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12:00 AM
@Deusovi Oh, that's really nice.
 
Yeah, I thought so too.
 
12:12 AM
@GarethMcCaughan Somehow skimmed over this comment, which makes my next line look like a complaint. I have no qualms with you having more rep. I mostly build puzzles because it amuses me personally, and without brilliant solvers like yourself, I wouldn't have an audience to spam my self indulgent bs at. :)
(And the puzzle that's germinating in my head at the moment is possibly the most self-indulgent I've ever come up with. Built almost entirely to humour me... potentially to my detriment, but we'll see)
(change of topic) with GPR's CC, obviously "take" could be a deletion indicator... do cryptic deletions need to be "remove an entire word", or can they just be "remove all letters of a word"? I.e. could "criminals take sanctuary" => [offenders]-[den] => offers, even though den != end?
 
The letters removed have to be consecutive and in the order clued.
 
That's what I thought
 
@Alconja I enjoy your self-indulgent puzzles very much, even though I can never solve them :-).
 
Well my next one is... a bit different... and will hopefully be tuned a little more towards the "solvable by a reasonable percentage of bright people" rather than the "needing a group of the site's best working together in chat" end of the spectrum.
 
12:28 AM
Sounds good. I'm a reasonable percentage of a bright person myself, so I might have a chance for once.
 
Heh.
 
Lol. Unfortunately its "creation effort input" to "puzzle output" ratio is a bit steep, so it'll be a while.
 
1:11 AM
Minor question about site mechanics, Deusovi, did you get automatically notified by the secret @Deusovi in the following? (I'd also like to delete it after you see it.)
Truth be told, $\sf \phantom{\rlap{ @Deusovi }}\unicode{64}\nabla \kern-2mu \epsilon \upsilon \kern1mu \sigma o \nu \iota$, this $\rlap{\small\sf\kern5mu MF}\LARGE\raise-1.5mu\bigcirc$ certified Fool for $\sf\small M{\scriptsize\raise.5exA}\kern1mu\tau\kern1mu\eta{\scriptsize\cal \raise1mu J}\kern-3mu{\scriptsize\raise-.5exA}X$ enjoys the alternative puzzle of writing mathematics without it — humn 12 hours ago
 
Yep.
I did.
 
it works, thanks! (doesn't seem to work here, though, uggllyyyyy)
 
Yeah, there's no MathJax in chat.
 
I thought maybe in quote-like snippets, but nooooo
There, deleted, nobody other than we two will ever know what it really said.
(back the the regularly scheduled programming)
 
1:25 AM
hm. you \rlap'ed a circle over the MF? I assumed you just used a bounding circle
was too lazy to test it :)
 
You
1:40 AM
I
AM
BACK
!!!!!!!!!


MUAHAHAHAH!!!
Hello.
That was totally a very intriguing conversation; we totally did not have several minutes of silence between me saying "Hello." and this message.

Anyways, toodolues!
 
@GentlePurpleRain AT in TEMPLE in CONS = CON(TEMPL(AT)E)S
 
You
Oh, hello.
 
Hey
 
You
1:55 AM
Hello.
I have no real conversation topics. :P
 
Neither :P
 
You
Hey, someone else came! :D
Hello.
 
@You Shouldn't that be "YOU AM BACK"?
 
*YOU IS BACK
 
You
@humn Or maybe, You are back.
 
2:00 AM
to quote:
Feb 5 at 1:14, by humn
You is back!
1 min ago, by Sp3000
*YOU IS BACK
 
You
YAY YOU IS LOVED! :D
 
we agree! (that was typed before You just said what you said)
but enough about what i said, as long as You has "no real conversation topics", i could sit and listen to You forever
 
You
Did people actually covered for me by saying random 2nd person jokes?
 
You'll never know. . . .
 
You
Hmm....
You shall see.

Or rather, we.
 
2:03 AM
Who said that?
 
You
You has.
 
Knock knock
 
You
Who's there?
 
(You just know what's coming...)
Youuuuuuuu whooooooooo
 
You
:P
 
2:05 AM
that's who, that's you, You, why you, ...
 
You
You is whom you are, but if you wasn't you then you gave up on you.
 
(me never did get enough joking about Your name before)
 
You
Or you might have been you...
@humn The entire reason my name is You.
I was thinking about changing my username to my GitHub name, but nahhhhh.
 
was nahhhhh already taken?
well, You, yahhhhh or nahhhhh? wasit?
Knock knock (take 2)
 
You
Who is there?
 
2:08 AM
There aren't any username restrictions.
 
You started it, thats who
 
You
No, You started it.
 
@Sp3000 You got it.
 
You
@Deusovi So I could be Deusovi too?
 
Sure, if you wanted to get suspended. :P
(Yeah, you could.)
(Er, You could.)
 
2:09 AM
🖉 (answered before entered) (edited after edited)
 
You
A StackExchange user for every word of the English language. :P
 
Hey, You, did you see the rebus about U?
 
You
There's a rebus about U?
Wow.
 
11
Q: Some Rebuses for U

boboquackHere are some rebuses all about U! The first is very easy, the second is moderate (you may need to think a bit on this one) and the last is moderate-hard (it is taken much, much further than the rest, probably too far for some). All images constructed with U's, except for any rectangles. ...

@You, please don't spam the chat like that.
MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! :P — You 52 secs ago
@Deusovi, is that sort of thing flaggable or does it have to be more serious?
 
You
I'll delete it, then. :(
 
2:14 AM
(Trying to understand what the boundaries on the flagging system are.)
 
aw, boboquack, I can't believe that rebus is still unsolved. It's the kind of thematic rebus I wish I'd thought up, but that hasn't helped me solve it.
 
Definitely flaggable.
 
You
Too bad I'm terrible at rebuses; that would make things great. :P
 
You can flag anything that you want to bring to mod attention. Flags don't automatically lead to serious consequences for the user you're flagging.
(Especially comment flags, which are for some reason treated differently.)
 
No, I mean would you as a mod be pissed off?
 
2:18 AM
Nah.
 
We'll just have to try harder.
Deusovi, i have a triple-anagram faux cryptic clue saved for you, and other zoologist-poet-musicians:
Scrambled
ovum
laying
mammal
beater
(many reasons it's faux, one being that the anagrams' letters aren't exactly included in the clue)
(conversation ruined, mission accomplished, bye for now)
 
@GentlePurpleRain No, Sp3000 got it.
(sorry)
 
2:34 AM
CCCC: Go by mountain route (4)
 
PASS (ddef)
 
...was just typing that :|
 
heh, sorry -.-
 
Too busy atm for a good clue sorry :P
 
@Vol? Your turn!
 
2:47 AM
yep yep, I know, hang on a sec
 
3:07 AM
CCCC: Girl initially trapped by strange, deranged thug (8)
 
(Or 20 minutes...)
GANGSTER
 
yep! (sorry, don't have a stash :/)
 
Initial of "girl" inside "strange", anagrammed.
Start working on the stash now!
Here's one from my stash:
CCCC: Wine benefit (4)
 
Good? According to adults, wine is good...
 
Then it would be a straight clue, not a cryptic.
 
3:12 AM
No, as a ddef - a benefit is good.
Anyway, I'll have to think more.
 
3:22 AM
Yeah, WINE is definitely not a definition for "good".
 
Anyone here good at probability?
 
I'm okay at it. Why?
 
Trying to work through something...
A: 5 + (2 if rand(0,1) <= p) + (3 if rand(0,1) <= q)
B: 8 + (2 if rand(0,1) <= r) + (2 if rand(0,1) <= r)

and I want the average of A+B in terms of p, q, and r
I know how to do it with convolution for specific values of p, q, and r (at least I _think_ I've done that right...) but... beyond that I'm stumped
 
3:41 AM
Forgive me if I'm missing something, but assuming 0 <= p, q, r <= 1, isn't it 13 + 2p + 3q + 4r?
 
Yeah...
 
That's what I was thinking
 
This is what happens when I don't sleep. :)
 
I assumed I was missing something until Volatility said something!
 
I overlooked that because I also happen to be marginally interested in the entire distribution... so I was doing the convolution already anyway
Unless you're all going to tell me there's an easier way to generalize that too
 
4:34 AM
@Deusovi Going to unpin Sp's clue?
 
Done.
 
thanks
 
4:51 AM
1
Q: A Secret Job . . . but what is it?

RubioMr. Peters, a freelance muscle-for-hire sort of fellow, had been manning his desk for days now waiting for something to do when at last the phone rang. A job! The nerdy sounding person on the other end of the line said this was urgent... that meant he could jack up his rate. Rubbing his hands t...

 
@GentlePurpleRain Is it SAKE (ddef)?
 
@Sphinx Finally a question title that people may take for a Workplace question xD
@Alconja Nice, that should be right
 
@Ankoganit :)
 
5:09 AM
@Alconja Ding ding ding! You win the prize!
 
CCCC: Real drunk after lively ceremony (7)
 
FUNERAL
 
@stacksfiller Too quick. :) I was also tossing up going with: "Wake from rest, real confused."
 
Aaah hold on
I have to make one
 
5:28 AM
Just awful beheading (8)
 
(-f)RIGHTFUL
 
Was about to say you should edit CCCC in front... but never mind :)
 
Wow that was fast
 
A wild Deusovi appears!
 
I assumed "just" would be a hard definition, but I guess not hard enough for this chat!
 
5:31 AM
I saw "beheading" and immediately thought "removal indicator", and there was only one way to parse the clue that way.
 
Yeah, I need to try to be trickier
and also should probably stockpile a few clues in advance
 
on the other hand, it's nice to have a few that don't get stuck unsolved for days at a time
 
It's a good point, but it also seems like the sweetspot is over a minute, unlike that clue
 
Sorry...
 
Heh, true
Not sure if you got my funeral one under or over the minute mark
Oh, you can get that detail from the message menu... Two whole minutes!
 
5:35 AM
Don't apologize
It's the clue writer's burden, not the solvers'
 
CCCC: Essentially, noble party as a whole (4)
Huh, I thought this one would fall quickly.
 
5:51 AM
Just got back from googling what "essentially" could be an indicator for... :)
Maybe, (b)RAVE?
 
Nope
I'm off to bed pretty soon - two exams tomorrow.
Letter sum of my clue's answer ends in 7 - please don't use that to cheat.
 
Welp, I fail. Only other possibilities I can see is (upstan)DING and (awe-inspi)RING, but they're even less satisfying than rave...
 
So "essentially" means "take the last four letters" to you?
 
No, it means "take some part", just coincidence that the examples I saw were the last letters
 
6:08 AM
I think of it as the middle
 
That's what I would have assumed too (like "core" or similar), but the guide I hit when I googled just implied any part of...
Either way, there should be some four letter word in this list that is wholly contained in some five+ letter word from this list... but I don't see it. Maybe I need a bigger dictionary.
 
 
1 hour later…
7:31 AM
0
Q: What is the name of a word such as "Wheat" or "Spit"?

amber lynnWhat is the name of a word such as "Wheat" that when you remove the first letter, it is still a word, down to two letters? Ex: Wheat, Heat, Eat, At... Spit, Pit, It. What is the longest such word, in the English laguage?

 
Does Amber Lynn's avatar look similar to userXXXXX (whatever it was)?
 
7:51 AM
Uhhhh, I was going to post a new puzzle today but my computer screwed up, became unresponsive and I lost the puzzle. I'll have to rewrite it tonight and post it tommorow
Oh wait no, I'm on a school trip abroad tommorow... It'll have to be next week
Yeah forgot to mention that: If I'm inactive for the next week or so, it's cause either the hotel wifi is bad or I don't have time. And also I'll be different time zone, american
 
 
1 hour later…
9:00 AM
Hello? Anyone there?
 
I am partially here.
 
0
Q: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a comet!

boboquackUmmm... this is a little embarrassing, but I need a bit of help with my homework... I got a riddle from English class, which I have no clue where to start deciphering: Air I miss, comet I be, Round, with a tail at the back. Or is there? No, you may hear... Up I would still be missed, u...

 
9:23 AM
This one looks interesting.
 
I hope it does! Enjoy!
 
 
2 hours later…
11:29 AM
0
Q: 11 ways to get past the Wall

Mike.C.FordI came upon a wall across a path that I traversed Without a route around it I cried foul with mighty curse! I soon however noticed a door fixed on this divide It wouldn't budge even when shoved no matter what I tried To reach my destination I must find a thoroughfare Or open this partition using...

 
 
2 hours later…
1:56 PM
Whoopee!!
GRID36 is nearing completion!
Will be up by the weekend :)
 
-1
Q: How many peas fit into an empty glass?

StringForeverDoes somebody know how to answer this question? Since there are several solutions, please justify yours and tell why it is the right / best!

 
2:44 PM
@rand Good point about Lily Evans
 
polite inquiry
 
If the badge-awarding system is to be trusted, today is my first anniversary here.
@Sconibulus polite but slightly bemused response
 
3:17 PM
@Gareth @Sconibulus irritable snarl at being disturbed, with not-subtle aspersions cast on your respective mothers
GoodUGTmorning all :)
 
Morning!
 
Sid
Hey all!
 
hi all
 
Sid
I spent 80 bucks today on a horror show... And didn't get scared at all. Bah. M
 
pity, that.
I spent a lot of bucks yesterday buying tickets to Hamilton. Looking forward to that a lot.
 
3:20 PM
I can't stand horror, and I don't know how anyone can. I'm way too easily scared.
Ooh, I've heard Hamilton is good!
 
Boo
(did that scare you?)
(on second thoughts maybe I should have added some '!'s to make that work)
 
did that scare you?
 
Sid
puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/48881/… - if anyone gets what the OP is thinking feel free to answer. I have already given up. (looks at Rubio, Gareth)
 
RUBIO, NO.
2
 
lol
 
3:22 PM
Seriously, fuck you.
2
 
wow. That wasn't quite the reaction I expected :) sorry
 
You should be sorry. >:/
 
@Sid I have no idea. The answer is "YOU" but the riddle makes no sense.
 
@Deusovi I'm guessing I just missed something?
 
Rubio posted a picture in an attempt to scare me. It worked.
 
3:25 PM
I take it was horror related
 
i.imgflip.com 156j0z.jpg for the curious. I don't quite understand clowns in general, or some people's very intense reactions to them in particular.
 
Sid
@Rubio apparently the OP expects us "to guess what they are thinking"
 
@Sid Yeah, agreed. It's getting downvoted into oblivion, so ... yeah.
 
@Rubio See, I find that humorous.
 
I'm... just gonna go for now. Back in a couple hours, probably.
 
3:27 PM
Alright, hope you feel more relaxed later.
 
Ditto. But to people who get triggered by clowns, I guess, that's nightmare fuel.
Sorry dude. Laters
 
Sid
@Sconibulus I almost forgot. Thanks big time.
 
I wonder why clowns are so scary
I've heard that it's because the makeup covers facial expressions, but that doesn't seem to explain it very well
because people find like, the back of clowns scary too, moreso than normal people
 
No idea, I find some things disturbing at times, but I don't think I've ever been scared by anything.
@Rubio I found the +2 thing you were talking about "suggested edit is accepted: +2 (up to +1000 total per user)"
It's under the rep page
 
3:45 PM
Darn, both my newest question and my newest answer are stuck at +13
I find that ominous xD
 
You just need 11 more like it :P
 
noooo
 
3:56 PM
hm.
The earlier polite exchange between @Gareth and @Sconibulus brought to mind an entry in the bash.org QDB, but bash.org appears to have gone awol. However, the power of teh intarwebz allows me to still share this wee gem. web.archive.org/web/20160310235322/http://bash.org/?23396
 
hehe
 
Good stuff. Of course this is the single greatest thing ever posted on bash.org: web.archive.org/web/20170111130701/http://www.bash.org/?244321
 
pwned
 
bash.org is defunct?
 
and indeed mine comes above Rubio's on web.archive.org/web/20170203212335/http://bash.org/?top -- but Rubio's is in second place. A little further down is the somewhat NSFW but also hilarious result of replacing "wand" with "wang" throughout Harry Potter.
 
4:12 PM
0
Q: Hidden Phrase Within Rant

mkinsonForeword: This is a puzzle. I wouldn’t read too much into it… unless it applies to you. Although it is your prerogative whether to withhold judgment, or else harass posters on their poor puzzles, please take the occasion to not embarrass yourself or start unnecessary arguments, and instead sh...

 
4:27 PM
this one is amusing
 
0
Q: Good ol' fashion Clickbait

Melkor Look at me! Funny, Sad or Bold; I'm just like clickbait, but range from times that are old. You may see me while travelling, surfing, watching, and sometimes you won't even know I'm there! If you don't then I can really make you care. When associated with some, leave...

 
5:08 PM
Looks like my puzzle saved after all
Have fun people
(Note: You do have to let it load a bit)
 
0
Q: The Pitiable Coder

Beastly GerbilOne day, I found an odd newspaper lying on a bench called '$\large\bf\text{The Pitiable Coder}$'. I opened it and to my delight found an entire page on puzzles! Most were easy, but there was one I couldn't solve: $\boxed{\sf{New!}\ \sf{Introducing}\ \sf{a}\ \sf{new}\ \sf{type}\ \sf{of}\ \s...

 
I have a feeling that without enumeration, those will end up being too hard.
 
They don't give words and aren't cryptic clues
 
I know they're not cryptics
 
If I was to give enumerations, it would be (1) for each
 
5:21 PM
Ok, Their name makes sense then (unless I'm way off the mark.)
 
Try the title first
 
You may want to clarify that words are not what we're looking for
 
isn't e.g. the 5th one (2) not (1) ?
 
They all give 1. You'll understand it when you realise what to do
@dcfyj done
 
5:25 PM
ok. (I realise I'm so far not using all of each clue.)
 
Did you know you could set up a zoom trigger for mathjax?
 
Nope, I'm a Mathjax newbie :P
(And what's a zoom trigger?)
 
A trigger to zoom it in. It's under the right-click menu.
 
Oh right
 
It's nifty
 
5:29 PM
I'm surprised the title hasn't been solved
 
C?
 
Sid
C is a programming language
 
@BeastlyGerbil Is it at all possible that the last one is incorrect?
(maybe it has a spurious L or something)
 
Oh the programming language? No! It is nothing like that
 
5:30 PM
(most likely I'm the one who's confused)
 
@GarethMcCaughan why what do you see thats wrong with it?
 
Sid
I believe Night that has None= O (Because None=0)
 
I don't want to say too explicitly in case other people are attacking the puzzle
 
Email me?
 
5:31 PM
but I am currently failing to find any things in the relevant set that have exactly the required components
 
@Sid don't even try to solve them before the title is solved and you understad 'chemicryptics'
@GarethMcCaughan email me 'beastlygerbil@gmail.com'
 
Sid
CHEMICRYPTICS should mean something mixing chemistry and cryptics due to which they are not cryptic clues?
 
Basically
 
@BeastlyGerbil emailed
 
5:33 PM
Cryptics here just means it is rather cryptic
@GarethMcCaughan replied :) (Well done too!)
Thanks for pointing out the error too
And 'aim cues' makes ore sense too :)
 
yup :-)
Still trying to figure out the "condensation" step that yields one letter per clue, but I'll get there...
 
Sid
(To Myself) Why was I even bothering with that puzzle, when Gareth was working on it? :P
3
 
@GarethMcCaughan you are wrong with your guess, but have written something in your answer which is essential in the next step
And your update doesn't help
 
what, my guess for the very last step? ok
 
well not quite last step but yes
 
5:43 PM
I notice that the first word of each statement and the element symbol have exactly one letter in common
 
but the only thing I can get out of the overlap anagram is CRAB NARC
 
well done @Sconibulus :)
nearly wrong one
bbs, have tp go afk for a bit. expect it to be solved when I get back though :)
 
so. ARCRANBC. Ar and Cr are elements but not An or BC; nor A, for that matter, so that isn't going to help. Anagramming to CRAB NARC obviously isn't helpful, alas. It almost contains an anagram of CARBAN which is almost an element :-).
Could be Ar C Ra N B C, I guess. If we convert those to atomic numbers and then letters, does that give anything?
18 12 88. Er, that's not going to work.
 
Sid
C=6 not 12
 
5:50 PM
oops
but 88 still isn't helpful
and RF is no better as a beginning than RL
 
Sid
Treating 88 as 8 and 8 isn't helpful either..
Ton of gibberish..
 
maybe we could take ARCRANBC as a Vigenere key for something else with 8 letters, like PITIABLE from the title, but whichever way around I do it that seems to fail.
(looks like it begins PZV if I add and PRR if I subtract)
(but I make mistakes doing mental arithmetic so I might have goofed)
ARCRANBC isn't a million miles from being an anagram of CHARABANC but it's plenty far enough away from being one that that's no good :-)
 
Sid
@Sconibulus Could you explain what you mean in the second line of the "Orange Curd"? I don't quite follow you.
 
FWIW, IAS finds no anags other than CRAB NARC (and I'm not at all surprised)
 
Sid
Yep, already tried that...
 
5:56 PM
we could parse it as ARC RAN BC. Maybe there was a Canadian politician with initials A.R.C. :-)
 
Wrong letters
 
Have you tried swapping the common letter with the other yet?
 
Sid
Ruthless
 
5:58 PM
wry pout
trunch??
hacks
oh, I see
sid has it
quite right
(PS Sid, that's why you were bothering with the puzzle)
3
 
Sid
How on earth, did I not think of that????
 

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