The Sphinx's Lair

@Deusovi for an earlier C4 of mine, the first version I came up with had "Termination of a terminated roof's termination, or [...def...]" - intending to give termination=END, terminated (roof's termination)=EAV[e], and literal OR → ENDEAVOR. I changed it because I wasn't sure "of" was allowed. Would it have been?

Deusovi

12:16 AM

I think it'd be okay, but not ideal. "Termination of" ==> END might be arguable, but definitely not the best option.

Alconja

Possibly "Terminate a terminated roof's termination..." would have been cleaner then?

Rand al'Thor

Dec 12 at 21:01, by Rubio

CCCC: Terminate an unterminated roof's termination, or the younger sibling of a vanished civilization. (8)

Rubio

@Alconja yeah that's what I ended up with :)

Saw the problem almost immediately so I fixed it within the edit window

er. unterminated, whoops. i guess either word would have worked, wouldn't it :)

I'm still mad I botched the spelling. oh well

Sphinx

12:32 AM

1

Q: The Mathematics Department

After a whirlwind tour of the English department, the tour entered the Mathematics department. Upon entering, I immediately heard some interesting conversations: "It's like a puzzle, that game..." "I think the key is to rationalise it, by making a recurrence..." "You have to us...

Alconja

@Rubio oh, my mistake. :) (and I think unterminated is better anyway)

Rubio

yeah definitely hehe

Rand al'Thor

1:05 AM

Well, I'm not clever enough to solve any of the CCCCs, so I've had to post my own cryptic clues as a puzzle on the main site rather than in here.

I'd post a link, but the Sphinx will bring it in a minute.

Saiid

lol

Volatility

@Randal'Thor didn't you post something similar to the first question in chat? or was that someone else?

Display name

Dec 11 at 15:44, by Rand al'Thor

The western hemisphere in a cross posts puzzles (6).

Rand al'Thor

Shhhhh ;-)

TheGreatEscaper

Morning all!

Rand al'Thor

1:10 AM

Dammit, busted.

Ah well.

I liked that idea enough that I felt it deserved to be used somewhere, and I'd never actually used it in a CCCC.

You won't get far with that one clue though. It was meant to be the easiest anyway :-)

@TheGreatEscaper Evening :-)

In fact, goodnight. It's late enough in Europe that I'm off to bed.

Volatility

Night!

Sphinx

0

Q: A puzzling newspaper headline

The following clues are not quite your usual crossword fare; they do fit the standard guidelines for cryptic clues, but each of them contains an unusual twist which (hopefully) makes them harder than average. By putting together all four solutions, you will discover a meaningful sentence. The w...

cryptic-clues

Saiid

Took you long enough, Sphinx

Rubio

he's distracted, trying to get Christmas shopping done no doubt

Saiid

1:35 AM

I've got something for three, but nothing else

I'll share it as partial, I guess

ah, wait nvm, I don't

Rubio

tease :)

Saiid

1:57 AM

?

me?

TheGreatEscaper

2:48 AM

Bit quiet around it seems

Saiid

3:05 AM

@TheGreatEscaper Yes, indeed

TheGreatEscaper

The charms of timezones...

Saiid

Yup

Rubio

3:25 AM

timezones are a myth

Saiid

3:38 AM

@Rubio like global warming?

Rubio

and Canada. Yes.

Saiid

I see. thanks for enlightening me

TheGreatEscaper

How does one start a chatroom with a member who is not currently in a chat room?

Saiid

3:53 AM

Difficultly

TheGreatEscaper

Alrighty then

Saiid

yup

Sphinx

4:41 AM

0

Q: What makes for a Balanced State of Capital?

If the capital city of a US state conforms to a special rule, I identify it as having a Balanced State of Capital™. As it turns out, only 8 of the 50 state capitals qualify for this Balanced State. Those 8 state capitals, in alphabetical order, are: Atlanta, GA Boise, ID Juneau, AK Nashville, ...

pattern

0

Q: Why does everyone keep incessantly saying this?

Why does everyone keep incessantly saying this in all the chatrooms, ALL THE TIME?!?! If you see cay If you see cay then what, noone posts anything after it, are there implied foul language, controversial topics, conspiracy (at this point im so desperate to get to the bottom of it, i'll believ...

cipher wordplay mystery unsolved-mysteries

Volatility

4:54 AM

@Alconja @Rubio FLAMETHROWER, def: "Weapon", FLAME+TH(ROW)E+foRce

Pretty good clue!

Alconja

That's the one. :)

Sid

5:26 AM

Is it common for cryptic clues not to contain definitions?

Deusovi

No, it absolutely is not.

Techidiot

@Sid- Do the numbers speak of enumeration in your puzzle? I dont think they do.

Sid

I won't reveal that,now. You need to find out what he was doing

And possibly,all the answers as well..

@Deusovi And every word in the clue needs to be involved somehow with the answer?

Deusovi

Yes.

The only way to not have a word involved is if it's a "connector" - for instance, you could have "(definition) is (wordplay)" or "(wordplay) leads to (definition)".

Techidiot

Yeah. Updated a little more.. They fit well but not sure if I am interpreting it right

Sid

5:40 AM

@Techidiot Nowhere near,I am afraid.

Volatility

Ok, finally got a sorta nice clue:

CCCC: Lighten every day before going around in tats too regularly (9)

Techidiot

Hmm. . 9 words after lighten should give 9 letters..

Deusovi

"Regularly" could also be the definition.

Techidiot

Yeah

Deusovi

(Or "too regularly", for that matter.)

Sid

5:45 AM

"Regularly" could also mean that you only take some letters and not all letters... like alternate stuff..

Techidiot

May be regularly taking a letter from previous words

Yeah

TheGreatEscaper

Ooh, the chats woken up a bit

What is CCCC?

Cryptic Crossword Clue or something like that?

Deusovi

"Chat cryptic clue chain"

Sid

^

Deusovi

A week or so ago, one of our users decided we'd start a chain of cryptic clues. If you solve one, you post the next.

Sid

5:49 AM

More than a week ago..

Deusovi

Oh yeah, it has been a while. Hold on...

Whoa, that was a month ago!

Nov 15 at 3:53, by Alconja

New chat game: the person who answers the most recent chat cryptic clue has to pose a new one.

Apparently I have no perception of time. Nice.

Sid

Time passes quickly in the virtual world of puzzling.

Sconibulus

well, Rogue One was better than I expected

Rubio

6:20 AM

@Volatility So... I still don't get the flamethrower explanation. can someone spell it out for me?

Volatility

"fire" = FLAME, "disturbance" = ROW (i.e. causing a row), inside THE, and then "force" with the four letters on the outside ("four walls") dropped off

Rubio

oh. hah. nice

I had the answer but couldn't figure out why :) good job

@Sconibulus I enjoyed it quite a bit

Volatility

Can "with" be used as a hidden word indicator?

Deusovi

Hm... how exactly?

Volatility

6:37 AM

e.g. Inca person with hat (3) for CAP (bad example, because "has" can be substituted for "with", but you get the idea)

Deusovi

hm, I don't think so

Volatility

ok, thanks

Sid

6:51 AM

Anyone gone through Rand's puzzle?

Deusovi

The one with the cryptics? No, not yet

Sid

Now that you have seen it, I doubt, it would last long...

Deusovi

Well, these don't seem to be standard cryptics...

USHER is definitely wrong - for one, that would require anagramming without an indicator. For another, H and S from HORSE doesn't make much sense.

Oh, and definitions have to be on the end of the clue - not in the middle.

Sid

I knew usher was wrong,anyway...

It's probably alternate letters of Horse followed by first and last letters of faster but I don't get anything significant in that..

Deusovi

7:07 AM

"Alternate" could only apply to "routes" or "...faster by".

Ah, got it.

Browser keeps crashing. Give me a second.

Back.

Sid

Got everything?

Deusovi

Nope, just clues 1 and 2.

Rubio

Bah. You're clearly slowing down - it's been at least 20 minutes already ;)

Deusovi

Now 1-3.

It's 1am for me and I just took a chemistry final a few hours ago.

The last one is some sort of homophone clue, at least partially.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Rubio

7:24 AM

i wanted it to relate to Nike, but no idea how it would

Deusovi

If "you are" → UR, here's a list of possible words:

Rubio

are they all excluding def's btw?

Deusovi

aura baur blur burd burg burk burl burn burp burr burs bury curb curd cure curl curn curr curs curt daur dour dura dure durn

duro eure euro four furl furs fury gaur gurn guru hour hurd hurl hurt iure jour jura jure jury knur kurd kuri kuru lour lure lurk lurs mure murk nurd nurl nurr nurs ourn ours pour pure puri purl purr purs rurp ruru scur slur smur sour spur sura surd sure surf tour turd turf turk turm turn ural urao urde urds urdu urdy urea ures urge uric urim urns ursa urus urva waur wurm your yurt zurf

Nope, only the first.

Rubio

first one is the only one i got. good to know.

Deusovi

0

A: A puzzling newspaper headline

Partial Answer (clues 1-3 solved) The western hemisphere is never xenophobic first. (6) Horse moves right, left, faster, by alternate routes. (5) A most outstanding fate awaits the poor easterner later on. (5) I do it, you are it, so it sounds like you should do it? (4)

Posted partial answer.

Any ideas for the last clue?

Rubio

7:29 AM

how is outstanding fate awaits → F_ ?

Deusovi

outstanding fate

F_E

the "out"-standing letters

Rubio

oh.

I need a layman's guide to every cryptic indicator or something :)

most of these I only know from seeing y'all use them in C4s

Deusovi

they aren't standardized

you should be able to read them as instructions (loosely)

i'd never seen "outstanding" used that way before

I still don't get the "meaningful sentence".

boboquack

Maybe 'outstanding' refers to the letters that haven't been referred to yet, as in 'A', giving F_TE

Alternatively it could be 'A' is out standing (away from) the rest of fate.

Deusovi

yeah, I just edited with the latter theory

Sid

7:34 AM

How do you get the "R"? Last letter of Easterner?

Deusovi

Eastern letter of poor.

("Eastern" being "rightmost".)

So the "easterner" of "poor" is R.

Rubio

you're not really using awaits in either though

Sid

Hmm... interesting

Rubio

especially not the latter alternative

Deusovi

Yeah...

Sid

7:35 AM

2 directions have been used in 2 clues. Probably the sentence has got to do something with that..

Deusovi

"Later on" → AFTER seems like a good def though, and the rest fits.

Sid, the sentence is from the solutions apparently

SPHINX TROTS AFTER...

Sid

Time?

But, that doesn't seem to fit with the clues..

Deusovi

I don't see how SPHINX TROTS can start a meaningful sentence.

boboquack

So maybe it starts yet another cryptic clue...

Rubio

Well. for the 4th, I don't see any way the def can be the end of the clue; it's the beginning (perhaps, dubiously, VOWS for "I do"), or nothing

Deusovi

7:39 AM

But it just says we have to find the final sentence.

Ooh.

VOWS sounds promising.

"Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow"

Rubio

I can't think of anything that works for the homophone end

Deusovi

Neither can I. :/

Rubio

but yeah, I forgot about that vow thing :)

boboquack

Vowels? Maybe that's the trick in this clue.

Sid

4 letters,isn't it?

Deusovi

7:40 AM

Huh?

boboquack

@Sid Vows is 4 letters.

Sid

You wrote vowels,right?

Deusovi

Where do you get "vowels" though?

boboquack

@Sid I was thinking of something that was a homophone, and vowels was the only close thing.

3 mins ago, by Rubio

I can't think of anything that works for the homophone end

Sid

How does the homophone work for that? I am confused...

Rubio

7:43 AM

Alternatively, "I do it, you are it" may all be a clue def for something SE related, like HINT or CLUE, which would give a meaningful if not well motivated sentence solution and also give something easier to homophone there

boboquack

@Sid Remember, rand al'thor said '...but each of them contains an unusual twist...'

Rubio

well - the first had no def

the third I'm not convinced we've explained, though the answer is probably right, so whatever explains either the missing letter or the apparently unused "awaits", depending which solve path you look at, is likely the twist there

the second seemed pretty vanilla

Deusovi

I'm not sure what the twist for the second could be.

And the first's "twist" was... kinda breaking the rules of cryptics.

(Unless it was meant to be "hemisphere".)

Anyway, it's nearly 2am. I'm off to bed. See ya, and good luck!

Sid

How is hemisphere a definition for Sphinx?

Rubio

it's not

there is no def in #1

Sid

7:51 AM

Awaits is possibly used as a connecting word... Although, that is odd..

Rubio

rand more or less admitted he used a clue he mentioned some days ago here, where "western hemisphere" meant left half of sphere → SPH

"awaits" may be the twist.

cuz otherwise there really isn't one

Sid

Hmm, the last word remains.. I liked URGE but I can't explain how G and E appeared. So, it's probably wrong.

Sphinx

0

Q: Help a man to recover his PIN number

A man forget his 6 digits PIN number, but fortunately he remembers the clue for his PIN number. The n-th digit is the first digit of (product of other digits multiplied by n) The number is not 000000 If the pin is abcdef, then : The 1st digit = The first digit of $1 × b × c × d × e...

mathematics number-theory

Rubio

8:22 AM

good morning, afternoon, evening or night, @MOehm

M Oehm

@Rubio Hello Rubio! It's morning here; half past nine. Which is it for you?

Rubio

half past 2am :)

Sid

Bah... No one has really seen my puzzle....

Good morning, @MOehm

Rubio

@sid Saw it, read it, enjoyed the setup, realized I'd need to steal Ankoganit's device away from you to figure out what you had in mind ;)

Sid

Like I said, that was the find of the Century...

I proofread that thing twice. I am certain,it is solvable without too much trouble unless you have never seen the thing I am trying to describe.

Sphinx

8:43 AM

0

Q: How to "pop one out" on a Rubik's Cube?

I am trying to follow this tutorial for solving a Rubik's Cube: https://ruwix.com/the-rubiks-cube/how-to-solve-the-rubiks-cube-beginners-method/. Step two says, among other things: If the white corner piece is where it belongs but turned wrong then first you have to pop it out. What is me...

rubiks-cube

Techidiot

9:37 AM

@TheGreatEscaper- Is @MOehm heading in the right direction?

M Oehm

11:28 AM

@Techidiot Given that humn has almost solved it now, I think not.

TheGreatEscaper

11:42 AM

Hullo!

It's almost there, I think

I'm not sure if your solution explains why 9 is a loop with a tail, and not just a solid circle with a tail!

I think MOehms idea of a diamond grid is really good... but I think no matter what, to make it clear 9 has a hollow space, there needs to be a bit of 'evolution' in the maze

As far as I know, there are two fairly simple ways to 'evolve' the maze and makes things super clear

Display name

11:55 AM

Would it be OK to nominate oneself for a new room owner? I'm talking about this comment by CipherRiddle, and just wanted to know whether you agree it's OK.

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