The Sphinx's Lair

Rand al'Thor

00:38

@Techidiot Yep :-)

Rand al'Thor

00:49

@Rubio Actually that's not going to be a problem. You can't downvote with a throwaway account - you need at least 125 rep. By the time he'd managed that much, the mods would probably have spotted him and dealt with him. Even if they hadn't, they'd find out eventually and delete the account, taking all its votes with it.

Rand al'Thor

01:07

Um, why on earth was this flagged as "unclear what you're asking"? It's an enigmatic puzzle - it's supposed to be unclear at this stage! — rand al'thor 12 mins ago

sigh

Sphinx

01:36

0

Q: The answer is the key

Firstly I reside. Secondly the letter exists towards the expression resolution. Notes: the above two sentence fully and unambiguously describe the answer. Also I'm not sure if this qualifies as a riddle.

word

Alconja

01:47

@Randal'Thor Better go VTC half of my puzzles too...

Chris Cudmore

02:17

CCCC: Lessen Mussolini again.

Gareth McCaughan

@ChrisCudmore enumeration?

Chris Cudmore

No

Bloody phone keeps bouncing me out

Gareth McCaughan

Just to make sure we aren't at cross purposes here: I asked "aren't you going to tell us how many letters and how, if at all, they are divided into words?" and you replied "no, I know that's the universal convention in cryptic crossword clues but I'm doing something special here and it's deliberate that that information isn't supplied". Is that right?

Chris Cudmore

Alright

Gareth McCaughan

(sorry, I wrote that before seeing the comment about your phone; I now think it more likely that there is some sort of misunderstanding...)

anyway it's (6) isn't it?

Chris Cudmore

02:22

CCCC:Lessen Mussolini again (6)

Gareth McCaughan

but I'm not going to solve it because I'm about to go to bed and don't want to leave TSL without a cryptic clue to contemplate for hours :-).

(not going to solve it out loud, I mean, as you probably guessed from my giving the enumeration before you did :-).)

Chris Cudmore

Yeah, you got it. It's too obvious

Gareth McCaughan

others may find it less so (difficulty of a clue may vary a lot from solver to solver, and I have good evidence that my estimation of how hard clues are is less than perfectly reliable)

anyway, I'm off to bed now (it's ~2.30am local time).

TrojanByAccident

02:41

*flips table* I still can't figure it out

That moment when someone solves it pretty much as soon as it's posted, and you can't get it after 25 minutes .-.

Volatility

02:54

@ChrisCudmore it's REDUCE: RE+DUCE

(I had to look "Duce" up)

TrojanByAccident

ah, right. duce

but it didn't clue to put the end in front

so I was confused

Anyway, @Volatility, have one ready? (I know we still have to wait for @ChrisCudmore to confirm)

Volatility

"re" is a standard prefix, which can be translated by the adverb "again", placed afterwards

(ofc, "Duce" is not a verb, but I think the construction is still alright)

TrojanByAccident

@Volatility words ending with 're'

Volatility

@TrojanByAccident actually I waited until I had one before I answered :P

TrojanByAccident

lol

Chris Cudmore

03:05

Yes, that is correct!

Volatility

Alright, here's a very simple one I came up with:

CCCC: Wave wand for start of day (4)

TrojanByAccident

hmm

I'm getting MORN

now to fit it up

nvm

@Volatility DAWN

def start of day

wave 'wand' into 'dawn'

Volatility

right

Chris Cudmore

I don't see how you can fit COFFEE into 4 letters

Volatility

@ChrisCudmore Hahaha

yikes

TrojanByAccident

03:12

*anxiously checks to see if I messed something up*

Volatility

All of that's 4 letters?

TrojanByAccident

Yes

I'm not known for being succinct

arg, I messed up

don't mind that

:/

I want to post the good version, but I feel like it'll be too easy now

*rummages through files to find bad clues to fix up*

Alright, here's one

wait no

wait yes

arg

hold on

Alright, here's a simple one.

CCCC: British river spanner? (6, 6)

Volatility

03:28

There should be a question mark at the end

TrojanByAccident

Why

Volatility

Because your intended interpretation of "spanner" is not a dictionary definition

TrojanByAccident

herm

Alconja

Assuming: london bridge then? (cryptic def)

TrojanByAccident

@Alconja Yeah

Volatility

03:30

@TrojanByAccident btw did you get that "spanner" -> BRIDGE idea from me? I mentioned it here once :P

TrojanByAccident

@Volatility no, I was just going with 'river spanner', since it's what fit closest

Volatility

I see

TrojanByAccident

My original clue for that one was 'It's always falling, and the doubly bottomless loner waits for a gang lord with a wall turned sideways. (6, 6)', but I felt "it's always falling" wasn't really a def

Volatility

Could be, if there was a question mark straight afterwards, or some other marker of non-standardness, I think

Deusovi

That first one's not really a cryptic clue...

TrojanByAccident

03:33

@Volatility hmm

Deusovi

(at least, in my opinion)

TrojanByAccident

@Deusovi I guess not? We've had CCCC's where the clue is the def, though

I think

don't quote me on that

Deusovi

What do you mean? We've had &lit clues before, but those are different

TrojanByAccident

*shrugs*

I have a better one ready for next time I win

@Alconja got one ready?

Btw, would you guys mind Googling 'PigeonScript', and clicking on the 4th link that pops up, please? You can close out of it after a second or two, I just want to see if Google Search Analytics works :P

Rubio

03:52

@Randal'Thor (it was a joke. see it in context. hehe)

Ankoganit

Hmm so who has a CCCC due?

TrojanByAccident

@Ankoganit @Alconja

Ankoganit

@TrojanByAccident Ahkay

TrojanByAccident

mhmm

Rubio

Good ${time_of_day_indicator} to you, ${formal_gender_specifier}s! I hope you're having a delightfully puzzling time.

3

TrojanByAccident

03:58

@Rubio That's a great way to greet everyone

Volatility

@Rubio Ugh, Perl.

Will

Or ES6.

Rubio

or sh or bash or ksh

plenty of options there

Will

Heck PHP even allows it

(I mean, it's PHP...)

Rubio

PHP: a (*cough*) language principally created by one man, which still manages to capture perfectly that designed by a committee vibe.

@Silenus your latest rebus, is #4 currently considered solved?

Silenus

04:13

@Rubio Nope, but @ChrisCudmore has a promising lead.

Rubio

ok. didn't think so.

Volatility

oh, I think I have it

Silenus

@wildBillMunson incorporated @ChrisCudmore's insight into his own answer but he doesn't have the reasoning right.

Volatility

I think it's BULLION (def: "Gold ingots", as per Chris, and "Boolean" to ears ("two ears"))

Rubio

ah. that's gotta be it.

Volatility

04:19

or possibly "Bool in" to ears

@Silenus ^ ?

Silenus

Well, let's think about it. If we follow the route you're suggesting, the puzzle seems to be ambiguous, because it could be parsed in two ways, each leading to a different solution: BOOLEAN([def] gold ingots; Boolean between two ears) or as BULLION([def] Boolean; gold ingots between two ears).

But in fact both gold ingots and the binary appear between the two ears.

Maybe I should add an ampersand between them, to communicate that they're connected.

@Volatility (forgot to tag you)

Rubio

No, I think he meant: BULLION ([def] gold in gots; [heard (between two ears)] boolean)

Sphinx

0

Q: Ernie and the Slow Glass Solution

"Have a look at this" said Ernie when he dropped in unannounced yesterday, pulling what looked like an old-fashioned photographic negative from an envelope. I held the small plastic square up to the light and peered at it, but could see nothing except the grey glossy surface. But after a few seco...

geometry word-problem

Rubio

also ^^ this puzzle looks delightfully twisted

Volatility

I was taking it as "{Gold in gots bool} in two ears" or something

Rubio

04:28

hm. So the binary and the GOAUTS are indivisible (from each other)?

Silenus

Yes, and they are both within ears. I'm going to update the puzzle by adding an ampersand between them. I hope that clears up any ambiguity.

Rubio

NeilW just added another, even more divergent solution for #4. hehe

wow @Will that was fast on that Hamilton puzzle

Sphinx

1

Q: Who was this famous man and what did he say?

My eccentric great uncle passed away, and included a provision in his will that I should receive his entire estate If I can prove myself by breaking his encryption. He claims to be the descendant of a famous person from history. This is some kind of test to prove that I'm worthy, I suppose. All ...

cipher history

Rubio

@Silenus Your image search history has got to be really weird by now :)

Silenus

@Rubio hahaha

Will

04:42

@Rubio If I had a checkmark for every time I've written a base 36 conversion function in Python...

Rubio

I hope this isn't some binarial/binaural horribleness

especially since I just made up binarial. heh

Deusovi

05:01

Wow, that one "advertisement" puzzle is at -13.

Alconja

05:15

Ahh.. Sorry. Got pulled into a meeting right as I solved that... cc incoming...

CCCC: Drunk as her, in genuine dry run (9)

Will

RE(HEARS*)AL

Alconja

Too quick. :)

Will

CCCC: Designed, well... accordingly: to rely on acoustics? (9)

Rubio

05:56

finally. @Silenus you sly devil. assuming I got that right now.

Silenus

06:17

@Rubio, you have absolutely every ingredient correct! But your path of parsing the images is not exactly natural (nor do I think it should be allowed in these kinds of puzzles).

On your reading, the spider image is the def and the rebus path is BACK + WORDS + REDIPS[dunks again]. Not only does this ask the puzzler to pull REDIPS from "dunks again" (which would be very difficult), it also requires a non-standard reading geometry (shaped like ¬).

The intended reading is SPIDER + BACK + WORDS, with the def = "Dunks again"

Rubio

But the only sensible alternative, "Spider backwards", doesn't seem to have a def in there at all

oh.

lol

Ok, ok

Too many ways to assemble those bits :)

Silenus

Yeah. I agree. That's why I think it would be a good idea not to allow people to read bits in any order they like.

Rubio

Spider feels more in keeping thematically with the zoo. With so many answers being animals, it seems an unavoidable bias

Yeah, I guess so. I'll adjust.

Devilish, in any case

Silenus

You're right. I should have said explicitly that the zoo theme does not entail that all answers will be animals, only that the clues will, at the very least, involve animals.

Rubio

Ok updated. That was fun. And hard. :)

I had a "Oh you son of a ..." moment when I got "Words" hehe

Silenus

06:23

Glad you enjoyed it. I really enjoy making them. I'll probably post one more tomorrow and then cool it for a while.

TrojanByAccident

Anyone making progress with the CCCC?

Rubio

You might want to wait for the last one to be fully solved before posting a new one.

@TrojanByAccident Looking at it, not making much headway

"accordingly" is throwing me for all kinds of loops right now

TrojanByAccident

hmm :/

What does the : mean?

Rubio

nothing.

TrojanByAccident

oh

hmm

Rubio

06:25

well. usually nothing, and I doubt it means anything here. typically you can ignore punctuation entirely, and often should as it's used to intentionally misdirect.

TrojanByAccident

herm

alright

Rubio

I suppose some clever setter has used it as "dots" at some point. but I doubt it here :)

TrojanByAccident

lol

I always read 'http://' as 'http dot dot slash slash', idk why

Rubio

thats ... just .... weird.

dot dot dot.

TrojanByAccident

lol

Volatility

06:28

You just gave me an idea for a clue

TrojanByAccident

I'm actually making two more rn

I'm very confused? Is this possible?

And this???

Rubio

I doubt it indexes articles

TrojanByAccident

hmm

Volatility

Presumably the system filters out very common words

TrojanByAccident

it doesn't filter 'lol'

lol

Rubio

06:33

That's cuz you're the only one whose lol : the ratio is >1

Volatility

haha

TrojanByAccident

lol

This is sad

My amount of 'lol''s is more than 1/8 of all of them from this room

TrojanByAccident

07:04

:P I have 3 cryptic clues ready

Rubio

VTC please - puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/47502/…

Sphinx

-1

Q: Painting a room together?

If A can paint a room in 6 hours, and B can paint the same room in 12 hours, how long would it take A & B to paint the room together?

mathematics calculation-puzzle

Rubio

gahhh. @Will I feel like I have the gist of this CCCC but I can't do anything useful with that durned "accordingly". Is that indeed the right word there?

Will

@Rubio "Accordingly" is both correct and vital

Rubio

Figures :) ok had to check

Sphinx

07:28

0

Q: None can be covered

Is it possible (not logistically, but theoretically) to make 2017 rugs such that each rug cannot be completely covered by the others (where overlap is allowed)? For example suppose we number all the rugs from 1-2017. Then the rug with a '1' cannot be covered by the rugs numbered 2,3,4,...,2017. ...

mathematics lateral-thinking

Rubio

anyone else trying this cccc right now?

Beastly Gerbil

just woken up and seen it

Back to school today :(

Rubio

bummer for you

back to work for me today, so I know the feeling

TrojanByAccident

I am working on it

Rubio

I feel like this has to be SOUND _ _ _ _ with "[to] rely on acoustics?"= def. but I can't find anything suitable for the blank that works with accordingly [to] which I'd expect to give something from {ergo, thus, so+to, as+to}.

TrojanByAccident

07:37

sorta

Sphinx

0

Q: Guess my naym before I fall

I was a bird, unheard-of and small In love with the big fingerling, I staked it all Bit by the wolf I lost it all In pain and humiliation, I began to loathe them all In quiet, I began to plan their fall. Helped by falcon I began to build my halls Betrayed and sick, worse fate did him befall ...

riddle

Rubio

accordingly could be a couple other things even less apt (duly, then, also) which don't seem to help

TrojanByAccident

what about designed?

Rubio

"designed well" = sound

TrojanByAccident

oh

lol

Rubio

07:40

gives something for the acoustics at the end to play with

TrojanByAccident

mhmm

Rubio

if it's not that, I may eat this spiffy 2017 hat

TrojanByAccident

get it? play with ;)

Rubio

yes, yes. ;)

TrojanByAccident

let's see, let's see... accordingly synonyms...

Rubio

07:42

In any case, this cccc is pretty terrific. there's zero indicator words in it, unless Will is doing something really unexpected that I can't see at all right now

TrojanByAccident

dunno

Rubio

So yeah, hats off to ya @Will either way :)

TrojanByAccident

@Rubio Metaphorically, of course. :) I'm not taking this hat off

Rubio

well. Yeah. same. hehe

How'd you get that hat so amazingly huge btw?

TrojanByAccident

controls

Rubio

07:45

oh! duh. I didn't even notice that checkbox

I think I need my hat at a more fittingly rakish angle.

TrojanByAccident

lol

Greetings, @Mithrandir

Mithrandir

'Allo

TrojanByAccident

What do you guys think of this puzzle?

0

Q: None can be covered

Is it possible (not logistically, but theoretically) to make 2017 rugs such that each rug cannot be completely covered by the others (where overlap is allowed)? Clarification: For example suppose we number all the rugs from 1-2017. Then the rug with a '1' cannot be covered by the rugs numbered 2...

mathematics lateral-thinking

Mithrandir

Possibly offtopic

IAmInPLS

Helloooo

Mithrandir

07:50

Looks like a math question, but not sure

Hey

TrojanByAccident

I think it's rather broad

Mithrandir

Hey, that got starred? o_O

TrojanByAccident

What did?

Mithrandir

10 hours ago, by Mithrandir

burns Deusovi at the stake

TrojanByAccident

Ah

yes

by me, first, I believe

Mithrandir

07:52

I just couldn't resist :P

He said to feel free to burn him at the stake, so... I did.

TrojanByAccident

lol

Rubio

I added my own star, I liked it. :)

and @TrojanByAccident it's a legit puzzle. a very mathy one, but a puzzle nonetheless.

And has at least one very specific solution

Sid

Has anyone seen Nostradamus predictions for 2017?

Rubio

Nostradamus was a hack. :)

TrojanByAccident

@Rubio I suggested they should edit it, and they did. It's now better, and I'm upvoting.

Sid

08:01

It's entertaining nonetheless.

Rubio

@TrojanByAccident Ah. Yeah the original wording was understandable but not clear. The revision is good.

Sid

“The great shameless, audacious bawler, / He will be elected governor of the army: / The boldness of his contention, / The bridge broken, the faint from fear.” - Apparently this is what he wrote in the 16th Century..

“The false trumpet concealing madness will cause Byzantium to change its laws. From Egypt there will go forth a man who wants to edict withdrawn, changing money and standards,” - This is another.. It is actually entertaining to read them..

TrojanByAccident

welp, gn

Sid

@Rubio Have you watched Sherlock season 4 Ep. 1?

Rubio

Of course.

Sid

08:13

Okay, don't spoil it for me. Just wanted to ask. :)

Rubio

Sherlock shoots Watson, then his brother, then the landlady, then himself. They're all dead and buried next to Moriarty. It's very exciting and bloody. Apparently episodes 2 and 3 will be prequels.

On a more real note, at least in the US the season finale is going to be showed in theaters. That should be fun :)

IAmInPLS

And the episode 4 will be for psychological support

Rubio

There is no episode 4.

IAmInPLS

:-(

Will

Exactly.

You're on your own.

IAmInPLS

08:18

Well, that won't change from now I guess

^^

Rubio

We got to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special in a theater too. These special showings are pretty cool, I'm a fan.

IAmInPLS

They're doing it more and more, for popular shows or sport events

They did it first with ballet and some concert

0

Q: 1 1 1 = 6, fill in the blanks

1 1 1 =6 2 2 2 =6 3 3 3 =6 4 4 4 =6 5 5 5 =6 6 6 6 =6 7 7 7 =6 8 8 8 =6 9 9 9 =6 Insert operators and brackets as you like, but not functions and operands, to form a correct equation. Accepted operators are those you can find on a standard scientific calculator for high scho...

mathematics

duplicate?

Will

yup

IAmInPLS

Ah, you're faster than me @Will

Mithrandir

Ton of spam on SE today...

Rubio

08:35

@Mithrandir do you know how you got the 8,243,721 and 6 hats?

Mithrandir

8,???,??? = deleting comment

*upvoted **s

6 = No idea

Rubio

weird. ok thanks

IAmInPLS

They are related, aren't they?

Mithrandir

Supposedly

IAmInPLS

Because I have the 6 but not the other one

Mithrandir

08:37

Secret Hat Hint #2: This time for 2 hats 6 and 8,243,721. Bert & Ernie have always been companions. As companions, they could work together with each other. — bluefeet ♦ Dec 22 '16 at 20:56

IAmInPLS

@Rubio I think I had the 6 either by editing a question and comment

Or by commenting a question and having the OP also commenting

Or maybe you have to edit the question, commenting it, and having the OP responding

I'm not sure though

Rubio

Thanks.

IAmInPLS

You got 6?

Rubio

No - just saying thanks for the info

IAmInPLS

Alright, you already had it I see

And the other too

?

Did you just get another hat while we're talking ^^?

Rubio

08:53

Yup. :)

@Mithrandir Thanks for the tip. That's what it was.

I had 6 before, no idea how I got it either

Mithrandir

Deleting upvoted comments?

Rubio

Yah.

Deleted 3. Dunno if there's a quantity requirement, but if so it's likely no more than that.

Mithrandir

Ach. Now you have like 3 more hats than me on Puzzling -_-

Rubio

4, I think

Mithrandir

*4

IAmInPLS

08:55

Huehue

Mithrandir

But I have more hats overall, at 33

Rubio

Yah.

IAmInPLS

Mine is bigger

Rubio

hehee

I only care about PSE really

Mithrandir

I care about whatever site I am currently earning rep on :P

Rubio

08:57

I was on Super User from a question I found an answer to long ago, and then I found a better answer than the one posted, so I did a community edit to add the better solution.

later on I finally bothered to actually become a member

Mithrandir

I'm watching Smokey, so I create an account on whatever new sites they've spammed so that I can boom it.

Rubio

Recently I saw a HNQ post that reminded me of an old Asimov story, so I added that to my sites to answer it. And my answer promptly ratcheted up a bunch of rep

that made getting one of these hats pretty easy - I just had to answer enough questions on Super User to gain 150 rep. voila

Mithrandir

What question?

Rubio

Otherwise this is really the only SE site I'm active on

Mithrandir

No users named Rubio on SFF that I can see...

IAmInPLS

08:59

Super User, not SFF

Rubio

30

A: How would people living in eternal day learn that stars exist?

Total Eclipse I know this isn't directly an answer to your question, but the novelette Nightfall by Isaac Asimov deals with a civilization living on a planet in a system with six suns which keep the whole planet continuously illuminated. The people have no actual awareness of any stars beyond th...

I'm not on SFF, no

Mithrandir

AH, worldbuilding

IAmInPLS

I like WB

even if I'm not active on this one

I was active on SO a while ago, but now PSE for the win

Rubio

I read questions that catch my eye on HNQ

IAmInPLS

Other than that, I don't have time to hang out on other SE

Mithrandir

09:00

Thought you meant [story-identification] on SFF :P

Rubio

that one there was the only one interesting enough to prompt me to answer it

Oh. heh yeah, no

Mithrandir

I'm trying to get a Harry Potter silver tag badge...

Rubio

I just (finally) got a bronze tag badge for Riddles

IAmInPLS

How could I forget the tag? Thanks @Mithrandir. le me goes for the coffee

Rubio

It's kinda funny how quick that one WB answer racked up +30

to get +30 on PSE requires an act of a minor deity

Mithrandir

09:02

@Rubio I had one fairly quickly :P

IAmInPLS

WB is a bigger community

Mithrandir

Sep' 4 '16

@Rubio HNQ.

Rubio

yeah. HNQ helps a lot.

I had one answer here driven up to +108 (now) because its question spent time on HNQ

I glanced at this one, and read "the pharaoh's butt my heir".

Mithrandir

What?

Sphinx

0

Q: Go further out, I'm everywhere. What am I?

If you look about You will find me rare Try go farther out Then I'm everywhere Dare you anger me you shall die in flare Ignorant, ancients be the pharaoh's but my heir What am I?

riddle science

Rubio

09:08

hehe. I'm a dork sometimes.

Also, I can't read. I got bronze for riddle, Awarded Nov 21 '16 ... I just got the bronze for Rhyme today.

so that was first tag bronze at like day 40?

something like that. that seems pretty respectable

oooh pretty. my cumulative rep is 9999. :)

Mithrandir

Woo you're at 9999

Rubio

neat. hehe

edit, unedit, meh.

IAmInPLS

09:36

Any idea on this one puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/47486/… ?

Rubio

They, uh, aren't divisible by 2017 :)

I assumed that converting them to some other measure would give a number containing "2017" but I can't find anything that works

Volatility

What are y'all's thoughts on a "one layer enigmatic puzzle" topic challenge or similar? For encouraging simple but fun/clever puzzles. Will that produce too many bad puzzles?

IAmInPLS

@Volatility I think that will encourage easy and low contribution, yes

Though it's a good idea

But maybe with some other restriction

Rubio

09:51

Yay. I'm officially 10k+ cumulative rep. Now just need to get that for PSE alone :)

IAmInPLS

@Volatility Would you want to propose a thing like this on meta?

Volatility

Yeah, I'll do that now

Will

HAHA I just thought of a really cruel double def CC

Volatility

Oh dear

Wildcard

Hello everybody. I would like to try a logic game over chat. Would be this be place to try it? (It's a two person game, plus a moderator to start it.)

>! Spoiler test

Mithrandir

09:57

Why would a mod need to start it?

Wildcard

It's the sum and product game.

Such as was done on this forum:

Will

If I ever use it it'd be in a puzzle where solving other parts would make it easier to parse properly. On its own it'd probably be deemed incredibly unfair by most.

Wildcard

forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=103868

Oh, and I didn't mean a site moderator. I just meant a user who agrees to moderate the game.

That could be me. :)

IAmInPLS

I think you should create your own room and invite whoever wants to play with you @Wildcard :-)

Wildcard

@IAmInPLS Am I able to create a chat room? How many rep does that take?

Also, would you like to play? :)

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