The Sphinx's Lair

Rubio

12:01 AM

Actually, no earlier than April 17 - the "What is the su" tab shown is this which was posted that day

n_palum

I leave my tabs open pretty long too

Thanks @Randal'Thor for adding that word ladder tag

Rubio

I'm on my "craptop" at the moment, which predictably doesn't see a lot of use. so yeah, it'd sat here, tabs open, attentively following along as new messages were added, to give that wonderful screen shot. The past couple of days have been remarkably ... chatty.

n_palum

I take credit for some of that, but I think sleepless humn had a big hand in it too

Rand al'Thor

12:24 AM

in Mos Eisley, Mar 12 at 15:57, by Rand al'Thor

That was from just an hour or two on SFF during the Big Editing Event a few weeks ago.

Rubio

hehe

Jamal Senjaya

2:34 AM

I had -60 on puzzling :(

awesomepi

3:10 AM

... my last message in here was on march 26, 2015 pffft

Sphinx

5:43 AM

0

Q: Create a star shaped crosswords

Create a star-shaped crossword using 6 letters English words. Clues for the crossword is not needed. Use common English words. Direction for diagonals is TOP to DOWN. Direction for Horizontal is LEFT to RIGHT. Example: The words used in the example are : states, latent, steaks, strait and ...

Puzzling Meta

7:53 AM

0

Q: "Too Broad" criteria puzzles

This puzzle is closed because it is considered as "Too Broad" Create a star shaped crosswords I thinks these puzzles are also "Too Broad". but why not closed as "Too Broad" Fruit Transformation Want to go from MANILA to UGANDA So what kind of Too Broad puzzle is OK and what is not ?

discussion

Sphinx

8:27 AM

2

Q: Self-intro to mo-Roman numerals

Here come mo -Roman numerals — just like Roman numerals, only mo’ so. (Explained as we go.) What number can spell itself in two different ways with mo-Roman letter substitution? For example, the number 6 can be spelled in one way with mo-Roman letter substitution: 6

no-computers formation-of-numbers

Sphinx

10:05 AM

0

Q: What is a Unionized Word™?

In the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee, a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles. If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Unionized Word™. Use the examples below to find the rule. $$ % set Title text. (spaces around the text ARE important; do not r...

pattern word-property

0

Q: Challenge : Create a star shaped crosswords (Smaller numbers of distinct letters wins !)

Rules: Create a star-shaped crossword using 6 letters English words. Clues for the crossword is not needed. Use common English words. Direction for diagonals is TOP to DOWN. Direction for Horizontal is LEFT to RIGHT. Example: The words used in the example are : states, latent, steaks, str...

wordplay open-ended crosswords

n_palum

12:12 PM

GaMen

n_palum

1:35 PM

@MOehm Even after you added those explanations it still took me a minute to figure out what it meant from the abbreviations

also you or someone should help with this because I am stuck puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/51097/…

Sphinx

1:53 PM

0

Q: please help me with this puzzle?

ok guys, so i have been given this puzzle by my friend (who is a qualified military cryptographer). I am completely stuck as for what the hell to do, i feel like I have exhausted every possibility. Im told this website holds the top 1% of knowledge! please help, guys and girls!

logical-deduction

Sphinx

2:54 PM

2

Q: The Death Of An Angel

Lovely she was, oh the things I wanted to do to her... Going to that nice restaurant, eating everything I could and even more. Giving her that ring was hard, I desired to keep it for myself so bad. She was full of energy but after a while, I became tired and it was getting ...

riddle lateral-thinking story poetry

M Oehm

4:11 PM

@n_palum Are you saying that my explanation isn't clear? I think at least the examples should make it clear.

Rubio

I thought it perfectly clear

n_palum

It just took me a bit to realize what it was, it's clear

Just reading the stuff at the beginning seemed confusing at first but it makes sense eventually

Rubio

Short of linking to (say) this I'm not sure it could be any better :)

n_palum

The phrasing "that is made up wholly of abbreviations of US states. Unionized refers to the Union"

That's what tripped me up that's all.. when you said Marineland was like Maryland I thought you meant it was using Maryland abbreviations or something

M Oehm

I've linked the Wikipedia article "list of US states". It has the same information, although not as concise. And maybe I should have said "postal abbreviations" instead of just "abbreviations". That seems to be the "official" name, although I see the postal abbreviations used practically everywhere.

No. I think Florid and Marineland and maybe some others were deliberately used to hint at US states. There's also the potential red herring of Unionized vs. Un-ionized that a commenter posted. I didn't think about the latter.

Rubio

4:16 PM

The latter red herring was intended (the word's been used in Contact a couple times now, clued by "Are you a plumber? ...or a chemist?" or similar)

The resemblance of florid and florida was completely unintended - I should have gone with "floral" in hindsight

and "marineland" was included as it's the only word 10+ letters long that works, that I could find

n_palum

Like I said, it makes sense in the end :)

That being said, this dungeon puzzle seems hopeless

M Oehm

Ah! I've never joined the Contact games.

n_palum

Well you should fix that

M Oehm

"... rots in the circles of hell." - I'm not sure why you think that you think about ROT9 when the drawing has 13 circles, even if Dante's Hell has 9. ROT13 is much more common.

Rubio

Fair warning - Contact is astonishingly addictive

9

n_palum

4:24 PM

Because I thought the 13 circles were a separate clue afterwards

M Oehm

@Rubio So I've heard. I already spend too much time on PSE ...

n_palum

Not enough*

Sid

GamEn p

M Oehm

Hmm, and what's with the "guardian angle [sic]"?

n_palum

@MOehm I'm not sure, I've been trying to figure out some play with angles

Although they told me to look into the 3s first, but I can't quite put my finger on what that box and numbers remind me of

Sid

4:31 PM

@Rubio agreed. And I still don't understand why...

M Oehm

Hmmm. The grid is 9 x 27. Maybe it must be rearranged according to the 3² / 3 / 33 sketch?

n_palum

Hmm.. maybe? But that 2 wasn't originally there

Which makes me think they are unrelated

Rubio

I think the 3 in the box was intended to be "3 squared"

and they added the ² to make that more explicit

M Oehm

So the "negative sums" shouldn't be for each line, but for 3x3 cells?

n_palum

Ahh that makes sense Rubio

3^2, and 3, 3, 3 would give you the same as the 9x27 grid size

Rand al'Thor

4:48 PM

@Rubio LOGIN isn't right. (Where did KILL come from in the explanation?)

Rubio

from OFF

Rand al'Thor

Oh.

That's quite clever, but also quite a stretch.

The def of "hack" = "login" is also a stretch.

Rubio

That felt pretty tenuous overall, but I've not found anything better in a long time looking at this

Rand al'Thor

The intended answer should (I hope!) fit everything better.

Rubio

kill/off isn't particularly questionable - i think we've even seen that in a CCCC -

the unjustified shortening of "glorious" was, well, unjustified. and yeah, as I signalled, I didn't like hack/login much at all

Rand al'Thor

4:52 PM

I'm wondering how big a hint I should give ...

Rubio

ew. actually I just found one of these words on the rather untrustworthy page of 1001 anagram indicators

so now I'll take another look on the off-chance that's partly what's going on

Rand al'Thor

Hint 1: ignore punctuation; it's a red herring.

n_palum

What puzzle?

Rubio

I always start by ignoring punctuation and capitalization. ;)

Sp3000

... it's COUGH

:/

Rand al'Thor

4:56 PM

@Sp3000 Why? :-)

Sp3000

in/ch

I remember looking at ??oug and oug?? words previously

Rubio

how does any of that work?

Sp3000

Just hit me I should have thought to try oug in the middle

Sconibulus

...ugh

he's right...

Rand al'Thor

Why ":/" and "ugh"?

Sp3000

4:58 PM

Hack (to hack = to cough) = OU ("tail off our") + G[lorious] in CH

Sconibulus

tail off OU(-R) first G(-Lorious) in CH

Rubio

inCH ?!

you...

Rand al'Thor

:-D

Rubio

no.

just no.

:)

Rand al'Thor

I've even used this kind of clue before.

Sconibulus

4:58 PM

@Randal'Thor because so mean

Rand al'Thor

"I inseminate article of clothing", remember?

@Sconibulus I was so proud of this clue when I came up with it that I made a whole rhyme and three other themed cryptics around it.

Rubio

I guess you probably got some grumping over that one too

Sconibulus

syllable boundaries seem more fair, for some reason

Rubio

splitting words mid-way when they don't, well, naturally split is dodgy

splitting inCH is very very dodgy

You guys want to post the solution, or shall I, or meh?

Sp3000

I'll just say that rand's just being more Libertarian here, so I'm not too fussed but I feel it was a tad unfair (it's more fair when there's a grid because you would have cross letters at least)

Just don't let Deus see it :P

n_palum

5:02 PM

Hide the evidence

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio I like living dangerously.

Rubio

You guys get the lights, I'll throw the rug over it

Sp3000

And no I never had any intention of posting any answers (I never posted for CEMENT for the same reason)

Sid

That is.... So mean. I actually like that clue.. If only, I could come with such clues..

Sconibulus

I definitely don't have dibs, all I did was check it

Rand al'Thor

5:03 PM

@Sp3000 Go for it!

You were the one who solved it!

Sp3000

... nah I'm good :P

Deusovi

@Rubio Booooo.

Sp3000

Rube can just stick it in

Deusovi

(@Rand)

Rubio

Uhoh. He's on to you!

Deusovi

5:04 PM

(that was just the easiest message to make it clear what I'm expressing my dissatisfaction at)

Rand al'Thor

I can't tell whether you guys are like "this is deliciously evil" or "this is a horrible clue".

Sid

I don't understand what is wrong with that.. Inch was so superbly done..

Rand al'Thor

I mean, making each other's heads hurt is what this site is all about, right? :-P

Deusovi

"Inch" is exactly what's wrong with it. "Inch" does not mean "in CH".

Rand al'Thor

We should tell some drug companies to spam here. They'd make millions out of advertising headache pills to frustrated puzzlers.

Sid

5:06 PM

It literally tells IN CH..

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Hey, it's wordplay.

Sp3000

Personally I'm in the middle and don't mind either way, but that's probably from seeing enough now -> "no w" and nod -> "no d" from some setters... (but as I said, easier with cross letters)

Wouldn't do it personally though, but that's just setting preferences

Deusovi

@Sp3000 I don't like either of those either. My general guideline is "splitting is okay only if it's based on etymology", roughly

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Did the "inseminate" clue not pass muster with you either?

Sp3000

Yeah Deus I know you don't :P Just wanted to point out that some do do that, just in case anyone here finds one in the wild

n_palum

5:09 PM

@Randal'Thor I'd be buying em

Rubio

Well. Done and dusted, anyway.

I liked the rhyme :)

Deusovi

It's slightly better there, since the split was at IN-, and "semi-nate" can be parsed that way with a strong argument (since semi- is a combining prefix that means "half" But even a strong argument would only make it tenuous at best.

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio Woo, a positive comment! :-D

:-P

@Deusovi All right. I won't inseminate you in the future then.

hides

Rubio

Hehe. Actually MACHINE and WINCED were nice. I retracted my earlier whinge about the latter

For the record, like @Sp3000, I had "OUG" for a long time (like I said, I ignore punctuation first off, I actually assumed that comma was intended to be distracting), but couldn't connect it to anything because (...and, I think this is where the fairness of the clue really suffers) I literally never thought of "inch" as something splittable that way.

n_palum

You better stay hidden, making comments like that :O

Sid

5:19 PM

All this sounds like a conspiracy against Rand. :P

Rubio

Get the brands and pitchforks! We're stealing the "riddle" tag badge, by gum!

Rand al'Thor

You can take this gold tag badge from my cold dead hands.

Or should that be a cold tag badge from my gold dead hands?

@Rubio So I've opened your mind to new possibilities? Great!

;-)

n_palum

Would you lose your badge to a sudden burst of downvotes to your riddle answers?

Rubio

(... I still don't.) muahahaaa

Sp3000

So... while we're on the topic of CCs.

Rubio

5:24 PM

I don't think you can ever lose a badge once you have it

Sp3000

Gareth's. :P

n_palum

Purely speculation of course, since I can't take a pitchfork to your badge

Rand al'Thor

@n_palum Yes, but you'd need a lot of downvotes to knock me down by, what, 200 points?

@Rubio You can if it's a tag badge.

Rubio

Huh. That's lame. hehe

Sconibulus

@Randal'Thor yeah, but you have at least 100 answers so...

n_palum

5:25 PM

Would be a shame if something were to... happen to it

Laughs

Rubio

serial-downvote protection would kick in, I'm sure

Sconibulus

Serial downvotes are for if you only target a person right?

n_palum

Not if I garnered a cult of people

Sconibulus

Just make a script that downvotes a riddle at random once an hour

enough of them will be Rand's that in a week or two his badge is gone :)

Rubio

or you are. :)

Sconibulus

5:27 PM

*a riddle answer

n_palum

:O That's devious

Rubio

actually @Deusovi ← THAT's devious*

Beastly Gerbil

Deus must get so tired of being pinged just because someone mentioned the word 'devious' :P

Sid

Has Gareth given any hints on his CCCC?

n_palum

I'm sure he loves it

@Sid He gave a hint yesterday, may have to dig a bit

Sconibulus

5:32 PM

@Sid it doesn't involve Brexit

M Oehm

@Sp3000 What do you make of Gareth's CCCC? We've got a vague hint and the confirmation that Techidiot's try THEORETIC has at least one part of the wordplay.

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio I'd rather gamble on that option ;-)

@MOehm Linky to hinty?

Beastly Gerbil

keep in europe surely means E-------U right?

M Oehm

The vague hint Gareth gave was that the "It's" should probably be omitted, but he put it in for the surface reading.

Sconibulus

my best thought was 'Western state has one duty'->shod

Beastly Gerbil

5:34 PM

clever...

Sp3000

I was hoping it would be IMMEDIATE, but I can't seem to get that to fit. I'm secretly hoping that "me in Europe" isn't "'me' in some European language", with the language unspecified for sake of surface. "Duty" doesn't seem to have many options, maybe "tax" or "rate". No idea about "state" - too many options.

M Oehm

The hint's here.

n_palum

yesterday, by Gareth McCaughan

The CCCC has nothing to do with Brexit, though of course that sort of thing is supposed to be suggested by its surface reading :-).

23 hours ago, by Gareth McCaughan

The following is probably not a very large hint for my CCCC clue, but I will give it anyway because I feel slightly guilty about it: The clue would be slightly more correct if the "It's" were removed from the front. (But the surface reading would be spoiled, of course.)

Sid

So, in short, he hasn't given any major hints..

n_palum

Correct

Sp3000

5:39 PM

Given the length of the clue I wouldn't be surprised if "or the opposite" is part of the def, in a sort of auto-antonym-y (e.g. PRICELESS) way

n_palum

But in that case, what words can mean self-evident, short enough to be paired with a 'LESS' or other antonym

Sconibulus

there are a lot of words that are their own antonyms

Rand al'Thor

"me in Europe" ... are there any words containing EMEU?

Sphinx

5:54 PM

0

Q: Need Answer to Riddle

Anyone have a guess on this one? Look deep enough and you'll see it, Look too deep and you'll drown The answer is supposed to be a place.

riddle

M Oehm

the "to keep" could also refer to the duty: duty to keey me, and then everything in Europe. Europe isn't necessarily the EU, there's also the European Community EC which would make the word end in C. That's more likely than a word ending in U.

Sconibulus

6:40 PM

keep might reference castle

M Oehm

In theory, yes, but for this CC I think that would be too long. If it were "keep in Europe" it might be a place name and even the definition, but as is I think it's just a containment instruction.

Sconibulus

I don't think he'd use an instruction that long

eh, I dunno

M Oehm

The construction is partly dictated by the Brexit surface reading.

Rubio

7:03 PM

"keep in Europe" sure maybe, but not "keep me in Europe" which is what he gave

Sconibulus

there might be a Castly Ay (pronounced I) or something, or a Castle Gareth...

but yeah, it seems less likely as I explore the options

M Oehm

McCaughan Castle, on the shores of Loch Headache.

I don't know. I think I'm going round in circles with this CC.

Rubio

actually I'm hoping it turns out to be that the def. is "me in Europe", with a post-Brexit solution of "FOREIGNER" or something similar.

sadly I can't find anything that even resembles that in the wordplay

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio Brits might have to stop being EU members, but we'll always be Europeans.

Rubio

Oh poo. You and your ruining perfectly good daydreams with your facts.

M Oehm

7:10 PM

Continent-wise and maybe tectonic-shelf-wise, yes. But Europe can also mean just the EU, no?

Colloquially, at least.

Rubio

(anyway he did say the CCCC has nothing to do with Brexit, so there's that)

M Oehm

I like the foreigner idea, but it would mean that we need extra knowledge about the poster, which would be even more unfair than usual.

Techidiot

I have another word PRINCIPLE which ends with E but has a pattern form CXXE

Rubio

Riddles answered, never daunted --
Puzzles ground into the floor!
Nasty puzzles *sunt delenda*:
Do not anger Rand-al'Thor!

possible improvement, with apologies/credits to Gareth for the masterful original

Techidiot

Not sure if that would be fair.. But well I got a little of it in my first attempt. I will happily give up for some time..

M Oehm

7:17 PM

But we don't know which part of THEORETIC was correct? OR? It is right there as word and it's also there cryptically as Western state (Oregon).

Techidiot

Yup. I thought that could have been it. But it is a little off for that def

M Oehm

Did you know that THEORETIC is a near-anagram for Techidiot? Just two letters are wrong.

Sconibulus

'self-evident -- or the opposite --' is actually starting to make me think of Maths jokes

Techidiot

@MOehm lol. Didn't noticed it. :-)

@n_palum I think there will be rot 13 at some point..

That's the only cipher I can think of. The rest looks like some kind of encoding.. Most probably ASCII

@Sconibulus I had only two things in my attempt the def identification and wordplay.. And one of them is right as per Gareth.. So that whole thing might not be the def..

Sconibulus

well, isn't a mathematician's definition of trivial: something that would take fewer than three full blackboards to do

Techidiot

7:28 PM

And as for word ending with C @MOehm I have AXIOMATIC but not at all sure how to fit that in

Sconibulus

Axiomatic actually fits pretty well with that trivial joke

Techidiot

That's what reminded me the word

But no idea about the wordplay. If at all that's right

M Oehm

And it has a TAX (duty) that is keeping MOI - me in French or in Europe - all backwards - the opposite.

Rubio

yeah that's it

i just saw that

so it's: state CA

has one duty "I TAX"

Techidiot

:p Lovely

Rubio

7:32 PM

to keep me MOI

and then western

I literally looked up from seeing that on my page to see your message pop up @MOehm

Sconibulus

wait, how does that parse the sentence?

Rubio

(C(IT(MOI)AX)A)<

Self-evident, or the opposite, is def.

that ... state = CA

has one duty (ITAX) → C(ITAX)A

M Oehm

In that case, opposite is doing double duty - it also serves to reverse the construction

Sconibulus

I don't think we have enough container words

Western is the reversal

Rubio

has one duty to keep me → C(ITA(MOI)X)A

oops i typoded earlier

and then "western" gives the reversal on the whole thing

Sconibulus

7:35 PM

that is a linker

Rubio

^ yeah

M Oehm

I'm not so keen on Western as reversal indicator. Westwards, maybe, or going west. Western also fits for California.

Techidiot

I am sure Gareth is the right candidate for creating another Kryptos :-)

Rubio

"western" is one we've certainly seen as a reversal indicator

Parents extracted western gas from seals (4) -> MO(nogra)MS

Sconibulus

err... so did M Oehm win that?

M Oehm

7:38 PM

Yeah, maybe. I just don't like it. (I also don't like "last man" for N; I prefer to have a possessive there: Man's last or something like that.)

No, Rubio did.

Silenus

The grammar of the cryptic reading seems strained. The containment section seems tantamount to:
The string "CA" *has* the string "I TAX" *to keep* the string "MOI".

Techidiot

Western civilization left us enigmatic tinge(4)

^ That's not a CCCC just a CC ;)

Rubio

It's a little forced, I agree, but I think it safe to assume the solution is correct

M Oehm

@Silenus That's just many levels of nesting, but I don't see anything wrong with that. Except that it takes days to unravel, of course. :)

Rubio

CCCC: Turn up a club again, losing the opener. (8)

M Oehm

7:42 PM

@Techidiot CCCC Unchained.

Rubio

believe it or not I'd been looking at AXIOMATIC for the past 3 hours, sporadically

also TAUTOLOGY, but that led nowhere

Techidiot

@MOehm Its Rubio. Mine is just (4) :-)

Rubio

and I suppose I should do this -

Silenus

@MOehm The nesting is not the problem, it's the grammar. We cannot say "String A contains string B contains string C." We must say "String A contains string B which contains string C."

Rubio

@GarethMcCaughan - Axiomatic ... (C(ITA(MOI)X)A)<

Techidiot

7:44 PM

Oh. I got it what you mean @MOehm nvm

Sconibulus

@Silenus except in this case we've got 'A has B to keep C'

M Oehm

@Techidiot Weak attempt at a pun. Sorry about that.

Rubio

it needn't actually be A has (B has C); (A has B) has C suffices

How legit that is I suppose depends on how much you quibble about "to" in the parsing

n_palum

@Techidiot for the dungeon? that's what Oehm said

WAIT GARETHS CC WAS AXIOMATIC?!?! I HAD THAT

I just didn't know how it worked!! ;_; I am so mad

Techidiot

People made it work somehow. :-) I am not on that level of solving so I can just nudge them :p

n_palum

7:48 PM

I wanted to get it for once so I didn't share... I've had that word for over a day :( :C :c

Techidiot

You can get mine

Rubio

I had the word yesterday, It wasn't until a little while ago when I actually started looking at state abbreviations that I saw the C*A, and that order let me see TAX, and then the I, and then I was staring at MOI for about 5 minutes before it registered. And then I looked up and @MOehm's message noticing TAX and MOI appeared on my screen. hehe

Techidiot

See the one I posted up there.. ;) Its luckly unsolved yet. Go for it :-D

n_palum

Where? All I see is Rubio's

Rubio

my paper actualy says
. I MOI
C T . . . AXA
... and I *still* couldn't get it right away :)

Techidiot

7:50 PM

9 mins ago, by Techidiot

Western civilization left us enigmatic tinge(4)

n_palum

I have to drive home so I try to much right now

Rubio

close enough. hehe

n_palum

Gahh I am so disappointed now..

Techidiot

@Rubio I bumped up on the word last night. And saw tax today and forgot that I ever came across axiomatic last night. :p

@n_palum So its all yours, no one will touch it until you solve it. (Star this)

Gareth McCaughan

@Rubio Yup, AXIOMATIC. Well done!

Rubio

7:55 PM

@GarethMcCaughan very tricksy. (see commentary above. hehe)

oops

more better. heh

Techidiot

Incorrectly getting pinged instead of Gareth. I will take that as an honor :-) Thanks @Rubio

Anyway off to bed. Gamen!

Rubio

That, or I don't know how to work a mouse. Either way works ;)

Night night @tech!

M Oehm

Good night!

boboquack

@Rubio You mean 'you're on mobile'? :D

Sleep well Tech

Rubio

Totally. hehe

Sconibulus

8:01 PM

> What do you get when you cross a mosquito with a mountain climber?

> You can't cross a vector with a scalar

Rubio

I'll just be over here, eating my popcorn and throwing the occasional overripe tomato

Rand al'Thor

8:48 PM

@Sconibulus That's one of my favourite maths jokes.

Rubio

oh dear. a What is a ... Word™? puzzle made HNQ.

n_palum

Isn't that your fault?

Also Techi's CC makes no sense 😖

Rand al'Thor

Oh, Gareth's got solved?

What was it?

ffao

9:08 PM

1 hour ago, by Rubio

@GarethMcCaughan - Axiomatic ... (C(ITA(MOI)X)A)<

Gareth McCaughan

Just to be clear, though, "Western state" was CA and the bit about "the opposite" was the reversal indicator.

Rubio

(C(I+TA(MOI)X)A)< would have been better

what is "or" doing then?

oh. derp

connector

Gareth McCaughan

Yup.

Rubio

funny that it actually, more or less, works the other way too

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio You spoiled the acronymity!

Rubio

9:15 PM

something axiomatic is trivially proven. either true OR false. :)

@Randal'Thor I what now?

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio Gareth's original was a beautiful multi-acrostic.

Gareth McCaughan

It was a quadruple acrostic.

That's why i couldn't make it rhyme.

The line endings were forced.

Rubio

oh.

I only noticed the 3. hehe

Riddles answered, never daunted --
Any clue to pieces torn!
Nasty puzzles *sunt delenda*:
Do not anger Rand-al'Thor!

is closer, without breaking it

oh heh

nvm

Gareth McCaughan

Yeah, but then it looks like trying to make it rhyme and not quite succeeding. "Pecca fortiter!"

In retrospect, though, i should probably have used last letters instead of first letters on the last line.

Rubio

that at least is correct now. but yes: flawed rhyme is flawed

Deusovi

9:22 PM

Oh, I didn't notice the first and last lines being acrostics! Just the first and last letters of each line

ffao

I hadn't noticed that either

Deusovi

eh, I think the rhyme isn't too bad

ffao

it's even better now

Gareth McCaughan

Aargh, bloody mobile text entry

"Pecca fortiter"

Rubio

It's all ~~greek~~ to me

Gareth McCaughan

9:27 PM

Also, @Rubio, your revised version now has the wrong syllable stresses on the second line.

on the other hand, I like the surface of your current C4.

@Deusovi since you're here, if you are able to replace "fortit" in my comment about 10 up from the latest with "fortiter" which is what I was unsuccessfully trying to persuade my phone to let me enter during the painfully short editing window, I would be grateful. But no problem if not.

Rubio

perhaps "Any clue to pieces torn!" then

Deusovi

Done!

Gareth McCaughan

ta!

Rubio

(If you're still in a post-edit mood Deus hehe)

I really wish you could do multi-line formatting.

@GarethMcCaughan Thanks - I rather liked how that one turned out

Deusovi

@Rubio Hm?

Rubio

9:34 PM

@Rubio @Deusovi That

Deusovi

Done!

(Again!)

Rubio

lurvely. danke

I think that's probably as good as it gets. :)

Sphinx

10:49 PM

1

Q: Systematically solving a certain logic puzzle: win prize B when the truth of your statements relates to prize A

I came along this puzzle somewhere it a logic-related lecture: There are two prizes: Prize A and prize B. When you make a true statement, then you win prize A. When you make a false statement, then you do not win prize A What do you have to say in order to win prize B? The solution, for those...

logical-deduction solvability

Deusovi

11:54 PM

I finally made progress on my metapuzzles FTC entry! I've been stuck trying to fix it for over a week.

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