The Sphinx's Lair

TrojanByAccident

19:00

'mis-erected'

Sconibulus

that story was called Worm

Deusovi

@Silenus I love this clue!

Khale_Kitha

That's two CCCCs for Gareth since his ban :P

Gareth McCaughan

unfortunately I have to be elsewhere very soon. I was going to say "since whoever-it-was and whoever-it-was ninjaed one another, let's give the next one to whichever one it was didn't get it" ... but then I looked, and it was Rubio so that's no use.

Deusovi

@Sid Which one?

Rubio

19:01

:)

Deusovi

I can take it.

Silenus

@Deusovi which clue...?

Oh nvm I see

Deusovi

The one I replied to. (Click the little arrow.)

Gareth McCaughan

OK, Deusovi can set the next one.

Deusovi

Alright, now I actually have to think of something...

TrojanByAccident

19:01

@Khale_Kitha ban?

Mithrandir

Literature has entered private beta!

Khale_Kitha

3 hours ago, by Rubio

CCCC "Currently Banned" Board: ~~Will~~ Gareth

Gareth McCaughan

@Mithrandir so why did you link it to lifehacks?

Deusovi

@TrojanByAccident We were joking about banning Gareth and Will from the CCCC since their clues were too hard :P

TrojanByAccident

@Mithrandir A little late, m8

Mithrandir

19:02

mistake

Rubio

He's trick-trolling us

Khale_Kitha

lol

Will

I still haven't used that easy one

Mithrandir

i typed lit and copy pasted

Khale_Kitha

What about the mean one I made you think of, yesterday, Will?

TrojanByAccident

19:02

@Deusovi Oh, I thought @Khale_Kitha meant actually banned

Khale_Kitha

:P

Gareth McCaughan

I like @Silenus's clue too but suggest it would be better with "somebody" instead of "someone" as def.

Deusovi

Nah, just a joke.

TrojanByAccident

@Deusovi if you want, I have one ready

Deusovi

Oh sure, go ahead!

Will

19:03

@Khale_Kitha I'll use that idea at some point, probably.

TrojanByAccident

This one may be a bit devilish

Silenus

@GarethMcCaughan, thanks for your suggestion. "Somebody" works MUCH better since it removes the overlap between definition and answer on "one"

TrojanByAccident

CCCC: It's half past 2? A sore follows a bottomless newspaper piece on the trail of the sound of two? (9)

Khale_Kitha

"two" twice in the same CC - amusing

TrojanByAccident

@Khale_Kitha yeah, that came out a little weird

Khale_Kitha

19:05

it's okay =D

Rubio

First we had someone clueing anyone

and now a clue with two twos

Khale_Kitha

Should we be looking to ballet?

TrojanByAccident

when the answer is reached, you guys will likely smirk, throw me into a wall, and ban me with Will and Gareth

Khale_Kitha

Preemptively smirks

Rubio

Nah. But you may have to endure some punishment

Khale_Kitha

19:06

Well played, Rubio

Matt

all we're good for is smirking and violence, and we're fresh out of smirking

TrojanByAccident

@Rubio That's the one pun that I can't think of a response pun for

anyway, I'm off to eat lunch

Khale_Kitha

Come see the violence inherent in the system!

TrojanByAccident

(at 2 pm)

Matt

not .. half past two?

Khale_Kitha

19:08

Just be careful of the sore that follows a bottomless newspaper piece on the trail of the sound of two.

TrojanByAccident

lol

-4

Q: Write pornhub client

Task Write pornhub client Requirments Porn in HD and 320p Must have any GUI. Win most small implementation

code-golf

Rubio

wow, lol.

Deusovi

...welp

Rubio

in Code Golf no less

Will

oh dear

Khale_Kitha

19:10

Wonders what a Requirment is

please tell me that was a new post, Trojan

oh good

Rubio

The comments are pretty cool tho

Khale_Kitha

....or bust...

Will

the "or" should be an "and" though :)

Khale_Kitha

lol

Mithrandir

Can someone test this link for me?

Click and see what it does?

Khale_Kitha

19:12

Checks for rickroll

Mithrandir

Thanks

Wanna go through A51 and upvote that? :P

6

Q: Did J K Rowling base platform 9 and 3 quarters on the Gump?

In the Harry Potter series, there is platform 9 and 3 quarters in Kings Cross Station. You travel through this place to go to a magical place. In The Secret of Platform 13, by Eva Ibbotson, (which is older than Harry Potter) the Gump is a magical thing that you go through to a magical place, lo...

harry-potter j-k-rowling eva-ibbotson secret-of-platform-13

testing... it OBed!

Rubio

It increments your view count. Was that the idea? ;)

Mithrandir

...No, I want votes :P

Khale_Kitha

can't without prior commitment

Mithrandir

yes you can

I did it for AI

Deusovi

19:14

no, we can't

Matt

CC question: can words like "from" be filler words, or are they more often used for cluing things

Deusovi

it's in private beta

Mithrandir

So what

I told you

Will

so look at that screenshot

Khale_Kitha

"To log in, you must have commited to the Area 51 site proposal and received the invitation email."

Mithrandir

19:14

try this link

Deusovi

@Matt Typically, they shouldn't be filler words. You can write a clue as "[definition] from [wordplay]", but just having them randomly in a clue probably isn't a good idea

Matt

thanks :)

Rubio

^ what he said

Khale_Kitha

....

Rubio

between them, you're saying A (comes) from B

Mithrandir

19:15

If someone clicks this you can get into Literature...

Deusovi

exactly!

I'd use "[wordplay] for [definition]" or "[definition] from [wordplay]", but not the reverse

same reason you can use "is" in between (going either way)

Khale_Kitha

huh

makes sense

"the sound of two" == "ding ding" =D :P

Mithrandir

So did I recruit any of you to Lit?

Sconibulus

I want it to be TOOTHACHE, but I don't see 'bottomless newspaper piece' = TH

Will

article...

the...

Sconibulus

19:28

ahh

yeah, that's probably it

Khale_Kitha

Hehe - I was thinking "sheet" without all of the little letters.

but it's backwards, anyways

I'm worried I just gave Will another idea.

Matt

half past two - 2:30 - "tooth hurty" ugh

Sconibulus

Two-Thirty -> Tooth Hurty? ACHE after TH(-E) after TOO

Khale_Kitha

lol

that's..... hahaha

Matt

that's an age old dad joke

Khale_Kitha

19:31

I think that may not be 'allowed' - but still funny

Matt

"what time is it?"

"dentist time"

"huh?"

Silenus

'?' shouldn't clue wordplay in the definition, I think. At least not serious homophony...

Matt

"2:30"

Khale_Kitha

I always think of taxes when I see "10:40" on the clock.

Yeah, Sil

Speaking of dad jokes, Matt - found this, the other day.

diply.com/15-jokes-only-a-dad-could-make

Matt

braces

Khale_Kitha

19:32

They're great

Matt

7 pages of 3 jokes each ...

I love the dadjokes subreddit :)

Will

paginated listicles are the worst

Khale_Kitha

Agreed, Will

So annoying

Sconibulus

pagination's just the worst, when are we going back to giant scrolls :)

Khale_Kitha

I can only use diply because of NoScript :P

Matt

19:35

I have 4 adblockers

Khale_Kitha

Someone needs to tag @Trojan so he knows that his CC was solved

Matt

sometimes I don't even see content

Khale_Kitha

I generally see nothing with noscript on most pages, until I start unblocking

Matt

I close tabs or back out before disabling ad blockers

Khale_Kitha

Well with noscript, you don't disable, you allow sites to pass through, either permanently, or temporarily

Matt

19:37

embedded videos from espn become white boxes - I inspect them and copy the source url to a new tab to see the video. I'm so stubborn :D

Khale_Kitha

hehe

Will

@Sconibulus You know what's really annoying? When some web developer decides a site needs both infinite scroll content and pertinent links in a footer

Khale_Kitha

More annoying. Pop up dialogs that require you to click outside the window to remove them (because no 'X') that take up the whole screen on mobile.

Sconibulus

I hate it when sites have footnote links that you click and they don't footnote you

glares at fivethirtyeight

Khale_Kitha

Which is like.... 90% of them

:(

TrojanByAccident

19:39

@Khale_Kitha No tags needed

Khale_Kitha

Especially footnotes, for store sites, that have no footnotes, ANYWHERE on the page

Didn't know how long oyu'd be gone, Trojan

I dub thee: Premier mixed drink?

[T]rojan[B]y[A]ccident - TBA mixed into TAB - drink (defn)

TrojanByAccident

nice

Khale_Kitha

(I know, it's not allowed)

TrojanByAccident

lol

so, I'm not exactly sure who had it first

Rubio

so apparently @Sconibulus got the CCCC - which, well, was not at all valid. :)

TrojanByAccident

19:43

37 mins ago, by TrojanByAccident

when the answer is reached, you guys will likely smirk, throw me into a wall, and ban me with Will and Gareth

Rubio

We ban them for making impossibly good ones. I don't know yet what we do with people who make impossibly bad ones ;)

TrojanByAccident

;)

Will

I have one in my stockpile so impossibly bad it will never see the light of day

Khale_Kitha

It Must Be Revealed.

TrojanByAccident

I play SWORDS OF REVEALING LIGHT

Khale_Kitha

19:46

You roll a 1.

TrojanByAccident

what

Khale_Kitha

I switched games to screw with you :P

TrojanByAccident

lol

Will

Okay I just looked at it again and I edited it so many times I don't even remember the construction for the version I have saved

Khale_Kitha

hehehe

Will

19:47

that's how bad it is

Rubio

@will Lol

TrojanByAccident

@Will just post it, we'll figure it out. then save it, and post it again later when you win one

Khale_Kitha

@TrojanByAccident imgur.com/gallery/cxOTWSE

Will

oh I remembered the construction

it's so awful.

Deusovi

then post it so we can laugh at it

Khale_Kitha

19:49

lag.

Matt

rocket league???

Silenus

haha what a game

Matt

I'm 740 hours deep

Will

There's love for you in a sentence fragment about face fungus??! (7)

Deusovi

oh fuck, two ?s and an !

Khale_Kitha

19:50

I tried it on PS4 and decided it's not a game I can play with a controller - have yet to try it on PC

Will

Gonna let y'all mull it over for a bit before revealing the answer ;)

TrojanByAccident

@Khale_Kitha okay, then...

Khale_Kitha

lol

Will

@Deusovi It used to be even worse

Khale_Kitha

DnD joke, Trojan

TrojanByAccident

19:51

@Khale_Kitha e.e I'm well aware

Khale_Kitha

I was actually trying to find a better one, in a comic strip, but I couldn't remember the name

Silenus

def has GOT TO BE "fungus"

TrojanByAccident

Btw, would anyone here be interested in maybe setting up a DnD chatroom or irc?

Silenus

maybe not

Khale_Kitha

mythjae.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/fated-3

found it

Matt

19:52

for DnD puzzling or what?

I would be interested

Silenus

@TrojanByAccident, DnD = Dungeons & Dragons?

Matt

yes

(I hope)

TrojanByAccident

@Silenus Yeah

it can be DnD or D&D

Silenus

Well, I've never played but I very much want to learn... I've even looked for groups in my area, to no avail.

I've listened to enough D&D podcasts to know the gist.

Matt

I played a bit and watched other games - then I found enough people at work who wanted to play.

no one wanted to DM though, so I did

Silenus

19:55

DMing seems like a lot of work... a lot of fun, very fun work.

Matt

world building is fun

plot building is fun

Khale_Kitha

Just depends on if your players skip all of the content or not, lol

TrojanByAccident

I would DM

Matt

deciding how much you should clue your party to the intended path is fun - it's a foggier line than hinting in a puzzle

Khale_Kitha

There's a lot of DnD questions on the rpg SE site from DMs

TrojanByAccident

19:56

@Khale_Kitha That is... full of beryllium, gold, and titanium

Khale_Kitha

lol....sorry, someone walked up a sec - but yes

Rubio

That comic.... good lord :)

Pure win out of pure fail

TrojanByAccident

But yeah, maybe during the summer sometime a few of us could do a skype call or something?

Sconibulus

CCCC: Dangerous travel for a knave without an odd pet (7)

Khale_Kitha

@Rubio =D

Silenus

20:00

I CROP<[sentence fragment about face] + NI??? for PORCINI [fungus]... POR is Spanish for "for"

just spitballing

Will

what

Khale_Kitha

@Will I watched for this and totally missed you post it.

Rubio

that's less spitball and more loogie :)

Silenus

at least I'm trying!

Rubio

I gave up at "??!" ;)

Khale_Kitha

20:02

There's no love for us in that CC, I fear.

Will

Honestly the current wording probably doesn't warrant the punctuation

Sconibulus

I think there's a variety of tree-lichens called '<foo>beard' I think?

and those are like half fungus hybrids I think

TrojanByAccident

TIL where foo & bar come from

Khale_Kitha

hehe

@Trojan - I think you'd probably appreciate the next picture I'm about to paste -- I put this on my white board, behind me, several months ago..

Silenus

@Sconibulus, JETPACK = J (PET*) ACK

Sconibulus

20:08

Aye

Khale_Kitha

can you post pictures in here from the mobile page?

TrojanByAccident

@Khale_Kitha yes

idk about directly from your device

Silenus

CCCC: Serpent-god of Egypt led by part of an ear (5)

Khale_Kitha

imgur.com/a/wSTjR

Will

@Silenus COBRA

Khale_Kitha

20:14

cob + ra

Silenus

Yep

Will

Now... in response to recent discussion about my privileges...

CCCC: An easy one: "sponge oddly borne without a drop of water?" (2-7)

Silenus

Is "an easy one" a part of the clue, or commentary?

I assume it's part of it.

Will

why can't it be both

Silenus

You're right. Damn these false dichotomies of human thought!

Khale_Kitha

20:20

"Squawk! Wit's end!"

Will

I had the hardest time deciding how to punctuate this one

Silenus

Well, SPONGE ODDLY might get us S(p)O(n)G(e), which could clue the first word as SO.

AN EASY ONE could also clue I.

Deusovi

I got the answer, just can't figure out the wordplay

Silenus

without a drop of water = IS OG___ ?

Deusovi

NOB(RAIN)ER*

Rubio

20:24

lol

Nice @Will

Will

Yup.

Deusovi

hm...

Silenus

Where does SPONGE fit in the wordplay?

Deusovi

That's the def.

I guess there are two defs if you count "an easy one" as part of the clue?

Silenus

Yeah, okay. I like that.

Deusovi

20:26

(Sponges don't have brains.)

CCCC: In Machu Picchu, going down is brilliant (12)

Will

INCANDESCENT

Deusovi

Yep! :D

Will

I like that one a lot

Rubio

How many seconds was that? lol

Will

do you want a gross one or a cutesy one

Rubio

20:33

I looked away to watch 1min39sec worth of youtube and missed the puzzle and its solution.

Deusovi

well, considering your track record with "gross" ones...

(I mean no offense, of course)

Will

by gross I don't mean the construction (it's quite straightforward)

Deusovi

Hm, interesting

Rubio

so - feline vs fecal? gotta go cutesy here.

bring on the kittens and unicorns

Will

alright
super easy but I like it

CCCC: Revolting: armpits holding a lunchmeat (8)

Khale_Kitha

20:35

lol

Deusovi

Funny surface reading.

Will

oh shit it's broken

Deusovi

yeah, thought I knew what you were going for, but that'd require (9)

Rubio

Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!

►

Khale_Kitha

Those Groaning lips..

Will

20:36

gross unbroken one it is

Deusovi

...you changed everything in that clue

oh

Khale_Kitha

rofl, Will

I imagine it's coldcuts, but trying to make it fit

Though I guess that's a (4 4)

Rubio

PASTRAMI (revolting armpits holding a [PASTR(A)MI*] lunchmeat [def.)] )

Will

that's it

Beastly Gerbil

@Randal'Thor we've done well on first day if literature :)

Rand al'Thor

20:42

@BeastlyGerbil Day isn't over yet!

Rubio

CCCC: Topical medication somewhat eased anxiety. (6)

Khale_Kitha

Rand al'Thor

@BeastlyGerbil Also, why aren't you in Lit chat?

Will

CALMED

Rubio

yup

Figured that'd be easy

afk a while, have fun all with whatever new cutesy/horror Will spawns.

TrojanByAccident

20:44

Haven't we had like 10 CCCC's in the past hour?

Sconibulus

pent-up demand after several multi-day ones

Beastly Gerbil

@Randal'Thor meant we've both hit repcap :P

Khale_Kitha

no complaints here, Trojan

Easier to learn with 10 a day than 1 every 10 :P

TrojanByAccident

indeed

Will

CCCC: It's irresponsible to be indifferent? (8)

Volatility

20:46

CARELESS

Will

yeah

Volatility

ok give me a sec

Beastly Gerbil

omg! Will's CCCC only lasted a few seconds and not days! He must be ill!

Will

Because I'm holding on to the harder ones I write for an actual puzzle :)

@Deusovi Got any tips for setting barred grids? I'm having an awful time with it. :\

Deusovi

@Will Not really. Notice how my grid was asymmetric and had lots of unchecked squares? It's because I'm terrible at grid-making.

Qxw may help, though.

Will

20:51

oooh I somehow didn't find that when I put out feelers for software

thanks!

Silenus

@Will, I find it easier to keep the outside rows and columns free of words. I only use them for terminal letters.

Will

@Silenus unfortunately, due to the nature of my puzzle that's not entirely possible

Khale_Kitha

Emrakul sighting.

Will

Maybe I should just switch over to a British-style grid and remove some of the explanation while slightly reworking the mechanism to make it more of an enigmatic puzzle :\

Volatility

CCCC: A close companion with monkey-head - WTF? (7)

TrojanByAccident

21:02

@Volatility Kudos to you for using WTF in a CCCC

Volatility

:P

Khale_Kitha

Guybrush Threepwood.

Will

ACRONYM

Khale_Kitha

hah, nice

Volatility

yep

Khale_Kitha

21:04

Where there's a Will....no one else will get the answer in time.

:P hehehe

What's that called....There's a term for what line I just used...I can't remember.

literarydevices.net/paraprosdokian

Will

I knew that one

Khale_Kitha

I remember =D

I have one ready, if you don't, Will :P

boboquack

@Randal'Thor Thanks!

Will

CCCC: Drunken bigots gloat more than you? (15)

Khale_Kitha

you with a question mark. Curious.

15?

Will

21:14

I'm gonna watch something, so make sure to ping me when you've got an answer

Sphinx

-1

Q: What is the solution to this wordle?

I have tried to figure out the following word puzzle with no success. What is the solution to the word puzzle deilst?

word rebus

Khale_Kitha

Bah, I've got nothing on that.

@Silenus Needs to solve that one :P

TrojanByAccident

so let's go through will's cccc

there are two possibilities:

Khale_Kitha

I've been trying to synonym bigot, gloat, drunken

TrojanByAccident

drunken clues anagram of bigots

or drunken is def

Khale_Kitha

21:23

oh, I didn't even consider that

Matt

"bigots gloat more" is 15 letters

but I can't find any suitable anagrams

Khale_Kitha

a robotism toggle =D

TrojanByAccident

interesting

Khale_Kitha

able grotto gismo

Sconibulus

'than you' doesn't sound definitionable

Khale_Kitha

21:25

True, but it's "you?"

Whcih I can't figure out how to example off of 'you'

Wait...

That means that "Drunken" (or that, with something) HAS to be the defn

because "you?" cannot be

is that right?

TrojanByAccident

@Sconibulus darn, that's 14

'you' might be

but it's likely that the def starts with drunken

Khale_Kitha

Right but it's "you?" which means wordplay - so it can't be the def

Silenus

I'm thinking along the lines of DIPSOMANIACAL, with MANIAC being a synonym of BIGOT.

TrojanByAccident

or, it's &lit/ddef

Khale_Kitha

hmm

would have to be the former, I think

I wonder what "more than" can mean

above, perhaps

Silenus

21:29

Maybe that the answer contains a string that has YOU as a substring.

Matt

more than you could be "we" or "us" or "the(y|m)"

Khale_Kitha

Maybe we should solve this algorithmically (bad joke warning)

boboquack

21:46

Hi @FrodCube!

FrodCube

Hi. Just here lurking :)

Khale_Kitha

Bah @ Will's CCCC

Drunken Bigots - dwarves (Tolkien version) :P

@Will This one's annoying >< :P

Volatility

22:07

It'll turn out to be just like that UNSATISFACTORY one

Sphinx

0

Q: I am a car. What is the car?

There's a car that exists. If you take off the first and last letter it's still a word. If you take off the first and last letter again it's still a word. If you take off the first and last letter again it's still a word. What is the car?

wordplay trivia

Khale_Kitha

I just can't believe how many 15 letter words there are - silly prefixes and suffixes.

Khale_Kitha

22:27

Pretty sure it's not a eleutheromaniac - plus that's not plural, anyways

And I can't get Overzealousness to fit

Sphinx

22:51

0

Q: Are we salvageable?

You wake up in a small room. The door is locked and there's no light other than 3 red glowing bulbs over a heavy iron door. Across the room you see a small table with a typewriter that doesn't seem to work anymore. You approach it and take a seat on a scruffy wodden stool, groaning deeply. Sudden...

cipher lateral-thinking visual

Transcript for