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1:00 PM
I played my horns for the first time in a couple of years.
 
Horns are lovely. Sorely underappreciated members of the romantic orchestra, at the very least.
 
Just recently I finally learned to play piano.
After years of using it as an instrumentation tool
 
With all this music, shouldn't your recent life have been quite marvellous?
 
musica est marvoloso
(i dunno latin)
 
I dunno it either
 
1:05 PM
Fake it
 
Pesky enter key.
 
speak!
or not. sometimes....
I can take a whole day to say nothing.
 
I've taken my whole life to say very little.
 
On other days I go on and on with the same result.
It's like music.
 
I'd like to think that music says a lot with very little.
 
1:11 PM
The morrier the merrier!
The lesser the learnedererererer!
 
O_o
 
I wnnnn cba poet.
Let me?
 
@Mithrandir will your clues series ever be finished?
ive popped you an email about an idea I've had for one.
 
To be Frank (except I'm not), @humn, you appear to be in a strange place. Are you alright? You seem as if perhaps something happened in real life that perhaps wasn't so great. Is everything okay?
@TheGreatEscaper it's possible.
I'll see the email in a couple days, unfortunately, as I only access it from my computer and that's not available for a little while.
 
That's a shame. Ah well.
 
1:17 PM
I'm also waiting for Jon Ericson to get around to the private rooms meta...
 
Thank you for asking, @Mithrandir, I'm just chimeric once in awhile.
 
As in, a chimera?
 
Okay, @Mithrandir, yes I am unplussed by memories of friends in absentia. Just makes me want to livre more.
 
@humn just keep that attitude, okay? :)
 
Is livre a clue?
its a lovely French word no doubt, but it might not be the one you're looking for, is it?
 
1:25 PM
It ain't fair. Some of us livre while others didn't.
vive!
Some of us are here to beat a rhythm.
Joyeux!
 
Humn, can I make a movie recommendation? It's my favourite film of all time.
 
go
 
Cloud Atlas. It's a bit long at around 3 hours
but it's 3 astonishing hours.
check out the trailer at the very least:
 
well received
(and 3 hours to go)
 
I've been following your conversations for a while; is it me going crazy or you people going ultra enigmatic?
2
Btw, @TheGreatEscaper probably you know already, but a new Cube Escape is out!
 
I've been wondering the same
(viewing a 3-hour movie)
(point and click)
 
@Ankoganit welcome to Puzzling.
 
@ankoganit, Cave?
or an even newer one?!?!?
Also, I thought it'd be interesting to talk the same language humn has adopted recently
but i can do both :P
 
That 3-hour movie ended in 3 minutes.
 
1:38 PM
@Ankoganit already played cave :P
 
yeah cave
I figured you would've :D
 
@humn not your thing? Aw. Give it another shot at some point if you're ever willing. It'll take a bit of effort to get into but it's honestly the only piece of entertainment I've ever experienced that I would call 'transcendental'
 
I'm game, @TheGrape, and will figure it out.
(that's a joke and serious)
 
BTW ever tried Dr. Stanley's house @The ?
 
Yup! Good fun.
Completed 1 and 2 in the early days of the App Store. Dled 3 but never played through properly.
 
1:44 PM
yeah just found it last month
 
1 and 2 were a great little duo. 3 seems somewhat removed.
 
same
it is?
haven't tried 3 yet
 
@TheGreatEscaper refuses to create any more Clues until I receive a Nice Question badge for all of the existing ones (kidding)
 
Could be another great adventure game but it's a little disjointed from the first two so far
The mechanics and puzzles I'd done at that point were great but it just feels like it's a different series, if you know what I mean.
 
Anyway, off for a bit.
Adieu
 
1:46 PM
0
Q: A mystery partition of 100

Bernardo Recamán SantosGiven a multiset (a set with repeated elements allowed) of positive integers, its P-graph is the loopless graph whose vertex set consists of those integers, any two of which are joined by an edge if they have a common divisor greater than 1, that is, they are not relatively prime. The P-graph of...

 
gotcha @TheGreat
cya @Mith !
 
(Still trying to read that movie, and will succeed, but until then) Every utterance here is a puzzle in itsef.
 
Cya Mith!
ill be off soon too, it's almost midnight
It was great having a chat with you, @humn, though I'd also love a more straightforward one sometime soon.
 
It can happen.
I'd love to collaborate on a puzzle with you, @TheGr, but I don't have the best track record.
Especially a graphical puzzle. Who knows?
 
Graphical as in one with cool graphs or one with cool graphics?
(or both?)
 
1:57 PM
Welp, heading off for the night!
 
One where the verbal description belies the visual result?
 
@Humn sure! That'd be really great.
 
Worth a try!
 
In any case, it'll have to be sometime where I have time, and that's not now. Now, I sleep :P
 
@humn sounds even more interesting
g'night @TheGreatEscaper
 
1:58 PM
Gnight PSE! Catch you all later
 
Sleep safely ( = you know)
 
I'll be going pretty soon too
 
You've done so much good , you need a rest
 
Oh hey, the humn is still here!
 
(free prose)
 
2:00 PM
And the conversation looks ... fairly normal :-o
 
you could change that, R
 
@humn Have you read any James Thurber, perchance?
 
I live the life of Walter Mitty
 
Some of your writing reminds me of his.
 
bow
 
2:02 PM
He has this amazing knack of writing prose in such a way that it feels like poetry.
Prosetry?
 
(I do have a nit to pick though, the dinger danger wonderful writer is xxxxing sxxxist)
 
Oh? Can't say I've read enough of his stuff to notice.
Only The Thirteen Clocks and The Wonderful O.
I wnder hw the cnversatin wuld g if we all started talking like the peple f the Wnderful
 
other than that, how was the show, mrs. lincoln?
 
What showowow?
 
(^written before I saw yours)
 
2:07 PM
> I’ll build you a better man of firmer flesh and all complete, from hairy head to metatarsal feet, using A’s and I’s and U’s and E’s with muscular arms and flexible knees; eyes and ears and lids and lips, neck and chest and breast and hips; …
 
(and now reading 13 clocks & O)
 
See? Prose with perfect rhyme and rhythm. How cool is that?
 
(and now sideswiped)
(R'a'T) you could've (are) been a poet!)
 
My best attempts at poetry are my many riddles.
(normally I would respond with "I am a poet", but in front of you that seems a more audacious claim)
 
You oughta meet my pal Poettierrierier
He oughta meet you!
The more the poettierierierier!
 
2:15 PM
Edgar Allan had a terrier,
Which he called Poettierierier,
Great and cheerful, boney gnawer,
This hound would oft say Nevermore.
 
Sling!
Truly, my friend P knows how to sling a poem, and his daughter, L, knows how to illustrate one.
And thanks to them I know 1 when i see one.
@Rand al'Thor , you have a way.
 
P was a man of W when he was feeling L. At Christmas he said H, but he could never G to I, or even Jupiter. His F once stamped upon his T.
 
Fill them in! (left to the reader, I mean, what fun!)
 
And now I see that, despite the spelling, phoneme-wise this is the same scheme as Black and Littlejack's.
 
(looking that up)
(not finding)
(any >! hints?)
 
2:29 PM
24 mins ago, by Rand al'Thor
I wnder hw the cnversatin wuld g if we all started talking like the peple f the Wnderful
 
24 minute gltch sz: n! so we||
wh? th? expletive delt?
Really the dx interface stopped. Probly par for the course.
Sorry to say, I give (up).
Oh, now the transmission line works.
 
(not getting it)
 
...I stop back for a minute and see that it's still on a weird conversation. O_o
 
@Mithrandir Still? When I arrived it was pretty normal.
 
And now I'm exhausted just from spelling transmission line.
 
2:38 PM
humn and I didn't take long to weirdififify it.
@humn If you mean that you still need a hint for what I was on about: Black and Littlejack are the villains of The Wonderful O, who seek to remove the O's from all wrds.
 
word weird
perfecto
 
@Randal'Thor that wuld be cnfusing. Why wuld they want t d that? Bviusly, this wuld cause great cnfusin.
 
(looking it up again)
 
...h. I repeated myself _
 
@Mithrandir Because ne f their mthers gt stuck in a prthle, and they culdn't pull her in s they had to push her ut.
After that they always hated the letter.
 
2:41 PM
...but a prthle isn't that letter. It just lks like ne.
(except fr when it's square)
 
It lks like that letter, and it's gt tw f that letter in its name.
shrug Dn't expect piratical villains t make t much sense.
I suppse the parrt had t say "pieces f eight".
 
n e p r t n a s t r m
 
Until Black squcked its thrug.
 
ם_ם
 
He squcked its thrug until all it could whupple was geep.
(I kid you not - this is actually what it says in the story.)
 
2:45 PM
(would you mind kidding us while we figure that out?)
 
...ס_ס
 
Does wrapping you in kid gloves count?
Oh @humn, while we're on book recommendations: The Phantom Tollbooth.
Everyone on this site should read The Phantom Tollbooth.
 
Drove through it, safely.
 
Excellent.
 
Well agreed!
 
2:49 PM
And lved it, I hpe?
 
And then come to Literature to ask questions about it!
 
Yessss.
@Mithrandir I already promoted Lit to humn the other day ;-)
 
Believe it or not, I became the tallest shortie.
(I grew two inches just like the story, after 30 years, and that's after another 30)
 
As far as I know, the only Tollbooth question there is mine...
 
link?!
 
2:51 PM
17
Q: What is the significance of Alec Bings's name in The Phantom Tollbooth?

MithrandirIn The Phantom Tollbooth, basically every name has a significance/pun. For example, Dr. Dischord - his name is 'Discord' with 'chord' - implying bad sounds. Or the DYNNE, or 'din'. And Chroma, with his colors. I even managed to figure out something for King Azaz (the wordy king) - it's from A to...

 
17
Q: What is the significance of Alec Bings's name in The Phantom Tollbooth?

MithrandirIn The Phantom Tollbooth, basically every name has a significance/pun. For example, Dr. Dischord - his name is 'Discord' with 'chord' - implying bad sounds. Or the DYNNE, or 'din'. And Chroma, with his colors. I even managed to figure out something for King Azaz (the wordy king) - it's from A to...

 
(here we go)
 
Huh, that's odd. The first bracket is part of the link and the second isn't.
Only a sem-lincket, it sems.
 
And I thought it would be closed puzzle.
Here' s one I've been trying to wrench into a LSE.com:
What Roman-a-cleves are your favorites?
(Closed due to opinionation)
Even Phantom Tollbooth tickles a Roman-a-clef.
 
Searched Google for "all it could whupple was geep", in the hope of finding an exact quote. Top result was this :-O
@humn Really? Who?
 
3:00 PM
It's my favorite literary cliche
Like Animal Farm
 
0
Q: Values of alphabets in Alphametic

zek54LEARN+LINEAR+LOGIC=PROLOG To find the values of individual characters for the above alphametic puzzle where each of the alphabets in the below represents a unique digit in base 10 and leading characters are non zero digit.

 
And there it is.
That's not my dirty deed!
Now I look like an AKhole.
I'm a Phole (Pangloss)
 
@humn Roman-a-cleves:
 
(way behind, but scrambling)
 
(pardon my obscure references)
(I'm probably too used to the SFF chatroom)
 
3:11 PM
Let it overflow here, @Rand al'Thor, and help my indiscretions fade into the background.
 
@humn "Are any characters in The Phantom Tollbooth based on real-life figures" would probably make a good Lit.SE question. Want to sign up and post it? :-)
(If not, I might.)
 
I've secretly been working on the Q like that to end all Qs like that, @Rand al'Thor, but it keeps collapsing under its own weight.
If you can tame it, please do.
It's my favorite aspect of literature.
 
@humn I'm not sure how to make a very broad Q like that about literature as a whole (would probably be closed as too broad), but a Q like that about a particular book would be great.
12
Q: Were other characters apart from Alice inspired by real life people?

Beastly GerbilIt is a commonly known fact that Lewis Carroll based Alice in his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass on Alice Liddell, after she asked him to tell him a story. But were any other characters, for instance the Mad Hatter, inspired by real life people, and what evidence ...

^ example
 
Animal Farm, Portrait of Dorian Gray, True Colors, ...
And Alice in Wonderland!
 
Oh, we've had Qs like that ad nauseam about Animal Farm on Lit.
 
3:17 PM
^
 
Sadly, all about individual characters rather than an all-encompassing "who did all the Animal Farm characters represent in real life?"
 
Give me a schilling and I'll arrive a day late.
 
And when someone tried to make an all-encompassing one, it got downvoted :-/
 
@humn Give me a shealing and I'll be at home.
 
Yes, andnooooo
 
@Mithrandir Foiled again!
Gained a foil.
 
Favo(u?)rite word: allusion
It's like illusion
but all the mo so
 
've you 'ard? Life is like a saw?
(sword)
 
3:25 PM
I've got a saw on my pocket knife...
 
I've got a tawny pickle
(Made that up the other day for someone who wanted a spoonerism)
 
...
 
I live in a nosy cook.
 
(misspelled for general viewing)
 
(I have another favoured spoonerism, but it might be too vulgar for, as humn puts it, general viewing)
 
3:28 PM
Does it involve Elmo?
 
(i.e., Mith's tender young ears)
 
I'm off. I'll be back in... 25-27 hours, I think. Adios!
@Randal'Thor I'm a mod now, remember? :P
 
@humn No, it involves stunts performed by a particular Roman god.
 
(that means you can delete the other mods' accounts, and it's about time)
 
@Mithrandir And still as squeamish as ever, it seems ;-)
 
3:30 PM
(behave)
 
(beehive)
 
(🐝)
 
shameless plug
 
@humn eyebrows
@Randal'Thor Is that so...
 
3:32 PM
But if we had shame, Monsieur, none of us would be here.
 
33
Q: There are many different types of men

rand al'thorDisclaimer: no offence intended to Americans, Australians, or any other group! It's all part of the puzzle. What am I talking about in the following riddle? There are many different types of men; They often come in groups of two or three. Each group has a matching group of women, But they shoul...

@Mithrandir That childbirth chat in Mos the other day?
@humn s'datta quote?
 
@Randal'Thor it just felt like it was... Unnecessary to discuss there. Like I said, it was more the poop thing that I didn't appreciate.
leaves
 
Wasamattempt.
 
@Mithrandir This whole conversation is "unnecessary". Chat is unnecessary.
 
Ahm enjoying your Riddle al'Thor, but why did you single out A-holes? Humns span all continents, not just (US)America and (?)Austrlalia,
(no need to answer)
 
3:40 PM
Americans and Australians were the ones it sounded like I was being rude about in the riddle.
> The Americans are only half as good as us.
Those from Down Under are all thin and weedy,
Not as tough as the solid British men.
 
I don't mind, I didn't vote from Arump or Aexit.
abnnakamy chin just voted for a nap. Will catch up during the next round. Glad that we crossed paths, @Rand al'Thor! (And in absentia @Mithrandir)
Con brio!
 
1
Q: An Easter Puzzle

ovalteinI woke up this morning to find Easter eggs hidden around the house. Instead of being filled with chocolate, each one had a slip of paper inside. Apparently the Easter Bunny left a puzzle to solve. What does it all mean? (Each line represents one clue inside an egg. They are listed in the ord...

 
@humn Always a pleasure!
 
4:22 PM
@Gareth Could the CCCC answer be ENDURE? "Accept" as def, the letter before "posting" is E, somehow "state of" = UNDER (not sure about this bit), and then "perhaps" indicates anagramming UNDER+E.
(I'm not very confident about this, but experience has shown that not mentioning halfway hunches often ends badly, and I don't lose anything by making a wrong guess.)
 
4:33 PM
I highly doubt Gareth would have used an indirect anagram here :P
 
4:51 PM
@Rubio Call in answer BIG DIPPER? :D
 
@GarethMcCaughan Fair enough! (And sorry about that.)
@Randal'Thor For the easter puzzle, sort by the numbers (after your rot-n-ing) and read off the firsts, then the seconds, then the third, and you get WHAT IS MY FAVORITE CANDY
 
... you make it look so obvious now.
 
@Sp3000 Yeah, I think that's the meta answer too.
 
@Deusovi Want to post your own answer, or shall I add to mine and credit you?
 
Go ahead and add it to yours.
(But there's still one more non-meta puzzle in Rubio's series...)
 
5:01 PM
Your sportingness is appreciated.
Done.
 
If I wanted to steal the answer, I'd've posted without letting you know in chat. :P
 
Happy Easter! (To those who celebrate at least) :)
 
@Sp3000 if you are guessing the meta answer that is not it. :)
And Happy Easter all!
 
Sid
GamEN all
Okay, what exactly happens during Easter? I am curious
 
5:17 PM
A bunny breaks into your house and hides eggs and you eat candy
 
@Sid Depends where you are in the world.
In Britain and the US, it's very consumerist and basically just an excuse to eat lots of chocolate.
It's a much bigger thing in parts of eastern Europe.
And in some places it has much more religious connotations.
 
Easter is a Christian holiday celebrating Jesus' resurrection. The most common practice in the US is an "Easter egg hunt", where little plastic eggs with candy are hidden throughout the house / yard / whatever by the older family members (posing as the "Easter Bunny"), and the kids of the family try to find the eggs.
 
Sid
Oh, so, an occasion invented to eat candies. Nice.
 
Even though it's originally a pagan holiday, which was taken over by Judaism and then by Christianity, all for different reasons.
 
Sid
(That was in reply to Rand's first message)
 
5:19 PM
@Sid Not at all - that's just what it's developed into over time in certain regions. See my last message.
 
Sid
Deus's explanation makes it sound like a normal celebration-type thing
Religious connotations? Like?
 
In pagan tradition, it was a celebration of Spring. In Judaism it's called Passover and celebrates the Angel of Death "passing over" Jews' houses and only murdering non-Jewish children. In Christianity, as Deusovi said, it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion on Good Friday. I'm not really sure where chocolate eggs enter into any of this.
@Sid Well, in countries where Christianity has a stronger presence, it is basically a religious festival: people go to church and stuff rather than just sitting around eating chocolate.
 
The egg bits were commercialization over time - another excuse to make money
 
I think both Christianity and Judaism have a tradition of fasting linked to Easter/Passover, but I may be getting mixed up with some other period in the year.
Does Lent immediately precede Easter?
 
I grew up going to church for Easter.. People who are 'christian' but don't really go to church frequently tend to go on two holidays, Christmas and Easter
Lent does precede it yes (for 40 days)
 
5:24 PM
@n_palum And is that meant to be a fasting period?
 
Sid
Okay, forgive my ignorance. Does "Lent" mean that time when ash-like things are put in forehead of people?
 
That's Ash-Wednesday
 
Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent.
 
@Randal'Thor Lent used to be more about fasting and sacrificing your time, reconciliation etc
 
Lent lasts for 40 days. Typically, you're supposed to give up something for it (at least in the US).
And then at the end of Lent is Easter.
Also, every Friday in Lent, you can't eat meat.
 
5:26 PM
Now it tends to be more like, give up something for lent (it's supposed to be your time, and such) but nowadays it's more like I won't eat chocolate for the 40 days
^^ and the meat thing
 
@Deusovi Give up something, like fasting? Or like a New Year's resolution? Or like sacrificing to the gods? (I'm probably getting mixed up with the ancient Greeks for that last one ... :-P )
 
(Of course, you don't have to do it if you aren't Christian, since you wouldn't celebrate the holiday.)
More like a New Year's resolution, except you actually think about it for more than two days.
 
A New Year's resolution is supposed to last at least a year!
 
Supposed to.
 
Sid
So, basically the religious customs have become diluted in recent years. Like giving up meat isn't really a sacrifice
 
5:30 PM
Depends on what you call "recent".
 
@Sid As many religious customs do over time :-/
 
Sid
@Deusovi I don't understand. ",recent", as in the 21st century
 
 
1 hour later…
6:54 PM
For the avoidance of doubt: the answer to my clue is not ENDURE, though I have to confess there is something very slightly dodgy about the clue and if it weren't for the fact that changing it would leak information I'd make a minor alteration to it. And no, I don't do indirect anagrams.
I don't think most Christians consider that they have to give something up for Lent either. Various specific Christian groups have had specific requirements, which have also tended to change over time. I would agree that it's got diluted, but I'd say it's over a longer period than just the 21st century. Gradually since maybe the mid-19th or thereabouts, and faster since the mid-20th.
I think there were eggs (as a symbol of new life, which works whether you're celebrating the coming of spring, the Jews' escape from slavery in Egypt, or the Resurrection) long before there were chocolate eggs.
 
 
5 hours later…
11:51 PM
^ Everything always ends with chocolate eggs.
 
Reformulating, chocolate eggs cause things to end.
 

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