anything you got from anagramming it so far?

Techidiot

XHTML?

Gareth McCaughan

@Techidiot "Skull" and "head" are not synonyms, I promise.

dcfyj

15:02

But they are similar

Ankoganit

@Techidiot Synonyms don't mean "replace A with B everywhere and you still get a right thing"

they are context dependent

dcfyj

I've used synonyms in all my cryptics and riddles so far, doesn't seem to have cause any issues as yet.

In fact, they get solved rather quickly

Why can't I edit right T.T

Techidiot

I will break you brain/head/skull. Not sure how far I went with replacing head with skull.

Ankoganit

@dcfyj because the edit button is on the left

Techidiot

Though again, that was just to complicate things a little

dcfyj

15:05

Look at the history of that chat post

Ankoganit

@dcfyj it happens

...though not very often, fortunately

Gareth McCaughan

you can often replace "head" with "skull" or vice versa when talking about a human's or animal's head, but not when talking about a hammer's head. (Not always even with human heads. "On the wall was a painting of Einstein's head." =/= "On the wall was a painting of Einstein's skull.")

Anyway, enough whingeing about the clue; it clearly didn't stop the puzzle being solved :-).

Techidiot

Haha :) Sorry bout that. Can you add one line moreee

incesterror21

And you can't give others a 'skulls up'

Display name

@incesterror21 Nothing that seems reasonable, just some ridiculous things like "do my lawn thin or heal at wine", which is wrong on multiple levels.

Gareth McCaughan

15:07

Skulls or tails?

Techidiot

Sign's of love is not defined yet

Ankoganit

If you call your headmaster a skullmaster, you are likely to get into trouble @Techidiot

dcfyj

@GarethMcCaughan Well, In all fairness, you can replace Einstein's head with Einstein's skull, it just won't be all that pretty to look at.

Techidiot

@Ankoganit - Haha.. Spare me. I haven't went that far here ;)

Gareth McCaughan

"The Prime Minister is the skull of the government."

Techidiot

15:08

And I guess, a riddle needs to be complicated. Isn't it :)

Ankoganit

@Techidiot Not necessarily ;)

Gareth McCaughan

@Techidiot I thought "signs of love" was sufficiently answered by acknowledging that that couplet was about the Taj Mahal.

Or is there some further thing going on that I've missed?

dcfyj

This riddle is pretty simple :P

incesterror21

The simple ones can be beautiful

dcfyj

Not my original (as I stated when I posted it) but I like it :)

Techidiot

15:12

@GarethMcCaughan - Okay. Not sure if everyone knows about it. Anyway that's all

Let me put a green tick!

Gareth McCaughan

thanks!

incesterror21

@Displayname how do you solve anagrams? What website you're ususally using?

Techidiot

@incesterror21 - For shorter ones you can use wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html

And for the huge ones try boulter.com/anagram

Display name

@incesterror21 Well, in this particular instance (since we have to anagram a whole sentence into another) I'm using my own prototype, sorry, but I saw Deusovi also found this which supports matchings like ?? ??. (I haven't tried it yet).

Ankoganit

@Displayname Onelook doesn't solve anagrams AFAIK

incesterror21

15:18

I was using boulter until now. I think it's very nice because you can use crtl + F and look for words :P

Display name

Nevermind, then :D The links Techidiot posted for anagrams seem pretty good.

Sconibulus

so many two letter words without 'b', 'f', or 's'

Display name

One problem is there are only 2 "O"s, which means we can forget about an enumeration like TO DO ????, DO ????, DO ????

Wouldn't you also have to indicate commas in the brackets of the c4?

Gareth McCaughan

Commas (if/when present) are not generally indicated explicitly.

incidentally there's only one D, so your do-do-do options are even more limited than the two Os would suggest.

Display name

True. I also tried TO DO WHAT ???? ?? ???? ??, but it doesn't seem to return anything reasonable :/

TO DO sounds like a plausible beginning IMO

Sconibulus

15:28

DO IT WITH LORE, WE HYMN AN ANAL(ysis)

IAmInPLS

@Sconibulus Damn

Ankoganit

alright, Y probably can't go in any two-letter word (it would have to be MY, which seems unlikely in a sentence of general advice)

Sconibulus

that's the first actually semi-plausible thing I've come up with, but I don't think it's plausible enough for Gareth

Ankoganit

Probable four letter word with Y is ONLY

Then it can nicely match with WHEN

and get rid of one W

Sconibulus

"we do only what" is a pretty good start actually

Ankoganit

15:33

also, there's no S, so we can probably eliminate two-letter HE and IT

dcfyj

We do only what in Lima at hern! :P

Techidiot

DO IT ONLY WHEN ...

Sconibulus

...we alar in math?

Techidiot

DO IT ONLY WHEN HE WARN AT LIMA :D

IAmInPLS

"We do only what we're meant to do" - The Matrix Reloaded

►

Gareth McCaughan

15:49

@Ankoganit Not commenting on words in this particular solution, but there are at least the following 2-letter words with Y using only the available letters: AY MY OY YA YE YO. I agree that MY is much the most common of those, of course.

Sid

Morally acceptable actions... perhaps something under OATH?

incesterror21

16:07

@TheGreatEscaper you should stick to what you've got so far

incesterror21

16:25

@elias well done

Rubio

elias isn't in here, btw :)

incesterror21

How can I ping him then?

i.e. make him come here

Rubio

You kinda just did actually.

incesterror21

Who are you anyway?

And why are you responding to the ping meant for elias

Rubio

I believe mentioning someone not in a room will send them a note that they've been mentioned in a chat room they're not currently in, and give them a link to join it

incesterror21

16:29

I see. Thank you very much for explaining!

Rubio

Me? I'm ... just me. And I wasn't replying to it, just commenting on it :)

incesterror21

So you are not his secretary

Too bad. I could have sent you to bring Elias here

Rubio

Oh, I'm certainly not as important as that. :)

Sconibulus

@Rubio I don't think that works unless they've been in the room recently, but I'm not certain

incesterror21

Is your highness @GentlePurpleRain here?

Rubio

16:38

Ah, yeah that's possible. It happened to me, once, but that was indeed shortly after I'd left a room

incesterror21

It seems Elias did solve it

Very well done!

Mithrandir

It doesn't have to be that recent.

Like, I got pinged months after being in a room.

incesterror21

viewstl.com/?embedded&url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/…

Attempt too visualize the thing

Rubio

Oh. my.

Yes, the 3D model completely trivializes it, doesn't it. :)

incesterror21

16:53

It would have been too easy with the help of the model

I'm impresses how well he did! I think this one was easier to create than to solve.

GentlePurpleRain

@incesterror21 I tend to prefer "your majesty" or "your holiness". :P

incesterror21

Of course. Please excuse my behaviour

Your majesty

Display name

@Sconibulus DO IT ANAL WITH MY HEEL, NO WARN

incesterror21

@Displayname incrediblethings.com/sex/vajankle-bangable-foot

NSFW probably

-probably

Sphinx

0

Q: 16 Two Colored Line up

We have a different type of puzzle which consists of 4x4 board with numbers on it; Your task is to put numbers in the correct order as given in the diagram above. In each step, you can take one number from a color and one number from another color and interchange them. In other words, if you...

optimization

Techidiot

17:15

-4

A: Why am I being sued?

This is merely a suggestion but: Because Also, I found a typo. You say your socks were "on your hand". They must have been "in your hand", right? No one puts socks on their hand, do they?

What is going on here? ^

Display name

He improved the answer in order to actually make it an answer (it wasn't one before). GPR undeleted it.

Techidiot

Hmm..

Sconibulus

@Displayname that sounds unpleasant...

GentlePurpleRain

17:35

@Rubio @incesterror21 That's not actually true. If they're not in the room, they won't get a notification. You need to ping them in a comment instead.

Beastly Gerbil

Only mods can do out of chat pings

GentlePurpleRain

@Displayname I assumed it was Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like Hermione, she's a young witch, although she's less apt to follow the "rules".

Sconibulus

Oh... that's a decent point actually, didn't think of it for some reason

Rubio

@GentlePurpleRain I've been (for sure) out of a room, and gotten pinged when someone referenced me a (shortish) while after I left it. So you don't strictly have to be in the room to get notified.

It's possible (likely, really) that if you've never been in the room you won't get any notification though.

dcfyj

I was initially thinking a tree, but now I'm thinking Willow

GentlePurpleRain

17:49

@Rubio Are you sure that you were no longer listed as being in the room?

Rubio

Yup.

GentlePurpleRain

It could also be that you only have to have been there at some point -- I'm a little foggy on the specifics. You may be right.

Rubio

(In fact, the message said something along the lines of, I had been mentioned in a chat room I was not in, did I want to go back?)

GentlePurpleRain

Okay, so I guess you just have to have been there at some point (or maybe there's a time limit -- if you've been gone for x hours/days/whatever, then you no longer get pinged).

Rubio

@GarethMcCaughan so you're not coming up with a good explanation for hanging words using that particular subset of letters either huh. (I got to CGLU. didn't notice M can work instead of U.)

Beastly Gerbil

17:55

@GentlePurpleRain yeah occasionaly I wake up to find 'CHAT REPLY' in my inbox. I think you get it if someone answers you

Gareth McCaughan

@Rubio Right. I thought I might as well post an answer :-).

Rubio

@BeastlyGerbil Nah, those are different. You get those if you're still "in" the room though not online. (I believe)

Gareth McCaughan

Clearly a HW is one containing one of the letters of the German word GLUCK. Because, er, um, Gluck is kinda like Glock, which is a make of handgun, and being shot is a bit like being hanged. How about that?

Beastly Gerbil

oh ok, I usually don't leave the room, just shut my computer.

Rubio

hehee. I was actually looking at GLOCK earlier, cuz it felt close

I think we're sharing a brain a little :)

Gareth McCaughan

17:57

yeah, but you can't use O

all puzzlers are a bit alike

(what a terrifying thought)

Sid

"Being shot is like being hanged?" The only similarity is you get killed both ways. Other wise, there is a hell of a lot of difference.

Rubio

are we counting AK as a puzzler? I'm trying to decide if I should be offended, or deeply offended. ;)

Gareth McCaughan

He was pretty good at solving puzzles.

Rubio

Yeah, I'm having fun

Gareth McCaughan

Clearly in order to be a true puzzler you also have to be good at crea.... uh, no, sorry, I've completely forgotten what I was going to say.

11

Sid

17:59

@Rubio AK was pretty good apart from the fact that he was too annoying.

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