« first day (1890 days earlier)      last day (1734 days later) » 

12:52 AM
You're not missing anything obvious. I was just a bit sloppier than usual.
 
1:17 AM
Oh. :) right then, carry on.
 
1:30 AM
Incidentally, I think "in the Middle East" as a def for "Canaan" would if anything be worse. ("Place in the Middle East", "part of the Middle East", "Middle Eastern region", etc., are OK, but just "in the Middle East" is the wrong part of speech.)
 
true
"... Middle East land" perhaps. ruining half the fun. :)
 
2:10 AM
hm.
Reviewers: What has eight eyes but no i in the name? is (probably) no longer too broad. If you think so, please vote accordingly.
 
 
1 hour later…
3:31 AM
@Rubio VTRed
 
 
1 hour later…
4:54 AM
1
Q: Everyone but three

BarkerFor the first time, a photo was taken with every person, living or dead, in frame. Everyone that is except for three. Who were those three?

 
5:14 AM
@Sid I liked What happens on Day 6?. Very original and clever idea. :)
 
Well, so much for "I don't think Gareth would do that."
 
What's the takeaway here: when Gareth gets sloppier than usual, his clues resemble something I'd do?
I'm ... perfectly okay with that. hehe
 
Oh, I haven't said that. When I said "that's something I'd expect of Rubio rather than Gareth" I referred to differences in style, which are, in part at least, owed to the different things that are acceptable in US ans UK style. I can't really say much about that, since I'm not familiar with US cryptics, except that my impression is that stuff ike "first mate" seems to be okay in American cryptics, but you'd probably need apossessive in the UK.
In general, I'm all for allowing a bit of leeway if it is justified.
 
oh, I have no idea what's actually acceptable in US style. Literally everything I know and don't know about cryptics is from what I've picked up here and from various online resources that don't tend to have many examples. I don't solve full puzzles (they take longer than I usually have to spare, and the better ones tend to be UK centric to a degree I get frustrated with; if there's a good source for US ones, which I'm sure there is, I have yet to meet it)
so my style is: throw stuff together until it resembles something I've seen someone do somewhere, and toss it out there. if someone complains, I've learned something :)
 
And this seems to be the second time that Gareth clued Canadian. I had thought about "American" as def, but I looked in the wrong direction. Chicagoan and Colombian were too long. DI as policeman is a good example of being UK centric, I guess.
 
5:26 AM
oh yeah, and sprinkle liberally with ?'s when I feel like I have done something untoward
yeah. I mean, I watched the entirety of Broadchurch and still wouldn't have thought of DI, basically ever. :)
 
Abbreviations and general knowledge about a certain country are the worst. I've picked up the more often used ones from fifteensquared. Now I know more about three-letter names of UK rivers and the dignitaries of the Anglican Church than I ever wanted to. :)
 
Sid
@Rubio Well thanks.
 
6:12 AM
@Rubio I've read a good number of British mysteries.
 
 
2 hours later…
7:55 AM
28
Q: Who are these teams?

JLeeDenny owns a demolition company and has successfully managed a strong, sharp team of more than 30 specialists for over 20 years. His team works well together and has decades of experience, having completed well over 12,000 demolitions and making a name for themselves. They are definitely on the c...

 
 
2 hours later…
10:04 AM
@MOehm Eh, so it is. Sorry.
 
10:14 AM
No need to be so Canadian about it. At least my long-term memory is in order.
 
10:37 AM
(the Canadian-ness was deliberate, obviously)
 
11:27 AM
If I made an encrypted message to decrypt, can I just post the message as my question on the site and tag it [cipher] and done? Or am I expected to include some backstory or at least an introductory "Can you decode this?"?
 
I'm not sure about puzz.se, but on any other site, just dumping encrypted data as the sole content of the question could be easily mistaken for a cat-on-a-keyboard post. At least a few words of context would be nice IMO.
 
89
Q: Code Puzzles: What (Not) To Do?

Lopsy Here's a code. Can you crack it? fw8904730983kf89023ncweamnfiope20tmi9b6m89ny327nery895mbi9tm0ei09x2e1m3y8n2 Good luck! When a puzzle looks like this… AUGH. I believe that the main purpose of this site, apart from entertainment and sharpening our puzzle-solving skills, is learning...

 
11:53 AM
@JohnDvorak how about a boar on a keyboard? oink
 
i believe the technical term is "keyboar"
 
what if a boar boards a keyboard out of boredom?
 
@JohnDvorak Sounds good, thanks.
 
then you tell it to stop hogging the keyboar
i'm not sure what the current c4 means but i feel i should be offended if someone said that to me
 
12:08 PM
@jafe yes, I'd think most people would
 
12:20 PM
@Mithrandir Thanks
 
12:54 PM
0
Q: Coin around shapes: A Geometric paradox?

DEEMHere is a circular coin with diameter D Figure A From its starting position the small coin goes completely around a bigger circular body of diameter 4D without slipping, always in contact with the bigger circle, rotating around its own center point and returns to its original posit...

 
 
2 hours later…
3:01 PM
@MOehm Generally, my impression is that it's the reverse - UK cryptics are more lenient than US cryptics. I've seen things like "first mate" -> M in UK cryptics much more than in US cryptics.
 
That may be; I'm not really familiar with US cryptics, but I rarely see such things in the Guardian and FT cryptics, which I do rather frequently. Perhaps I'm juding from how users here use the "first mate" thing. Never mind. I'm not trying to start a cultural war here.
@GarethMcCaughan I know. I just wanted to acknowledge that I'd seen it. (But I learned about that apparent Canadian trait only from your C4.)
 
1
Q: How Should I Go About Answering Square Spin Puzzles?

AdamThe Square Spin series of puzzles is a bit abstract. There is quite a lot for newcomers to digest and getting started may be daunting. Even if you thoroughly read the rules and intend to attempt one of these puzzles, actually finding the solution may be difficult without any knowledge of techniqu...

 
3:23 PM
(there were two apparent Canadian traits in my comment -- the "Eh" is another bit of stereotypical Canadianity)
 
3:54 PM
1
Q: Two untrusted traders

TreninI'm sure this has been asked before, but I tried searching and couldn't find it. I don't know the solution, and it is possible there isn't one. There is unsavoury pirate and an unscrupulous merchant. The Pirate would like to trade some of his ill-begotten treasure for some shady merchandise. ...

 
 
1 hour later…
5:05 PM
Oh, yes. (But I thought that the eh would go to the end of the sentence. Anyway, I learned about the readiness to apologise from your C4.)
 
5:34 PM
0
Q: Mysterious loss revamped

Quark-epochThis is a revamped version of my puzzle Mysterious loss of weight . I plan to make a series of puzzles on mysterious loss of ... say a number. A man went into a black room full of white papers lying around him. He presses a button. All the papers fly including the document which was loosely held...

 
5:54 PM
0
Q: 3D Nonogram - Spinoff of the Reboot

Dark ThunderThis puzzle is inspired by recent 3D nonogram puzzles by Jafe and Omega Krypton. Check those out if you want, but they are not required to understand this puzzle. This 3D nonogram has clues with two possible colors, gray and black. Cells that are neither (typically labelled with an "x" when so...

 
6:14 PM
0
Q: We get more abuse than anyone else

Cubemaster You all have us, but you don't know why. Our much more useful cousins are waiting right nearby We can't do much, but we're sensitive things. We can hardly stand up to the abuse that you bring. You run us straight through without second thought. Do you stop when we ask...

 
Sid
6:25 PM
@Deusovi I think that question should have been closed as "Too broad"/"opinion based" rather than "Off-topic"
 
6:42 PM
"Off-topic" is the catch-all for any custom close reasons - we can't change that. The longer text is the actual custom close reason, and I think it works fine
 
 
4 hours later…
10:35 PM
0
Q: Three Subway Escalators

FlanManThis is not my puzzle, and I don't remember the source, but I don't see it posted here yet, so... A subway station has three escalators running side-by-side. One escalator only descends from the street to the subway platform, and the other two escalators only ascend from the subway platform to t...

 
11:26 PM
@Mithrandir Okay... I hope this is good enough.
 
1
Q: A periodic message

msh210I was wandering around on Capitol Hill recently, thinking about codes and ciphers and not paying attention to where I was, when suddenly it hit me. No, really: a blast of wind blew a paper right into my face. I looked at it and saw the following: 0589-9443-2472-6354-0391-2302-2375-7868-2378-8...

 
when was puzzling first around?
 
2014
 
I think you can find out on area 51
 
wait, you mean puzzling the activity or PSE?
 
11:36 PM
@msh210 you have a post from then, so...
(PSE)
 
I went to /q/1 and checked the date
25
Q: Are there "rules" (or consistent conventions) that limit when the NY Times Crossword can deviate from rotational symmetry?

JaydlesMost American crosswords use rotational (or "radial") symmetry so that squares directly opposite each other (through the center) are identical. In the Times, I've only seen this not be the case when the layout was directly linked to the theme. Is that one of the "rules" you can count on, or a...

 
that's way too smart
 

« first day (1890 days earlier)      last day (1734 days later) »