The Sphinx's Lair

Sconibulus

01:46

so how was everyone's everything?

Saiid

02:12

I forgot that people actually asked questions about puzzles on puzzling se

Sconibulus

what do you mean?

TheGreatEscaper

Hullo

I think Saiid is referring to the 'How to pop one out' question

@Rubio those codecracker puzzles tend to be fairly easy. I have them in my local newspaper as well, they're usually designed to have a 'starting word' that can be found without toooo much work.

Saiid

@TheGreatEscaper Yes, that is indeed what I was referring to :P

TheGreatEscaper

03:37

Hey @Deusovi!

And hey to @Alconja as well!

Drat, it's kind of hard to tell when people are actually around or not...

Saiid

03:57

Agreed

Alconja

@TheGreatEscaper Hi. :) (and yeah, sorry, I'm often here, but not here... Usually have a chat tab open in the background on my work pc, or in this case on my phone)

TheGreatEscaper

No problem, I'm often the same

I assumed that the greyed out icon means tabbed out

Will

@Mithrandir What things ???

TheGreatEscaper

04:12

And that the non-greyed out icon means present in chat

Volatility

@TheGreatEscaper the level of greyness just indicates how long it has been since they have said something or entered the room

Saiid

lol

Will

04:43

@Mithrandir Oh, those things... right. Duh.

Rubio

05:27

yeah the avatar icons go grey when you haven't said anything in like half an hour or something

Saiid

hmm

does anyone else know how Deusovi got '_T _R' out of 'Horse moves right, left, faster'?

TheGreatEscaper

Nope

Saiid

as a side note, I have a feeling that "I" in 'I do it' might be the roman numeral 1

TheGreatEscaper

Another side note is that I suspect the final answer has something to do with puzzling

Since the first word is 'Sphinx', and there aren't too many ways the sentence could go from there...

Saiid

Probably, considering the Spinx part

lol

TheGreatEscaper

05:34

ninja'd

Saiid

yup

TheGreatEscaper

the _T_R must come from 'right, left, faster'

Saiid

I was thinking the last word might be TOUR, but I can't prove it yet

TheGreatEscaper

The 'by' I'm fairly sure is just a joining word

Hmm

Sounds like

Saiid

Ah, maybe right of lefT and left of Right

TheGreatEscaper

05:35

'Sounds like' is probably a homonym indicator

Saiid

or rhyming

TheGreatEscaper

Ahhhhhh, it's the right letter of left, and the right letter of faster

So it's actually: right, 'left, faster'

lefT, fasteR

Saiid

AAH

that makes sense

TheGreatEscaper

Maybe one of the 'you's in clue 4 is referring to the letter U

Saiid

I was thinking that's what the last one might be referring to

does 'to' rhyme with 'you'?

TheGreatEscaper

05:40

Yes, at least in Australia

Saiid

hmm

or actually, it could be FOOD, 'you are it' = you are what you eat

OO rhymes with 'you'?

TheGreatEscaper

it does

where does the F and D come from?

Saiid

then I just need to work out the F

I(1) of 'Do it'

TheGreatEscaper

Ah okay

Saiid

yeah

TheGreatEscaper

05:45

it seems a bit odd to have the D at the front though... there's no indicator that we're building the word out of order

Saiid

true

hmm

also that leaves us with only 'should do it' to get an F, if we worked that way

I found something

probably insignificant

there is a song called 'I do it'

the first two words are ' I feel'

I(1) of 'Feel'?

or is that too much trivia

Volatility

It occurs to me that the answer is probably RAND (def: "I"), referring to how he would often post links to new puzzles before Sphinx did

Saiid

hmm

TheGreatEscaper

Sphinx trots after Rand

Volatility

"sounds like you should do it" possibly clues a homophone of "errand", and maybe "are" clues the letter R, but then there would be a lot of unused words

Saiid

05:49

but where do we get the letters?

ah

eheheh

I can work with this

TheGreatEscaper

The sentence makes sense

somewhat, at least

Saiid

yeah

thought: sounds like = rhymes with, er stands for ending rhyme?, leaves us with rand?

maybe i'm just crazy

maybe end = 'n'd?

another possibility might be 'POST'?

or CHAT?

TheGreatEscaper

06:05

Yeah

Saiid

I'm not sure how we would get there though

TheGreatEscaper

Post seems likely

'I do it' is a definition

Saiid

'sounds like' = rhyme = ending rhyme = end of 'you should do iT'?

maybe that's a stretch

TheGreatEscaper

Hmm

I don't really think we've solved any part of this last clue properly yet

Saiid

well

'you are it' could be People, but I'm not sure how we would extract the 'p'

TheGreatEscaper

06:08

We're currently trying to link the clue with our predicted answer

*answers

But the links are very very tenuous

Saiid

I agree

TheGreatEscaper

I'm trying to see if you are it, interpreted as U R it, would help

Saiid

so let's try going by just what we see, then

yeah

TheGreatEscaper

But none of our predicted answers have the letter U

I feel like trying to match it up with our predictions is a bit harmful

Saiid

yeah

Everything I see:
I(1) do it, you are(U R) it, so it sounds like(rhyming, homophone?) you should do it(errand, command?)?

going to head to bed though

I'll deal with this tomorrow

TheGreatEscaper

06:12

Night!

Sid

06:57

Nope, but good try. (And once again, I'm not enough of an egomaniac to write puzzles around my own name! :-P ) I'll add a hint. — rand al'thor Nov 27 at 13:23

Nah, Rand doesn't write puzzles around himself although I wouldn't bet on it.

Rubio

07:12

we were thinking VOWS might play in there

("I do" being a vow, and the whole sphinx/vow thing)

but couldn't reach it from the clues

Deusovi

09:05

@Saiid Horse moves: definition

then right of "lefT, fasteR"

Mithrandir

@Sconibulus My mistake - there is no # there, I was reading it incorrectly.

@Deusovi Hello. Often nobody is here at this time.

Deusovi

Hey! Yeah, it's 4am my time.

I should probably be asleep.

Mithrandir

It's 11 AM here :P

So I am asleep.

I was here until midnight last night.

Mithrandir

09:45

Hello @IAmInPLS

Alconja

10:34

@Volatility Seems like ALLEVIATE - (def: Lighten) ALL (every) EV - E (day before going around) IAT (....something something, in tats too regularly....??)

TheGreatEscaper

10:51

IAT appears in 'in tats too' regularly

take every third letter

In tAts Too

Volatility

There you go ;-)

(btw, to the expert cruciverbalists, would the clue still be valid if I had a comma after "day"? I wasn't sure so I didn't put it in, but I want to know how far I can stretch the "ignore punctuation" principle)

Alconja

Ahh, haven't seen a "regularly" clue before. And as for the comma, as far as I understand that would've been fine.

Volatility

Deusovi actually used it in the first clue for his FisH crossword; that might have contributed to this one

Alconja

CCCC: Stonework from a heliocentric sounding virgin (7)

Volatility

Well, it's probably MASONRY, now just need to work out the wordplay :-P

Oh, hah, "virgin" = MARY, "heliocentric sounding" = around the SON

CCCC: Stoicist's response: "Trade off an energy drink to the audience!" (1'3,2,3)

The enumeration should give it away :-P

Mithrandir

11:10

Hmm. Now we need a room owner/mod to fix the pin. @GarethMcCaughan @GentlePurpleRain @Emrakul @Deusovi @Randal'Thor ?

Now is when I wish that I had superpowers :P

I'm power hungry.

:P

Display name

It seems like >4 ROs are too many during the week, but too little on the weekend

Beastly Gerbil

Heelllooo

Well we can start off by starring the new CCCC ourselves

But yes we do need a RO right now

@Alconja the answer is MASONRY

Mithrandir

@BeastlyGerbil I think you starred the wrong post

@Volatility solved that one already

Beastly Gerbil

Ooops I didn't see the answer

There we go

Damn I thought I'd solved one there

Mithrandir

@Volatility are you sure that's 1'3 and not 3'1? :P

Volatility

11:19

Yes, it's correct

Mithrandir

SHould I nominate myself to be a RO? I think I'm the only one with prior experience :P

Beastly Gerbil

Which room did you own?

Volatility

to be fair, I should have refrained from answering Alconja's clue to prevent it becoming a back-and-forth, but my frontal cortex was too slow :-(

Beastly Gerbil

I think I owned a room once - It was the one for solving REJBAS

Mithrandir

@BeastlyGerbil chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/33865/tagwars

Volatility

11:22

Actually I once was an RO for the Python chat room over at SO, although that was years ago and I didn't do much anyway

Mithrandir

(I was sorta kiddinga bout being the only one)

Display name

ROs here have nothing to do than pinning CCCCs, so I personally wouldn't take into consideration who owned one when voting

Mithrandir

*other?

Beastly Gerbil

@Displayname they also have to kick non-active users

Mithrandir

They could also kick people who are being disruptive

Display name

11:25

That doesn't happen very often, except we find a kangaroo hatchery somewhere here.

Mithrandir

Heh.

22

Q: How do I seek justice against vending machines?

The Problem Anyone who has attempted to buy products from a vending machine has probably had the experience of having their money stolen. In the most egregious form of this problem, the vending machine takes the entire value of an item after a user selects it, but dispenses nothing. The classic ...

sales

Beastly Gerbil

11:48

Oh I've made a couple of tag edits if people don't mind reviewing them

Mithrandir

I can't :/

Only on SFF I can.

Beastly Gerbil

Oh do you not have enough rep here ye?

Mithrandir

Nope. Only 3k.

If you give me another 2k then I can :P

Beastly Gerbil

Oh you need 5k, thought it was anyone who could access reviews

Mithrandir

I can review regular suggested edits.

But not tag wiki edits.

Yet.

Beastly Gerbil

11:52

I've had that priveledge a long time, and I think I myself have only reviewed 2 tag edits

So it's not the most exciting privlege

Mithrandir

I haven't review any on SFF yet, also.

Then again, I've only had 5k for a few weeks.

Wait, someone fixed the CCCCs?

Beastly Gerbil

@Deusovi probably

Mithrandir

3 hours ago, by Deusovi

Hey! Yeah, it's 4am my time.

Beastly Gerbil

Oh maybe not then

Mithrandir

That's still on the HNQ?

Beastly Gerbil

11:57

What is?

Mithrandir

78

Q: How is Shelob's name known?

In Tolkien's world, there are quite a few "magical" beasts that have proper names: dragons for example, like Smaug. One can assume that their names are known either because their creator was still around at that time (and thus could tell their name) or because the creature can speak (like Smaug)....

lord-of-the-rings the-two-towers

Mithrandir

12:36

Ouch, that was painful.

Editing this wall...

@Sconibulus You here?

(I always misread your username as @Sconinobulus, but that's not the point.)

Beastly Gerbil

All that reading on SFF has affected your eyes

Mithrandir

Yup.

IAmInPLS

13:03

@Mithrandir Hello!

Sorry, I sometimes pop in chat to see what I missed and I end up having to go away

So, what's up?

Beastly Gerbil

Hi @IAmInPLS

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil Hello

Damn, people are here on weekends too!

Beastly Gerbil

I'm assuming it was you who reviewed my tag edits. Thanks

Yeah this weekend has been oddly active

IAmInPLS

Yes, that was me. Is "stratergy" a valid word?

Or did you mean strategy?

Beastly Gerbil

Oh probably a typo

IAmInPLS

13:09

I'm fixing it

Beastly Gerbil

Oh oops, I just did so myself

Mithrandir

...SO you get another +2?

IAmInPLS

Ahah ok, now wonder why I got an error

Mithrandir

I just saw this on SO. What even...

Beastly Gerbil

@IAmInPLS well you can review it to get closer to a reviewer badge

IAmInPLS

13:12

Just did it!

@Mithrandir SO is a strange place

It's such a mess when you review on SO, much more than on PSE

Mithrandir

I know. The only thing I do there is remove thank yous from questions :P

I don't code, so it's not like I can do anything else.

Heh. A mod just rollbacked that question.

Beastly Gerbil

@IAmInPLS youve reviewed 8 more things than me apparently

Mithrandir

...And now it's gone. Cool!

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil On PSE? I didn't notice

Beastly Gerbil

Yeah you're on 174/250 at the moment

IAmInPLS

13:14

Way to go for the badge :-p

Beastly Gerbil

Gamow is on 414 and JonMarkPerry is on343

IAmInPLS

Oh wow, someone downvoted all yur propositions on meta ?meta.puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/5688/…

Mithrandir

But I'm 10 ahead of you on First Posts, @IAmInPLS

Beastly Gerbil

@IAmInPLS yeah don't know why someone would downvote all of them

IAmInPLS

@Mithrandir I'm always late for first posts or suggested edits :(

Mithrandir

13:15

Yup. Everybody should just vote for me :)

Beastly Gerbil

:P

Mithrandir

(I'm not running unless someone else nominates me)

IAmInPLS

@Mithrandir Yes, seems weird to nominate oneself (winking at you @BeastlyGerbilv:-P)

Beastly Gerbil

And I'm suprised dcfyj has the most out of those 3 tbh

@IAmInPLS just nominated everyone on the frequently active list who wanted to do it :P

GTG see you guys later

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil Not so surprised, he's very active in this room

Mithrandir

13:17

Ciao

IAmInPLS

See ya

Sid

13:46

4

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 cipher enigmatic-puzzle steganography

Anyone tried this after the obvious thing?

Mithrandir

Nope

Display name

14:15

@Volatility I assume you intentionally wrote "Stoicist's" instead of "Stoic's"?

Sphinx

16:32

0

Q: Five 9's make 100

Problem statement is simple: You can use only +, -, *, / . Make five 9’s equal 100. there are many solutions for six 9's given below, but can you do it with just 5? 9 * 9 + 9 + 9 + 9/9 = 100 99 + 99 / 99 = 100 (99 + 9/9) * 9 / 9 = 100 (99 + 9/9) + 9 - 9 = 100 (9 + 9/9) * (9 + 9/9) = 100 (999 -...

mathematics

Beastly Gerbil

Hi @Matt

Rubio

17:29

good ${time_of_day} to you, ${formal_gender_specification}!

Beastly Gerbil

:P

Sconibulus

18:08

@Mithrandir I'm here now, although I was sleeping before

Beastly Gerbil

18:30

@Sconibulus good point in that tag edit

Sconibulus

I'm a little surprised tag edits don't have an 'Improve' option like regular edits do

Beastly Gerbil

Yes it would be a lot more helpful. For instance IAmInPls spotted a typo but couldn't fix it until the other had been approved

@Sconibulus aaaah that why

Sconibulus

Oh, ok, so you can, you just need to be one of the best people in the universe (according to PSE)

Beastly Gerbil

Well at least we now have something else to aspire to :P

Sid

Quiet like a perfect weekend...

Sconibulus

18:45

I'm not at 10k yet, so I have plenty to aspire to :)

Sid

I am not even at 5k yet. Speaks volumes about my puzzle-solving abilities. I probably need to buckle up now.

Sphinx

19:06

0

Q: Always thin but never fit

I am always thin but never fit. I like all sorts of food, but salsa and cheese are my favorites. Some have confused me with a crazy person, but I’m not. What am I?

riddle

Beastly Gerbil

Think I got that ^ right

That was weird. I actually saw my rep change before I even got a notification

Sphinx

19:40

-2

Q: What('s in a) name�

((n-d)-456447)(h{v-rev}w) = a name What's in a name? (I'll add more hints in the unlikely case of no-one solving it in a few days)

lateral-thinking enigmatic-puzzle cryptic-clues

Mithrandir

20:14

@Sconibulus I wanted you to give me a hint as to what to do with the notes from the Music Box...

Sconibulus

20:25

Consider the missive

Mithrandir

The letter?

Gareth McCaughan

20:41

@Volatility Solution to your CCCC is "c'est la vie" (sounds somewhat like "sell a V").

Beastly Gerbil

i expected french, but wouldn't have got that

Gareth McCaughan

For me the vowels in "sell" and "c'est" are really quite different.

So now, in accordance with tradition, I have to make up a new clue that I think will be much too easy and that takes everyone three days and multiple hints to solve.

CCCC: Heavens above! Fire tears Oriental chap asunder (8)

Beastly Gerbil

@GarethMcCaughan you probably want to remove the stars from Volatilitys cccc too

Gareth McCaughan

When I select "unstar" I get a notification bar saying "It is too late to undo this operation".

Beastly Gerbil

Hmm, we might need a mod then

10 hours is too late? pfff

Display name

20:48

"Nominate additional Moderators for The Sphinx's Lair"

Beastly Gerbil

:P

Deusovi

I cancelled the stars.

Beastly Gerbil

Mod powers :P

Deusovi

Gareth, you don't see anything to the right of "pin this item"?

Mithrandir

I just asked my first ever question on SO. I'm interested in seeing what happens to it :P

Beastly Gerbil

20:54

it will get 4 views then nothing

Gareth McCaughan

@Deusovi oh, hmm, actually I do

Mithrandir

It has exactly 4 views...

Gareth McCaughan

whoops

so it looks as if I probably can do it after all, if I choose the right option instead of the wrong one

Mithrandir

@GarethMcCaughan Choosing the correct option is always preferable.

Gareth McCaughan

@Mithrandir Damn, if only I'd thought of that.

Deusovi

20:56

Yeah, common mistake.

People do the wrong thing instead of the right thing all the time.

Mithrandir

@BeastlyGerbil Now it has 5. Mwahaha.

Beastly Gerbil

Damn. This crystal ball must be broken.

Mithrandir

I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with this stuff

Sphinx

0

Q: Can you figure out the christmas message?

Some puzzlemakers have decorated their christmas tree. They have used glue to stick a letter to each christmas ball. Every letter can only be found on one certain color christmas ball. But oh no, they used the wrong glue. All the letters have fallen of from the christmas balls. Can you figure o...

letters seasonal

Volatility

21:20

@Displayname Oh, didn't realise "Stoic" was a noun

Mithrandir

Why are other-language CCCCs allowed?

Volatility

@GarethMcCaughan Ah, well they are practically the same in my accent. Sorry.

Rubio

A very common phrase would be ok, from what I've seen

Volatility

I thought it was a common-enough phrase in English

Rubio

That's not to say you could pick any random phrase, translate it to French, and use that

Beastly Gerbil

21:22

@Rubio how have you never had salsa and crackers? :P

Rubio

@BeastlyGerbil Salsa with crackers? that's just ... weird.

WEIRD.

I guess if that's some people's thing

Beastly Gerbil

Come on waitrose.com/shop/DisplayProductFlyout?productId=405466

Rubio

then I stand corrected. :)

Rand al'Thor

21:46

@Mithrandir FYI, I'm not going to be the best one to ping over the next couple of weeks.

@Gareth In case you haven't seen it already, you may be interested in:

60

A: A guide to moderating chat

What tools are available to room owners? Room owners are users that have some elevated permissions in a chatroom. Typically, they will be the first line of defense when it comes to inappropriate content or behavior in a room. Users will look to the room owners to guide the room. The room owners...

Beastly Gerbil

I'm sad. My nomination has 3 downvotes, and 3 upvotes??

Rubio

I could swing the vote... clicks downvote muahahaaa

Beastly Gerbil

Yes, I just want to know why the 3 downvotes, from whoever downvoted

Rand al'Thor

@Sid @Deusovi and whoever else is working on my main-site CCCC: I forgot to put a definition part in the 1st clue. That's my bad, although I could change it if nobody minds (since nobody seems to have had much of a problem with that clue). As for the 4th clue, do notice the question mark there.

Display name

@BeastlyGerbil They probably don't like the fact that you've nominated yourself.

Rubio

21:53

wasn't me. i've largely abstained from voting there

@Randal'Thor We're kinda stuck on that one :)

The missing def was misleading, as we thought it might be related to the advertised "twist". If its omission was unintentional, then we're a little bit set back, actually.

Deusovi

The twist is probably "western hemisphere" → "western half of sphere" → SPH

Beastly Gerbil

I only nominated myself because I nominated everyone on the list who wanted to do it. And it should be the person voted on here, not the post

Deusovi

other way around BG :P

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil A couple of possible reasons: 1) self-nomination (all the other nominations show that at least one other person has confidence in the nominee); 2) your past suspensions (these days cough people can't become mods if they've been suspended recently, and although RO =/= mod, some of the same rationale applies).

Rubio

Maybe, but that would then mean that the "twist" is just an uncommon wordplay rather than actual twist. And that leaves me, anyway, scratching my head as to how we actually get the full decoding for #3

Rand al'Thor

21:56

Or maybe they just don't think you'd make a good RO :-)

Display name

What was BG suspended for?

Beastly Gerbil

When was my last suspension? Summer wasn't it

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi No, he got it the right way round. This is one of those very rare places, like mod elections, where we should be voting on the person more than the quality of the post.

Beastly Gerbil

@Displayname I was apparently done for sockpuppets, then I deny it

Rand al'Thor

@Displayname Search the transcript :-)

Beastly Gerbil

21:57

I had a rant about it a while ago, you might find it

Deusovi

@Randal'Thor Typically, "vote for the post, not the person" means "vote for the [contents of the] post, not the person [who posted it]".

I interpreted it in that way, and in this case, it would be the other way around.

Rubio

In his case it's all the same thing, so doesn't matter :)

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio You're not set back, since I've confirmed that your solution for that clue is correct :-) And Deusovi is correct on the 'twist' for the first clue.

Beastly Gerbil

@Randal'Thor I imagine most don't know about who's been suspended, so doubt thats the case

Mithrandir

Everyone should just elect me, and then we'll all be happy. :P

Display name

21:58

Or just create another Gareth somehow.

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio ???

Rubio

@Randal'Thor Yeah but now we don't know the twist for #3. Unless someone figured out how to get the answer without resorting to handwaving, and I missed it

(I mean, nobody's explicitly used "awaits" yet, and I don't think it works as any indicator)

Display name

Oct 6 at 16:38, by dcfyj

@BeastlyGerbil True, he has Marionettes. No flimsy sockpuppets for @BeastlyGerbil.

Beastly Gerbil

Further back than that I think

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio The answer to the 3rd clue (Deusovi's) is correct. Nobody's quite got the right explanation.

Rubio

22:01

Right.

Rand al'Thor

Hint: look at the nature of the "twists" in the first and second clues.

Deusovi

I don't see any "twist" in the second clue.

Beastly Gerbil

@Displayname basically, to save you searching, I got a months suspension for sockpuppeptry when I hadn't and then when I wrote to the mod who suspended me they didn't reply

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Is "alternate" meaning choosing alternate letters a standard thing for cruciverbialists then?

Deusovi

Yep.

Gareth McCaughan

22:03

@Randal'Thor Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen it before.

Rand al'Thor

And there I was thinking I was being original :-(

Deusovi

I mean, it's not common, but it's not uncommon either.

Rubio

Yeah #2 seems pretty vanilla

#1 is more clever than twisty

Deusovi

Interpreting words as instructions for doing things to other words is kinda the point of cryptics. :P

Rubio

#3 has me lost

and I can't even get a nibble on #4

Rand al'Thor

22:05

@Deusovi Yes, but I was trying to come up with weird and wacky things to do to other words.

Apparently the only place I've really succeeded in that is the 3rd clue.

Gareth McCaughan

@BeastlyGerbil I didn't downvote your nomination. Does it make it feel less bad to reflect that a downvote might mean "I think other candidates are better" rather than "I think this person is a bad candidate"?

Rand al'Thor

@GarethMcCaughan If someone thinks other candidates are better, they should be simply upvoting those candidates, and not downvoting BG unless they actually think he's a bad candidate.

Beastly Gerbil

Exactly what I was just writing

Rubio

@Randal'Thor unless you're wanting us to read (awaits the poor) easterner → R which seems a bit of a reach

Display name

Or they just think there ~~'sno need for~~ shouldn't be more room owners, and therefore dovwnote all other nominations.

Beastly Gerbil

22:07

Then they'd upvote rand's post

Rand al'Thor

@Displayname I think there's no need for more room owners, but I didn't downvote any nomination for that reason.

Display name

@BeastlyGerbil It makes perfect sense from a strategic point of view IMO. "I don't want any more room owners, let me downvote every other submission. I don't care whether they would be a good RO or not"

Rand al'Thor

Speaking of which, I should edit the last section out of my answer so that voting on it means voting on the main thrust of the answer and not on Gareth.

Gareth McCaughan

@Randal'Thor I agree that they should, but I can well believe some people might act differently.

Rubio

anyway. Off for a bit to snowblow. (whee) hopefully someone solves #4 while I'm gone :)

Rand al'Thor

22:09

I'll just unofficially (and after the fact) endorse @Gareth in here instead :-)

Rubio

Hehe. In that case just upvote him. I did. I think like 5 minutes before he was made official, and like 30 seconds after I reposted to Emrakul the message from Gareth that he was fine accepting the nomination.

Late still counts right?

ok back in a while. a little older and a lot colder.

Beastly Gerbil

Off to bed. Posting puzzle in morning. (Think it will be an enjoyable one for others)

And in case people didn't know, it is exactly a week now till Christmas. Merry Early Christmas!

Sconibulus

Merry Christmas, every one

Will

& Happy Hanukkah (which starts on Christmas Eve) :)

Mithrandir

22:29

@Will Thank you.

Sconibulus

And Happy Kwanzaa, which starts on Boxing Day!

Will

I think this is the closest to an actual Chrismahanukwanzakah I have ever seen (though it's not as astounding as our recent Thanksgivukkah)

Will

22:47

Clearly I was out of it in 2005 though.

Alconja

23:00

Morning all

Sphinx

2

Q: Circle division

There are three of me in every perfect circle. Yet when divided into four identical arcs my number shrinks to two. What am I?

riddle geometry

Rubio

howdy @Alconja

Deusovi

Hey!

Alconja

@GarethMcCaughan EMPYREAN - (def: heavens above) -PYRE- (fire) EM-AN (E=oriental, man=chap, torn asunder by pyre)

(excellent surface reading btw)

Gareth McCaughan

23:31

Yup, correct answer. Your turn!

(I wasn't entirely happy with this one's surface reading, because fire doesn't actually tear people asunder. But I'm super-fussy about surface readings, especially my own.)

Alconja

I guess it depends on how explosive the fire is :)

Gareth McCaughan

I suppose machine-gun fire could tear someone apart.

But that's not exactly what the clue suggests.

Alconja

Maybe something like inferno?

That being said, surface readings be damned, this is me playing around with structures again (ever so slightly broken because I'm forcing things):

CCCC: Mimicked redo core horrid core redo mimicked (8)

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