The Sphinx's Lair

Virtuous, but I'm of no form My seat's right at the very top Where gangs of many is the norm My one peer is one that goes 'pop' Though my uses are many Lifting is my best known work At this my one peer beats me Yet its temper, few dare irk What am I?

Khale_Kitha

@Mith So are you looking for cryptic clues at all, or just clues to the given answer?

Mithrandir

Any type of puzzle.

Khale_Kitha

Ah, okay

Beastly Gerbil

Sorry Mith! :P

We do squeaky pop test all the time in chemistry so I got it straight away

Chris Cudmore

@BeastlyGerbil Virtuous = Noble

Beastly Gerbil

9:13 PM

Oh thanks

Edited and credited

Sorry @Randal'Thor too. Ninja'd y'all

Now the site looks weird. I get used to having a rep number up in the corner of the screen and then when my rep changes the site is weird to look at...

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil Good job.

@BeastlyGerbil Huh? Your rep can't have changed by that much just now.

Beastly Gerbil

The last line I have no idea though

Only by 20 but that changed the 10 column and now it looks different

Gareth McCaughan

How did it take as long as five minutes for that helium question to get solved? :-)

Khale_Kitha

Question for you, in email, @Mith

Beastly Gerbil

@GarethMcCaughan It actually took me 10 seconds. I only clicked the link that @Sphinx gave

Rand al'Thor

9:19 PM

The tags were a bit of a giveaway.

Second time I've been ninja'd to a riddle recently ... I must be getting slow in my old age.

Beastly Gerbil

Still don't get last line. added a weak answer for it

And apparently helium is non flammable

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil Hydrogen is flammable.

Beastly Gerbil

Very flammable

Mithrandir

Fire used to be used for hot air balloons

Chris Cudmore

It's temper refers to hydrogen

Beastly Gerbil

9:21 PM

oh 'it's' temper. No 'my' temper!

Cough Hindenberg.

Oops...

And blimps =D

how come the new guy got more upvotes than me? :P

Rand al'Thor

Wow, the "newbies get more upvotes" effect is strong on this one.

@BeastlyGerbil You've got enough rep already.

Beastly Gerbil

9:23 PM

:P

Aiming for 20k

Sconibulus

well, there's also the fact that Beastly Gerbil claimed Helium was flammable :)

Rand al'Thor

Sez me, of course.

But that's why my answer is languishing at the bottom.

Beastly Gerbil

@Sconibulus shhhh....

Mithrandir

I reviewed it, and it was a good answer, so... +1.

Beastly Gerbil

fair enough...

Mithrandir

9:25 PM

@Randal'Thor on SFF I am in first place for edits this year, while you languish in last...

Beastly Gerbil

back to braille!

(I am so close to have completely learnt it now)

Only 4 letters I don't know...

Rand al'Thor

And now someone undid their upvote on my answer :-(

Beastly Gerbil

Have one from me to make it up

TheGreatEscaper

@mithrandir Lana Lana bo bana banana fana fo fana, fe fi mo mana. Lana. (The only important word here is banana)

Rand al'Thor

Oo, thanks guys :-D

Mithrandir

9:27 PM

@TheGreatEscaper Already have you listed. :P

Going to bed. Adios. @Randal'Thor give me feedback.

Khale_Kitha

The one you gave me is a pain.... haha

Mithrandir

@TheGreatEscaper I'll email you

Tomorrow

Matt

Tomorrow™

Khale_Kitha

TheGreatEscaper

Tomorrow is always going to be.... The end of my sorrows.... I'll keep running after tomorrow.....

Khale_Kitha

9:30 PM

TheGreatEscaper

(It's too early for me to be coherent)

It really isn't healthy that I fall asleep at 1, and wake up at 5:30

Mithrandir

Ach Annie...

Your hair looks like mine.

Except red.

I don't have red hair.

Khale_Kitha

♫Annie, are you okay?♪

TheGreatEscaper

Any folks interested in playtesting some logic puzzles, in the vein of Japanese pen and paper puzzles, but with original mechanics that must be deduced?

TrojanByAccident

@TheGreatEscaper Sure!

TheGreatEscaper

9:42 PM

Awesome! Just before we get into it, letting you know I do plan on posting these on PSE, so it'll count you out of answering the question when it goes up eventually. Is that ok?

Khale_Kitha

Hey, with a CC - can the def and the puzzle be switched?

TrojanByAccident

Yeah

To both questions :P

Khale_Kitha

So the "def" portion could actually be a specific kind of the answer?

TheGreatEscaper

Cool. Do you have discord/some other instant messaging which is not on PSE?

Khale_Kitha

Sry to jump in the middle

TrojanByAccident

9:43 PM

@Khale_Kitha I believe so

@TheGreatEscaper I can't access discord right now, but how about IRC?

TheGreatEscaper

nah it's all cool, are you asking if MAMMAL in a clue can be used to define ANIMAL? Or something along those lines?

Khale_Kitha

Or something like.... Definition is Cat, and the answer is mammal

TrojanByAccident

You would need a question mark

Khale_Kitha

"Cat?"

Interesting

TrojanByAccident

I think that would be acceptable

lol

Volatility

9:45 PM

That is called a "definition by example", and needs some sort of indicator (e.g. "?", "maybe", "perhaps", "for one", "could be", etc.)

Khale_Kitha

Ahh

Thank you guys

TheGreatEscaper

@TrojanByAccident is this IRC cloud? Just downloaded and made an account.

How would I create a chat with you?

TrojanByAccident

Well, connect to irc.freenode.net

And then say /query TrojanByAccident

TheGreatEscaper

It keeps saying connection refused.

TrojanByAccident

what client are you using?

TheGreatEscaper

9:48 PM

Ah, wait, I mistyped.

TrojanByAccident

chat.freenode.net is the same thing, btw

(irc.freenode.net is an alias of chat.freenode.net)

TheGreatEscaper

Ok, I'm into the server on the app, I think.

TrojanByAccident

alright

Chris Cudmore

This chat transcript reads like a bad hollywood hacking scene.

Volatility

@Mithrandir I'm happy to do one if you want more people

Sphinx

10:01 PM

0

Q: Yet another number sequence puzzle

Number sequence puzzles are very popular of late.</sarcasm> Therefore, I present to you another one. I promise you it has no relation to any sequence in OEIS, nor will it ever be found there, and it does not require any mathematics at all to be solved. It is also not based on a language. What a...

number-sequence

Rubio

11:09 PM

@Randal'Thor you still around?

Gareth McCaughan

@BeastlyGerbil Ten seconds sounds much more like it :-).

Sphinx

11:21 PM

1

Q: What is a Dotted Word™?

This is based on the What is a Word/Phrase™ series of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles, started by JLee. If a word follows a certain rule, then I call it a Dotted Word™. Each word can be tested for whether it is a Dotted Word™ without depending on the other words. Use the example word lists below to...

pattern word-property

Sphinx

11:32 PM

0

Q: A Circular Puzzle

The first step is to figure out the puzzle. To Puzzling have the I ready, for a risen year needed. Old man's home falling wealth. A rhyme To look two answers between Last. all Stack swiftly on Exchange. Gotten the puzzle. as new Tasks: Surprise! symbol of brid...

word enigmatic-puzzle

Rand al'Thor

11:52 PM

@Rubio Am now. What's up?

Rubio

sorry hang on on a call :)

Rand al'Thor

@Sphinx I have no idea what to make of this puzzle and its answer. Going to wait to vote until the OP has commented on the answer.

Rubio

Ok finally had some more time to dig in to the Headlines cryptics final clue, and I have multiple viable solutions. I'm probably just going to post them all, but I wanted to re-confirm that, other than fulfilling (4), (n), (v), and having a (v) homophone, and finally being something that can semantically fill SPHINX TROTS AFTER ..., there are no other restrictions imposed by the cc.

the ? seems to permit the "I am x, you are x" to be the def for x, and the rest the subsidiary (sounds like y) where y is a verb homophone of x.

If there's any other limitation being imposed, I don't see where or why, but wanted to make sure :)

@Randal'Thor (just to be sure) that was all ^ for you. :)

Transcript for