The Sphinx's Lair

12:05 AM

0

Ever since the original Riley Riddle, I've seen a lot of Riley Riddles come around. They are usually of fairly high quality, and new PSE users have no straightforward resource for finding the reason behind the name "Riley Riddle," or what makes a Riley a Riley. At the same time, "Riley Riddle" i...

Brandon_J

12:29 AM

Paging @Alconja in the TSL

Alconja

...and the devil appears

Brandon_J

So, I suggest Riley as the name because (unsatisfyingly) that's what everyone calls them

I think that if we make a tag for this, we at least need to had Riley-Riddle as a tag synonym.

Alconja

Yeah, I get that, but for an existing person doesn't need a tag called Riley, and for a new person "Affixes" is more descriptive of what's going on.

Brandon_J

If I see a Riley riddle and want to make one, and I'm looking for tags, I'm not going to type in "affixes", I'd use "Riley"

Rubio

As a moderate counterpoint, we don't have jlee or what-is-a-word tags either... we have a word-property tag. That tag, while encompassing the What is a ... Word™ format, is not exclusive to it; it covers anything where finding common properties (or lack thereof) of words is the subject of the puzzle. I haven't entirely made up my mind if riddles of this type should have their own tag (we've seen a lot of fads come and go without getting or deserving their own tag; this trend seems a bit more enduring than most, so we'll see), but I know "riley-riddle" seems wrong. — Rubio ♦ Apr 30 '18 at 20:28

Alconja

12:33 AM

See also, "word-property" vs "what-is-a"

^^

Rubio

I strongly disagree with a "riley-riddle" tag per se.

Brandon_J

I don't speak latin per se

sorry, had to throw that in :D

I guess it feels like we have a bit of "in-speak"

that a tag with a good wiki could fix

"What is a _________ word" seems fairly self descriptive and unproblematic

and I'm the first to admit that I could be completely wrong on this

but I'd like to give it a solid investigation first

Am I talking to myself now? :D

Alconja

I'm here, but only ~30%

PiIsNot3

Personally, I think the wordplay tag encompasses Riley riddles perfectly well - no need for an additional tag

Brandon_J

OK.

PiIsNot3

12:39 AM

(Also only here partly, have other more "important" things to focus on ;) )

Brandon_J

Quick random question - do any of you guys eat awesomeness, or are y'all solid counterexamples to the "You are what you eat" idea?

Alconja

And going back to naming, like Rubio said, using an actual descriptive labels allows the tag to be used on things more broadly, rather than restricting them to a single very specific format.

Brandon_J

I'm seeing some good points.

Alconja

I link to some other "prefix-suffix" wordplay in my answer to the older question (and in comments below)

Brandon_J

Maybe a tag isn't the best way to fix it

Alconja

12:40 AM

Which couldn't be tagged with "riley" but use the exact same mechanism.

Brandon_J

Right

Does anyone else think that we have a problem with the term "Riley Riddle," and if yes, do you have any suggestions for improvement outside of a new tag?

@Rubio What would you know about "What is a ____ word?" puzzles? ;P

Rubio

I don't mind posts calling themselves Riley Riddles in a title or whatever

Brandon_J

Me, either

or neither?

either

gah, whatever

Rubio

@Brandon_J bah. :)

I have the prettiest template for them, if nothing else. Does that count for anything?

Brandon_J

Nah

Definitely not worth a bounty

or anything like that

PiIsNot3

12:53 AM

@Brandon_J I'll answer that cause it seems this current convo is dying down a bit... I had the absolute worst diet this past school year. Combined with a lack of physical exercise, and I can now see why they call it the "freshman 15"

But in my defense, the only consistently good things in the dining halls were the fries and pizza. Everything else should've belonged in a radioactive waste facility

Brandon_J

Intensely wonders if you didn't get the joke or if I didn't get the counter-joke

PiIsNot3

Nah man, I thought you wanted an interesting conversation! Now I'm mad and no longer want to be your friend anymore :( (jk)

Brandon_J

No, that's good food for thought

PiIsNot3

So... you're not gonna actually respond to what I said?

Brandon_J

Nope, 'cause I don't want to think about what I will have to eat in a few months

:D JK

@PiIsNot3 I guess it instead ends up in a waist facility?

That hopefully isn't radioactive

PiIsNot3

1:01 AM

@Brandon_J Dude, I gained like 10 pounds of pure fat, it's not really that funny

Now I gotta figure out how to lose all of this stuff...

And no it wasn't really radioactive, but it did come darn close at times

Brandon_J

Like I said, I'm trying to avoid depressing myself before I get to college.

PiIsNot3

Heh, well you better start early then :)

What college BTW, if you don't mind me asking?

Brandon_J

University of Alabama in Huntsville

or UAH

PiIsNot3

AKA "ooaaah" I suppose

Brandon_J

Well that's how I say it

the admissions rep was not amused (/s, I never said that)

but I have a full ride, so that's nice

PiIsNot3

1:04 AM

Heh, gotta find some silver lining I guess

Brandon_J

I'm looking forward to it, on the whole

PiIsNot3

@Brandon_J Wow, that's amazing! Full ride to any school is honestly so difficult to come by nowadays

Brandon_J

@PiIsNot3 NMSQT Finalist status helps

PiIsNot3

Ah, yeah, see now that's where I screwed up badly

Brandon_J

I guess by this time you have enough info to find out my exact identity

but oh, well, this isn't reddit

and whoever wants to find this profile can find it

PiIsNot3

1:07 AM

@Brandon_J Don't worry, I've given up my real name and hometown to a couple of online people, and it isn't that bad

Brandon_J

Everyone tells me that they forgot to take the PSAT Junior year

PiIsNot3

Just gotta make sure you share that stuff with the right people...

Brandon_J

Yeah

Alconja

Just make sure you share some false information occasionally...

PiIsNot3

@Brandon_J Oof, bad, bad choice

Alconja

1:08 AM

Totally unrelated, did you guys know I was president of a small European nation once?

Brandon_J

XDXDXDXD

I once slept through my school's prom

PiIsNot3

@Alconja By any chance, is it going to leave the EU soon™?

Brandon_J

and then got crowned prom king

Alconja

:P

PiIsNot3

@Brandon_J Ah, the ol' "sleep through practice" strategy

Brandon_J

1:10 AM

Speaking of Reddit, I just saw a joke about how someone was celebrating their 32nd birthday for half a minute.

Took me a while to get that one

About thirty seconds, actually

Sphinx

2:46 AM

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Q: Lady Luck Powers Up Every Member to Sum Upto Non-Prime Number. Who am I?

$Given:$ UV, WX, UVCUVWX, are concatenated Numbers. U, V, C, W, X are distinct digits ( zero to nine ). $Relationship:$ $UVCUVWX$ = $U^7 + V^7 + C^7 + U^7 + V^7 + W^7 + X^7$ $Clues:$ 1) UV is Prime. 2) WX is a Square. 3) Sum of Digits in UVCUVWX is a Cube. $Figure $ us $Out$.

mathematics no-computers

Barry Harrison

5:57 AM

@Randal'Thor You might be interested. The quote in the Literature.SE ad in your profile is likely mis-attributed. I asked a question about it on Skeptics.SE and somebody attributed it to Elizabeth Yates.

Sphinx

6:24 AM

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Q: ...And they were stumped for a long time

This puzzle is part 16 of Gladys' journey across the globe. Each part can be solved independently. Nevertheless, if you are new to the series, feel free to start at the beginning: Introducing Gladys. Dear Puzzling, Today I got a glimpse of what things may have looked like ...

knowledge geography crosswords

Alconja

Doesn't seem like super strong answer (certainly not to the point of claiming "This quote ... is from American writer Elizabeth Yates") given that Yates herself is claiming that she didn't coin it further down the answer... (not that that means it isn't misattributed)

Mithrandir

Actually, that itself would make a good Literature.SE question...

Barry Harrison

@Alconja I didn't intend to conclusively support the answer. Note that I didn't accept it. Also, I didn't realize you guys would be interested!

@Mithrandir Is there something against double posting questions? I will post a modified form on Literature.SE. Thanks for the suggestion!

At first, I had no idea you guys were referring to the question I linked. I was going to close this tab and just happened to read the messages.

Mithrandir

@BarryHarrison It's generally encouraged not to cross-post. If you've asked it on Skeptics, just leaving it is probably a good idea unless you specifically tailor the question to the site.

Barry Harrison

Got it.

I won't post in Literature.SE then.

Alconja

6:45 AM

@BarryHarrison we're a pretty diverse crowd in here. We're generally interested in anything interesting. :P And sorry, didn't mean to put words in your mouth. I agree that while it's certainly not conclusive it definitely casts doubt (hence my parenthetical), which I think was ultimately your point.

Sphinx

9:38 AM

2

Q: Two Overlapping Nonograms

Find the 5-letter word made by the overlapping nonograms.

visual nonogram

Sphinx

10:16 AM

0

Q: Three numbers, three words

Given only these 3 numbers below, find the 3 words related to: An animal A car brand A drink Numbers: 456448711 875654332 7456987877

word password

0

Q: A minimal stalemate with no possible illegal moves

Imagine that the main goal of the game of chess were to actually capture the opponent's king, not just checkmating him. So a stalemate would (usually) no longer be a draw, but a loss for the stalemated side (since they are compelled to expose their king into check, and he will be captured next mo...

chess optimization

Sphinx

11:34 AM

1

Q: Math quiz from a test

A student took some exams. The arithmetical average of his grades is 25. He takes another exam today and he gets a 30, so the arithmetical average of his grades becomes 26. How many exams did he take, including today’s one?

mathematics calculation-puzzle

2

Q: A burglar's sunglasses, a lady's odyssey

This puzzle is part 17 of Gladys' journey across the globe. Each part can be solved independently. Nevertheless, if you are new to the series, feel free to start at the beginning: Introducing Gladys. Dear Puzzling, I hope that you are well. Today I listened to some wonderf...

wordplay geography crossword-clues

Sphinx

12:13 PM

0

Q: Hexagon vs Harry Houdini...Round 1....How did Harry do? Let us Find out

$Given:$ Harry Houdini is Mental Math Magician and top Math Wizard at Hexon..one of the top cryptographic companies in the world. They have deployed Passwordless super smart secret system to control employee access. Top Tier employees get top-notch questions to be answered in allotted time pr...

mathematics no-computers

Sphinx

1:51 PM

0

Q: The Most Powerful Number

A power-full number is defined as a number with $n$ amount of non-zero digits $D_x$. The number takes the form $D_n$&$...$&$D_2$&$D_1$. The digits in a power-full number satisfies the rule $D_{x+1}$&$D_x=k_x^{x+1}$ where $k_x$ is a positive integer. This rule applies for $1\le x\lt n$. Essenti...

logical-deduction no-computers

Gareth McCaughan

2:24 PM

@Brandon_J I think "Me [n]either" is a sort of shorthand for "I don't either" or "Neither do I", so either form works about equally well. I've almost always seen/heard "neither" here in the UK and have often seen "either" from people in the US; perhaps it's a difference between AmE and BrE.

Adam

5:57 PM

@GarethMcCaughan As a fellow Brit I can confirm that I only hear "neither"!

Mithrandir

6:32 PM

I speak American and "me either" sounds a bit off to me.

Sphinx

0

Q: What is an Even 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 an Even Word™. Use the examples below to find the rule. $$ % set Title text. (spaces around the text ARE important; do not remov...

pattern word-property

Rubio

7:28 PM

@Mithrandir I only say "me neither" and don't recall many, if any, people using "me either" in that context

Rand al'Thor

@BarryHarrison Thanks for the link and the info!

Interestingly, the answerer on Skeptics is also one of the top users on Literature.

And yeah, that question would have been equally on-topic (and would have got the same answer :-) ) at Literature.

@Rubio Agreed. Even the practice of calling them "Riley riddles" doesn't make me feel quite right. Sure, Riley made an interesting puzzle, but he was hardly the first to write a riddle which describes the first part, last part, and middle part of a word (any more than JLee was the first to write a puzzle asking for a common property of a list of words). What the puzzle is about is more important than which internet user went viral for making one.

Or, as someone told me back in 2014 on Puzzling, "Discuss ideas, not personalities." :-)

Rubio

Yeah I'd agree with that. I don't mind crediting the first person to codify and enshrine a particular format of puzzle (and in fact my "What is a ... Word™" template does precisely that) but that's in the posting and is up to the individual poster to decide how (or if) to do. it's not elevated to a site-level thing like a tag, which should definitely calling out puzzle types, not their creators.

Rand al'Thor

7:53 PM

@Rubio ^ delete?

Good dog :-P

Rubio

"Woof."

Sphinx

8:32 PM

0

Q: Statue Park: Knight's Lines

This is a Statue Park puzzle. Rules of Statue Park: Shade some cells of the grid to form the given set of pieces. Pieces may be rotated or reflected. Pieces cannot be orthogonally adjacent (though they can touch at a corner). All unshaded cells must be (orthogonally) connected. Any cells with ...

logical-deduction grid-deduction

0

Q: How to Modernize Student Council

You are the math teacher at a high school and you are in charge of organizing Student Council for the whole school next year. Your boss, the Principal, read a research paper on Student Councils and made some crazy demands: MORE OPPORTUNITY : There will no longer be one Student Council but inste...

mathematics

Sphinx

10:30 PM

0

Q: Hiker's Cabin Mystery | Pt. VIII

Part VII is still up for grabs! At last! You've solved the mystery of the cards! Now that you've gotten into the hiker's computer in the hotel room, it's time to explore! Good news! There is only one file. You double-click on it, but the smile falls off your face in an instant. More ciphers... ...

cipher

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