The Sphinx's Lair

North

12:00 AM

@Avi I recommend you check out imslp.org

they have free sheet music that's in the public domain (so pretty much all classical and romantic composers)

Avi

But I only play anime music

North

oh

Well then

Avi

and apparently Fugue no 2

North

I suggest you check out Ninsheet? It's not anime but video game music

I go there all the time

Avi

eh

I tried playing Route 201 from Pokemon Diamond/Pearl and proceeded to fail miserably

Sphinx

12:43 AM

0

Q: Need help with riddle

I am useful, not beautiful. Years ago I was huge, but now I can sit in a desk. I do not think, but I can help you do your school work. New models of me can play music. What am I?

riddle

Avi

1:07 AM

CODA - COD, OD, DA

Gareth McCaughan

"Fugue no 2" -- whose fugue no 2 from what collection? (Obvious guess if I have to make one is Bach, WTC book 1, but there are a bunch of other options. It's not very anime-ish, though.)

Sphinx

1:24 AM

0

Q: I am stuck between rock and ice - What am I?

I am stuck between rock and ice. I see no light of day. If you come here then you won't know what time of day it is. What am I?

riddle

Avi

1:44 AM

@GarethMcCaughan It's just a good song imo (Fugue No. 2 in C minor, Bach); my better songs that I could play (at one point or another) include "He's a Pirate" from Pirates of the Caribbean, "This Game" from No Game No Life, "Let's Get Down to Business" from Mulan, "Zen Zen Zense" from Your Name, "Only My Railgun" from A Certain Scientific Railgun, and, of course, "River Flows in You" (because it took 0 time to learn lol)

But, most songs are too boring :x

Hence why I'm here riddling instead

Gareth McCaughan

2:15 AM

Why no 2 in particular? (I agree it's good, assuming you mean from book 1 of the WTC, but ... so are all the others, at least if you like fugues. For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying you made a bad choice or anything; I'm just curious.)

Some of the preludes are gorgeous, too.

Avi

4:25 AM

I played prelude no. 2 so if I get fugue no. 2 down then it will be sickkk

otherwise people will always question "why didn't you learn the other part?!"

then I'll be like "I was too bored/weak"

tfw it's harder to read notes than to actually play them on the piano

but in truth I'm getting better at reading notes and worse at playing them xD

Sphinx

7:52 AM

0

Q: Lost in Translation

You arrive on a foreign island, but upon heading to the local library, you find yourself unable to decipher the texts. You wonder what's caused this... ??????????????????????????????????? B H F K QCEI MT N UWO S OR VEGU LT R YZ ...

word cipher

Gareth McCaughan

10:19 AM

The prelude's relatively straightforward. The fugue's not hard, as fugues go, but any fugue is difficult to play well.

Sphinx

11:35 AM

2

Q: This new puzzle type needs a name {3}

I believe I have invented** a new type of puzzle... What is its name? ** Well, 'adapted' an existing one, really... Colour-blind-friendly version available here. Those without colour-blindness may still find this link useful for differentiating between colours of different shades which a...

logical-deduction enigmatic-puzzle visual grid-deduction

Stiv

12:29 PM

Thanks @GarethMcCaughan for the reverse-puzzling retags - I didn't even know we had a tag for that!

Gareth McCaughan

You're welcome!

(Reverse-puzzling is fun. But my initial guess at what might be going on with your latest seems like investigating it requires more solving effort as a first step than I want to put in right now...)

Stiv

Ha! I'll be honest - I think this one is a hard one to see through to the end. It took me a LONG time to create a version that works! But it's still entirely solvable through logical deduction... just not necessarily simple to do so...

Gareth McCaughan

12:51 PM

I wasn't suggesting it wouldn't be solvable. For that matter, all I have right now is a plausible guess (or maybe two guesses, but 6<7 so probably one, which is too bad because 6>3) at what the first step in solving it should be.

(Actually, the option that would involve ~half as much work looks like it's no good not only because 6<7 but more concretely because it produces unsolvable subpuzzles.)

hexomino

1:08 PM

@GarethMcCaughan I thought the option which involves "~half as much work" might be the right one, although admittedly I haven't probed too deeply and might not get the chance to.

Gareth McCaughan

Maybe I'm wrong about it involving unsolvable subpuzzles, then. I didn't look very carefully.

hexomino

I can confirm that at least one of the subpuzzles is solvable. I might try on the others later if it hasn't been solved already.

Avi

2:23 PM

@GarethMcCaughan Yeah, I'm approximately halfway through the fugue and it's getting slightly tougher

North

2:56 PM

@Avi Ah, River Flows in You... that pretty song that's so overplayed it makes me wanna die

Deusovi

3:39 PM

Just got back from the MIT Mystery Hunt! It was a fantastic time, with lots of clever puzzles - you all should check them out at some point

North

oooh

alright

Did you win?

Deusovi

nope!

North

you sound rather enthusiatic abut that :P It's not about winning though, is it ;)?

@Deusovi Where can I find the puzzles?

ah wait i found it

Deusovi

I'm very enthusiastic about not winning, because the winners have to write next year's

6

and my team is absolutely not prepared for that

Omega Krypton

@Stiv i s'pose the herrings changed their hue, didnt they?

@Deusovi lol XDXD

@Deusovi new found treasure... lots of ideas ... i love that site

North

4:02 PM

@Deusovi Hahaha

Is it the same team you use for the galactic puzzle hunt?

Deusovi

That team, plus about 60 other people?

At least that many.

North

OH okay

Deusovi

MITMH teams are big - we split into smaller teams for other hunts like Galactic

North

Test Solution, Please Ignore (plus friends)

Oh it's Test Solution, Bees Ignore now?

Deusovi

yep - we merged with the team Aviation Laws

Stiv

4:14 PM

@OmegaKrypton If you're referencing this puzzle, y'know I'd hardly even thought about the similarities! Seems I've got a thing for coloured circles... Hmmm... now I want to play Twister for some reason...

Sphinx

4:40 PM

2

Q: In times of crisis, I am priceless

In times of crisis, I am priceless. I’m illegal, yet permissible. Enemies call me despicable.. But what is my profession? That is the question. Concealed among bureaucrats, who administer resources, diplomats. Researchers and scholars affected, distrust spreads, disconnected. My identit...

riddle

Avi

5:22 PM

@Rubio Interesting response

Avi

5:36 PM

I'm just surprised my answer fit as well as it did, at all

Avi

5:55 PM

Path to hit headlights at first (5)

Avi

6:16 PM

rot13(FJNG+U_)

Sphinx

6:42 PM

0

Q: This is a Rilerdl

My prefix's full of expertise My infix's in the diocese My suffix's citation missing link My whole's making a sink sync What am I? A Riley Riddle

riddle word word-property

North

8:10 PM

"According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee
should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get
its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.
Yellow, black. Yellow, black.
Yellow, black. Yellow, black.
Ooh, black and yellow!
Let's shake it up a little."

HTM

@Deusovi What was the theme?

Deusovi

8:31 PM

@North yes, that is where the team name comes from

@HTM Saving an old run-down amusement park! It was a bit weird for a theme but they pulled it off really well

North

@Deusovi hehe

Is that claim actually true

Deusovi

Yes?

Rubio

Bee flight isn’t a question of the “laws” of aviation anyway

they don’t explain bee flight because that’s not how bees fly

John Dvorak

Bee flight is actually a case of autopsychokinesis. They don't fly. They levitate.

Deusovi

oh "that claim" being the one about the laws of aviation

and not about my team name

yeah the bee flight thing is nonsense

Avi

8:49 PM

Was thinking about making a new Tense Riddle^{TM}

Infinitive past make children laugh
Past used for carpenter's craft
Present is a diocese
Present perfect 7 - 5 to be's

need a better target though

SEE SAW,
SAW,
SEE,
SE(-v)EN

North

9:03 PM

@JohnDvorak Ah

Avi

From what I can tell the format isn't particularly good unless I can identify a good property of certain English words; see is more of an exception in this case

Brandon_J

9:17 PM

@North hello!

North

Greetings, old friend!

How was your conference call?

msh210

Re the C4… "Sweetheart", rather than any synonym thereof, is the usual definition given for "jo". So I'm guessing "sweetheart" here clues "jo". That doesn't seem to be helping me with the rest of the clue, though.

(Should I rot-13 musings of that sort in the future?)

Avi

clearly the solution is MOJOJOJO-JO

as for why... runs without explaining

msh210

(… assuming it doesn't clue "e" as someone suggested earlier.)

Mithical

@Avi No, MOJOJOJOJOJOJOJOJOJOJO.

Avi

9:24 PM

that's >10 letters long

MOJOJOJOJO to be precise

Mithical

you only take the top ten though

Avi

adding a - ruins it

@Mithical ah, yes

Mithical

(is that what you were referencing)

Avi

uh, don't know

I was thinking along the lines of this

so if that's what he said then yes, if not, then no

Mithical

...so no, we weren't thinking of the same thing.

the combination of "ten" and "mojo" immediately made me think of this

Avi

9:31 PM

ah, I saw that when searching up mojo jojo

Brandon_J

@North went well

sorry I was in and out a bit; can stay some now

Avi

in any case, some progress has been made on the latest reverse-puzzling riddle; only the name needs to be found now!

Brandon_J

Got a puzzle in the works right now

oops...did I kill another conversation?

msh210

@Brandon_J R.I.P.

Mithical

Sorry Brandon, you're under arrest. You've seriously got to get these killings under control. *shakes head* We talked about this.

Brandon_J

9:35 PM

Hold on, it's got a pulse

Avi

actually I'm working on another puzzle too

Brandon_J

noice

Avi

I'll be making Vowelburgers (TM)

Brandon_J

@Mithical is this the Mithrandir of old?

@Avi the only concrete detail for my puzzle right now is the title: Starry Knight

Mithical

(*)

Avi

9:37 PM

(*) looks like holding a star above your head?

reaching for the stars? is that a rebus

I see a tomato

oh you're right

(.)

that's saturn

or the empty set rolled over

Mithical

\[(*)]-[(*)]/

Avi

9:39 PM

noooo mithical is too powerful shies away

Brandon_J

5UP3RC474FR4G1715T1C3XP1474D0C10U5

Did I even spell that right?

Mithical

...in any case, that latest bit of ascii art should clarify what the initial response was.

Avi

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

@Mithical tomatoes for eyes?

Mithical

@Brandon_J No. The way to spell "that" is T-H-A-T.

Avi

The fifth panel also applies to postmodernists.

Brandon_J

9:42 PM

XKCD!!!!!!

Also, thank you, Avi.

Mithical

Good luck trying to catch me to cut my hand off. I am covered in jam and too slippery.

....good night

Brandon_J

That is oddly specific

good night

wait is it strawberry or blackberry?

now I have to know

Mithical

apricot

Avi

tomato

from the eyes

Mithical

PSA: if you have tomato jam coming from your eyes, please see a doctor or your local exorcist.

3

Brandon_J

9:44 PM

You must be fairly rich

Apricot jam is no joke

and to keep a constant covering....

what dedication

I wonder if I even have a local exorcist.

well the conversation lived for a few minutes more.

Not the worst.

HTM

10:36 PM

@Mithical Sounds like a bad SCP

@Deusovi I’m intrigued

Rubio

That’s why you use RSYNC

Avi

what's SCP and RSYNC

HTM

I was talking about this one

Oh man, now I’m wondering if anybody’s made an SCP about SCP

msh210

A bit of a stretch, but...
"It's right" = T.
"if not" = NE. (According to Wiktionary, "ne" just means "not". Maybe it really also means "if not"?)
"accompanied by" = concatenated with.
"sweetheart" = LOVE.
"to beat" = LAM (which is true, though I didn't know it until now).
"back" = reverse all that, to yield
"evil".

Avi

isn't ne "not equal to"

msh210

10:39 PM

@Avi yes, also

Avi

ok

HTM

@msh210 How’s “It’s right” = T?

msh210

in LaTeX, anyway

@HTM rightmost part of "It"

HTM

Oh, I gotcha

msh210

well, in LaTeX and HTML entities and Perl and maybe elsewhere.

HTM

10:41 PM

The NE part is probably the weakest link

Maybe “if not accompanied by” = NE?

msh210

(Just looked it up: not HTML entities. Perl yes, I know, and IIRC also LaTeX.)

@HTM how?

HTM

I dunno, just throwing things onto the wall and hoping something sticks

@msh210 Preceded by a forward slash of course

Avi

TNELOVELAM<

or (_T+NE+LOVE+LAM)<

Gareth McCaughan

@msh210 Yeah, you've got it. "Ne" has an old meaning that's roughly equivalent to "if not"; the most likely place you might have encountered it is in the old Christmas carol "Adam lay ybounden", which contains the rather strikingly odd claim: "Ne had the apple taken bene, the apple taken bene / Ne had never our Lady / a-bene heavene quene". (I may have the old spellings a bit wrong.) Which, in modern English, means: "If the apple [in the garden of Eden] had not been taken, our Lady [...ctd]

... [i.e., the Virgin Mary] would never have been queen of heaven". (Therefore, it goes on to say, it's just as well the apple was taken.)

It amuses me to have an instance of "it's" where the 's really does mean "of it".

My apologies if it was a bit too stretchy. My excuse is the usual one that I liked the way the surface worked out.

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan me too. Nice.

@GarethMcCaughan I have to admit I've never heard of that carol AFAIR.

Avi

10:53 PM

@Rubio Do you have any idea why the mathjax for this question has your name in it?

msh210

11:03 PM

CCCC: Chandler hauls a mold through Ohio, starts casting at Sixth City in the north (10)

Avi

every time i see the word mold

I'm reminded of Slime Lapse

Rubio

@Avi because it’s my template. I provided it with simple user-modifiable parameters so people didn’t have to wrestle with simpler but uglier mathjax, or with images copied out of excel screenshots.

Avi

ah, I'll keep your name then :)

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan I wonder why it says the fruit was an apple. Is that a common belief in Christianity? (Genesis doesn't say what it was.) (Maybe I should ask on Christianity.)

Rubio

Yeah, I would recommend not changing anything but the title parameter. There aren’t many bits in the mathjax that should be needed to be adjusted. (If your words are long compared to the title, you can made the Pad value something more than 0. Bump by 0.5 at a time until it looks nice.)

Avi

11:17 PM

I'm trying to modify the table headers

it's not reacting nicely :(

Rubio

Nnnoo, no it wouldn’t.

msh210

@Avi if you want simpler markup, you can find the question I asked in the series.

Avi

basically, I'm not using \def correctly

Rubio

It’s purpose-built. If you need something different, feel free to ask, but that may not be something you want to change without some healthy understatement of how it works ;)

Avi

was hoping \def\V{\textbf{VowelBurger}^{TM}} would work fine

then I could use \V elsewhere

but stuff isn't showing up

Rubio

11:18 PM

Why do you need that?

Avi

making a Vowelburger (TM), of course :)

Rubio

Are you not doing a “What is a ...” thing?

Avi

no

making a new type of riddle

but I need a table

and your template is pretty nice

Rubio

Ok well yeah, that template is specifically purpose built for that use case.

Also you’re looking at an old version anyway

Avi

yeah, I don't know where I would find a newer one

Rubio

11:22 PM

my questions :)

Gimme a sec to get off mobile

msh210

@msh210 namely this, @avi

Avi

the highlighting ;-;

Rubio

hehe. The highlighting took me 6 versions spanning 2 1/2 years to get right.

Don’t even ask how many test attempts between those released versions ;)

North

@Mithical You really need to get that sarcasm-O-2000 fixed

Avi

:leaves:

see y'all later

North

11:31 PM

bai

Rubio

@avi If you want "VowelBurger" and "Not a VowelBurger" headings, you can probably use the latest template with this as the second code line:

\def\T{\Title\textbf{VowelBurger}^{\;\!™}\Pad}\def\NT{\Pad\textbf{Not a }\T\ }\displaystyle

and make the Title completely empty: \def\Title{\textbf{}}

Latest published template is at puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/83981/30633

If you do that please change the comments to indicate yours is a nonstandard version of the template and should not be reused.

oh. I see what you wanted now

Sphinx

11:48 PM

4

Q: Vowelburger$^{TM}$ Riddle

(A new kind of riddle) I ordered 5 Vowelburgers$^{TM}$ with buns and meat only - help me identify each one from the description on the menu! $$ \begin{array}{|c|c|}\hline\textbf{Meat}&\textbf{Vowelburger}^{TM}\\\hline A&weak\\\hline E&cyst\\\hline I&succeed\\\hline O&secured\\\hline Y&letter\\\h...

word

HTM

@North Need some assistance on your latest puzzle:

8

Q: I'm Back........!

To: My Mods! (and the community) Note: The following is a letter enclosing the details of what's going on. It's more for "story" and humor, but does have some information that you might want. To save you time for those who'd rather not read the letter (and hurt my feelings), here is the tl;dr: ...