The Sphinx's Lair

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Rubio

22:15

ok well. I'm not happy with one part of this, but I'm going to let 'er rip anyway.

CCCC: Clean victory: a backwards western state up against, oddly, USMC. (6)

Sphinx

Q: Something New(ton)?

Recognized as one of the most brilliant scientists of all time, Sir Isaac Newton was always ahead of his time. On the cusp of something brilliant, late in 1704, he had the idea to send you a coded question. You might wonder how Newton could send you a message 300-plus years into the future? Good ...

Rubio

^ that looks suspiciously like it came from somewhere

Sconibulus

Clearly it's hatUUM

Saiid

Guys

click below

http://yes.com/

Display name

@Saiid How about "nooooooooooooooo"

Saiid

22:22

@Rubio back of 'wardS', odds of UsMc

@Displayname lol

back of 'wardS', western statE, up against(next to) odds of UsMc

just some thoughts

I'm thinking clean victory is the def

Sconibulus

V(ictory)AC(California:CA-reversed)U(p)U(S)M(C)

=VACUUM

Saiid

I was thinking california

hmm

welp

Rubio

sconibulus has it.

Saiid

what about 'against'?

and where does it say to take the first letters?

Rubio

against is just next to - it's the padding word i wasn't excited about, but needed it for surface reading

Sconibulus

22:29

the only first letter things are relatively common shortenings

Saiid

hmm

oh well

Sconibulus

CCCC: The start of your soul's fate lies behind Chatbot wagers... It's a pair of Queens! (9)

But now I have to drive home

Saiid

the start of Your Soul's Fate

Rand al'Thor

22:47

@Mithrandir Re your edit to this answer: the original title was a reference to a famous George RR Martin quote.

(pinging in here since Mos is in the middle of a movie night)

Saiid

lol

@Randal'Thor I'm not positive, but that might've been an attempt for a hat

Rand al'Thor

@Saiid Nah, I think he just wanted to remove 'profanity'. I've seen him doing that before.

Saiid

any luck on the CCCC? (and did you see my undeleted answer to your cryptic thing?)

Rand al'Thor

@Saiid I didn't. Linky for the lazy?

Sphinx

Q: Symmetry Inversion Riddle

Just a simple riddle that occurred to me the other day: What sees itself upside-down in a mirror, but not back-to-front?

riddle

boboquack

23:24

@Randal'Thor Did you see the changes I made to your answer? I didn't edit the spoilers with the individual answers, just the final part, so if you want to edit those, it might make it more complete.

Rand al'Thor

@boboquack Oh, just noticed that now! Great, that makes more sense. I thought I must have got one or two of the clues wrong. Thanks!

And nice puzzle, btw :-)

boboquack

Thanks!

Puzzling Meta

Q: Is a handful of solutions that don't work considered a partial answer?

I've seen our stance on partial answers (where some, but not all, of the puzzle is solved), and I agree with our philosophy that they're basically a good thing for this site. How far, though, does this stretch? Could a valid partial answer make no actual progress against the puzzle, but still be...