The Sphinx's Lair

12:09 AM

0

Ok, like, OMG!, this is totally true. I was looking through an old Notepad++ file I had and saw the following statements, verbatim, as I found them: hours max cats = {1,0} 14 or {_,8} 11 minTen max cat = {0} 10 minOne max cat = {8} 11 MAX CATS EVER: 35 {10:08} 0 10 6 10 1 4 2...

Sphinx

2:22 AM

0

Q: Sherlock's silly side

Sometimes Sherlock can be a total weirdo when I'm in the room with him. "HorSesHoe sheLlsHocks remOrsEless cOmmerceLess chRomosOmes," he said to me. "CocKLEShells!" I replied, whereupon he smiled and walked away. What in the world just happened? This puzzle (I use the term loosely) ...

enigmatic-puzzle

Sphinx

3:01 AM

0

Q: A two-headed snake that would bite and belch

My prefix is a medium; Or a substance without colour Whose suffix isn’t male; It is used to refer the other My suffix is a totality Of what remains on one side It is also a facility Which I am used to provide

riddle word wordplay rhyme

Sphinx

3:59 AM

0

Q: An American Friend Cipher

An American friend of yours, JL for short, sent you the following message: "I can only say that 22. 21. 24. 21. 9. 3. 6. 9. 27. 2. 23." The hint says the key may be in the initial part of this problem.

cipher

jafe

7:21 AM

FACT+OR(I)AL would fit the wordplay but don't see how the definition works unless that word has another meaning i'm not aware of

Deusovi

the definition is "!"

jafe

aaa nice!

Sphinx

7:48 AM

0

Q: Cryptography-themed crossword

A Cryptography-Themed Crossword Across: 1 Film spooling backwards, noir, shot through the middle (6) 4 Therefore, um, leave (4) 8 Rambler has a stroll (5) 9 She sends girl to Wonderland(5) 10 Mixed-up, shuttering computer conversation (6,4) 13 Coded ...

cryptic-crosswords

msh210

8:27 AM

@Deusovi heheh

jafe

9:00 AM

Oct 22 '19 at 3:32, by PiIsNot3

CCCC: One top liar warping the truth first! (9)

how about falling for the same trick twice

Oct 22 '19 at 4:08, by jafe

i'm searching the dictionary to see if "factorial" has meanings i don't know about but doesn't look like that's the case

Gareth McCaughan

@Mithical Seems to work for me.

Sphinx

0

Q: A themeless but slightly devilish cryptic

ACROSS 1 Grant F in T, perhaps (6) 4 Bug (messed up): "Pride cometh after the summer" (6) 9 Fez state: motorcoach tipped over, hat fell out (7) 10 Essin' curves! (5) 11 Primal-screamers have one day left for milder expressions of disappointment (4) 12 Elementary, to CERN of Sixty-second Street...

cryptic-crosswords

Mithical

@GarethMcCaughan ^that's what I see.

Gareth McCaughan

9:25 AM

Oh, sorry, you mean the way it displays is messed up, not the actual hyperlink. Yup, agree, it's broken and I'm a twit. Hang on.

Should be fixed now. My apologies.

Mithical

:)

msh210

9:50 AM

@Sphinx my first-ever cryptic crossword. I'd appreciate feedback.

Mithical

@msh210 *high pitched screeching due to output going back into the input*

hexomino

@jafe Correct, well done! I was trying to be a bit sneaky.

@jafe I had missed this one from before I think.

msh210

@Mithical not that kind of feedback :-)

Mithical

Fiiine. Well then, here, I don't need your chicken food anyway.

msh210

chicken food?

Mithical

10:00 AM

see definition 2, 2a

Sphinx

0

Q: A simple riddle on a common word

I can ruin the fun or make it dirty I start with a hybrid form at atomic level Something responsible for wars is right in the middle of me If there is an emergency, you reach at my end You can try to hide your answer, but I shall reveal myself anyway

riddle

jafe

think @deusovi's up next for the CCCC? (first to get the complete solution)

msh210

@Mithical ah

Sphinx

10:39 AM

2

Q: What is the word represented by this rebus?

For those who don't know, a rebus is where words are represented by a picture and you try to figure what word or phrase the picture is trying to represent. What is the phrase above?

rebus

dcfyj

1:14 PM

@Avi STATE+(OF EMERGENCY)*

msh210

1:56 PM

"Empowered government" is the definition? I always understood "the governor has declared a state of emergency" to mean that he's declared a status of emergency, not a political entity of emergency. But maybe I've been misunderstanding it.

. . . Wikipedia agrees with me: "A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to perform actions or impose policies that it would normally not be permitted to undertake." It's the situation, not the government itself.

jafe

i'm wanted in three states... dead... alive... texas

Avi

Well, I can catch you in the last. Hit me up if you ever want a visit from la polizia

msh210

I can catch you in the second. And eventually in the first.

Avi

"java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index 4 out of bounds for length 4"

- You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me.

I swear I never thought I'd see one of those again

jafe

2:12 PM

be warned, anything you write from this point forward is being read in thanos's voice in my head

Avi

I'm sorry, little one.

Sphinx

3:24 PM

0

Q: A normal Vowelburger™ riddle

Inspired by Avi's Vowelburger™ Riddle I ordered 5 plain Vowelburgers™ with with lettuce in addition to the patty and buns. Help me identify each one from the description on the menu! $$ % custom template - reuse if you may \def\S#1#2{\Space{#1}{20px}{#2px}}\def\P#1{\V{#1em}}\def\V#1{\S{#1}{9}} \...

riddle wordplay

msh210

3:37 PM

@GarethMcCaughan "I confess I think the definition unfair." You mean "Area around St. Albans Cathedral"? Why unfair?

(By the way, Google tells me coholonomy is a real thing, though I've no idea what it is. A coholonomy group, otoh, no. :-) )

(Also by the way -- I'm (perhaps inordinately) proud of "Pride cometh after the summer" and of "pair of socks".)

(If I had to pick one thing in that puzzle as unfair, I'd pick "a Southeast Asia nation" -- I probably shoulda said "an historical Southeast Asia nation". But even that was solvable, as events have proven.)

Avi

Pride cometh before a fall? Three layers in you'll find zombies, perhaps (4)

PRIDE + A DROP -> priDEADrop

Pride cometh before a fall? Broken pillar lifted away reveals Hellen Keller, perhaps

PRIDE + A FALL - PILLAR* on the outside = DEAF

Broken pillar falls on Hellen Keller, perhaps the result of this adage (5, 5, 6, 1, 4)

hexomino

4:01 PM

@msh210 Still curious about the missing answer. Is Gareth's suspicion about printer's devilry correct or are you not going to reveal that yet?

msh210

@hexomino It's printer's devilry.

@msh210 Oh, come to think of it -- if I had to pick two things, they'd be "a Southeast Asia nation" and the missing one. Which is kinda why I accepted already.

Gareth McCaughan

@msh210 Yes, "Area around St Alban's Cathedral". It's a matter of implicatures. Hertfordshire is the area around St Alban's (the town), of course; but if you specify something as local as the cathedral, it signals that you're looking on a smaller scale and you'd have to mean something like the cathedral close or the city centre.

And yes, I liked the pride one, and once someone else explained it to me the one-two one too.

(Yes, I meant to do that.)

Sphinx

4:21 PM

0

Q: Cryptic Setka - Complete grid using clues and sudoku-style logic

This is a Setka puzzle; you can find more (along with a more detailed explanation of the rules) at our website, linked from this user's profile. How to play Setka, the short version: Answer each clue using only Puzzle Letters and vowels. Clue answers, minus vowels and duplicate letters, go in ...

logical-deduction wordplay cryptic-clues cryptic-crosswords logic-grid

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan Oh, I see. Fair enough.

(I mean: what you said is reasonable. Not: my clue was fair enough.)

I mentioned the cathedral for the surface, of course.

Gareth McCaughan

4:39 PM

Of course.

This paper cds.cern.ch/record/536502/files/0201039.pdf refers to "coholonomy groups" and is about gauge fields in quantum mechanics!

North

@msh210 Is that even legal? XD

Gareth McCaughan

(After a cursory look I have a dark suspicion that they actually mean "cohomology", though.)

There's also some category theory paper that I don't begin to understand that includes things they call holonomies and coholonomies. It does say that the "double categories" it's concerned with are relevant in quantum field theory, so again there's some prospect of your surface reading not being so far off.

So a "double category" is like a category but it has two kinds of morphisms called "horizontal" and "vertical" and some things called "squares" that relate them, which I guess are like 2-morphisms in a 2-category (note: having said that I have already revealed literally everything I know about 2-categories). And then they have a notion of "folding": a folding is a thing that turns vertical morphisms into horizontal morphisms "nicely", along with something that turns squares into ...

... "folded squares" in a way consistent with that, and the vertical-to-horizontal-morphism thing (which is a 2-functor) is called the "holonomy". I have no inkling why that's a good name for it.

And then there are "cofoldings" which have "coholonomies".

"Cofoldings" fold around the antidiagonal instead of the diagonal: they turn opposites of vertical morphisms into horizontal morphisms. I have no idea why any of this would be useful, of course.

I can't see that there would be "coholonomy groups" arising from any of that, though.

Deusovi

5:14 PM

Oh, am I up for the CCCC? Figured jafe would get it because I wasn't the one to get the wordplay.

Alright then, here's a fun one:

Gareth McCaughan

uh-oh

Deusovi

CCCC: High-strung type of note! (1)

Gareth McCaughan

Perhaps A as in "type A personality" (and of course the musical note)?

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan cool

@North stretching it

Gareth McCaughan

(Too bad the A-string isn't the highest one on a violin.)

Deusovi

5:17 PM

(it is on a viola)

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan maybe on another instrument?

North

@Deusovi Didn't know that

Gareth McCaughan

yeah, I was just checking and it is on a cello

but that's not especially high

msh210

@Deusovi jinx

Sphinx

0

Q: Can someone please explain the solution for the following Raven's progressive matrix?

I want someone to tell me the solution for the following Raven's progressive Matrix. I have found some common things between shapes but still I cannot figure it out. Please help.

riddle

Deusovi

5:19 PM

but considering your parenthesized comment, I think you have the full explanation, Gareth?

Gareth McCaughan

Looks like it.

Deusovi

(mind explaining the !, for completeness' sake?)

North

What's the highest string on the guitar>\?

jafe

E

North

So like the violin

jafe

5:23 PM

the standard on guitar is EADGBE

Gareth McCaughan

! because (with the top-string interpretation added) it's an &lit.

I'm tempted to post something like "Empty container, without a cornet in after shaking out (0)", after Deusovi's last.

(though I hope I could polish the surface a bit more)

North

@GarethMcCaughan wut

Deusovi

yep - &lit double definition, a "[mentally] high-strung type that is notable" and "a type of note that is on a high string"

@North CONTAINER minus A CORNET IN anagram = ""

Gareth McCaughan

of course!

jafe

@Deusovi aaa

Deusovi

5:26 PM

can't tell whether jafe's reaction there is towards my clue or Gareth's

North

so it's A?

Gareth McCaughan

Incidentally, did anyone notice the little accidental joke in my Dorian Gray clue? (After submitting it I thought "damn, would read better with madly adoring instead of wildly adoring" and then realised that "wildly" is exactly the right word there.)

fixed

yep, A is right

huh

5:27 PM

pretty easy clue to fit in a crossword

North

strange

Deusovi

a bit sad you could get it without realizing the &lit ddef thing, but I liked how the entire clue grammar got swapped around

North

@jafe or really hard, depending on how you see it

@jafe that's three letters

Brace yourselves, a Gareth clue's coming up!

Gareth McCaughan

sigh My last clue was solved in minutes. They're usually not that hard or obscure.

(The last one was in fact a fairly obscure word, but it fitted together in a pretty straightforward way.)

Deusovi

yeah, no need to automatically assume Gareth's clues will be difficult

jafe

5:31 PM

TIL the verb form "fitted"

Deusovi

yep! I've only heard it in the context "fitted sheet"

Gareth McCaughan

CCCC: Argument about inside job (11)

I've heard "fitted" in the sense of "had a fit" too

Deusovi

ALTER(C)ATION

Gareth McCaughan

I did wonder about not bothering to pin that clue given that you were here.

Correct, obviously.

(For anyone to whom it's obvious: "job" as in "nose job", "boob job", etc.)

*not obvious

jafe

23 seconds

Gareth McCaughan

5:33 PM

See? Nice easy clue.

Deusovi

oh no, now I have to come up with a new one - my silly clue bank has run dry

2

North

@GarethMcCaughan Hmph

You just did that to prove me and Rand wrong (blows rasberry)

Gareth McCaughan

I've posted lots of easy clues. And, I admit, a few stinkers.

North

(throws rasberries)

Gareth McCaughan

Note that Deusovi's clue was also solved in less than a minute. Reputations around here are not always deserved :-).

North

5:39 PM

Until you drop words like ... what was that Japanese water fountain thingy

@GarethMcCaughan There's not very many words that are 1 letter long, good sir

a Suikinkutsu?

jafe

Ash held by dæmons (1)

Deusovi

Æ, of course

jafe

:P

yep

North

that took a little too long to process

Deusovi

5:52 PM

CCCC: Part of climax with strong insult (6)

Sphinx

6:16 PM

0

Q: A double-patty Vowelburger™ riddle

Inspired by Avi's Vowelburger™ Riddle My new fry chef came up with the Double Vowelburger which has a top bun, cheese, two patties and a bottom bun! She's very economical with ingredients, so each vowel A-E-I-O-U appears only one time as a top and bottom patty, and no burgers have the same top an...

riddle wordplay

msh210

@Deusovi pt. (part) + _f + fff (strong) = ptffff!, an insult. (I don't really think this is the answer, as you'd've said "extremely strong", not just "strong", for fff. (Also, you'd probably have used "following" instead of "with" for an f.))

(But it ties in nicely to

@North this.)

Deusovi

6:34 PM

(not the answer, of course)

North

@msh210 What's "this"?

forte

fortissimo

fortississimo

msh210

6:49 PM

@North your mention of blowing a raspberry

HTM

@Deusovi Could this be OFFEND = O_ + FF + END, def "insult"?

jafe

where does the "end" come from?

HTM

Apparently "climax" can also mean "come to an end"

Deusovi

Where does the O come from?

HTM

As in "the event climaxed with a big dance party"

dcfyj

6:58 PM

@Deusovi climax? :P

HTM

"Part of" = O_

Wait, I think I might have a better word, just gotta fit it to the wordplay

Deusovi

@HTM how? That doesn't work grammatically

HTM

Read it as "Part [of] of"

My other thought was REBUFF since BUFF = "strong," but don't know how "part of climax" = RE

Deusovi

7:13 PM

I can't think of any example where you can just say "part" rather than "part of"

and have it mean the same thing

HTM

Darn, so close then :(

Mithical

"part" can be a verb

HTM

OFF = "part"?

Even if that were the case, which is kinda suspect imo, it's still only OFF + END, and "strong" isn't used

And I also thought of OF + F + END, but then "part" is unused

Mithical

I meant "part of" could mean "split 'of" into 'o' and 'f'", but that's probably not legal in a CC anyway

HTM

Yeah, don't think that goes anywhere unfortunately

jafe

7:26 PM

"i'm part italian"?

Sphinx

7:51 PM

0

Q: What am I? Feel welcomed to answer

Hi! I am big business you should better not skip If I'm used longer you're in a relationship Also, I feel odd when there are 2k human beings My absence might hurt anothers feelings Who/What am I? Can you figure it out?

riddle mathematics word wordplay rhyme

dcfyj

8:15 PM

@Deusovi shouldn't you pin your C4?

North

8:26 PM

@msh210 Ah

Deusovi

oh, thanks for the reminder

Sphinx

0

Q: four similar words;synonyms

It's first three letters are similar to one of the word Also, it's first three letters are similar to the last word When you remove two letters from one of them, it'll mean, "noise of heavy things breaking" if you remove two letters from the other one, it'll mean, "step" All of these words are s...

riddle wordplay

Avi

8:48 PM

Is "high-strung" valid to clue the highest string on any instrument?

mbingo

Was it concluded that OFFEND doesn't work? Seems to me it could be using the imperative transitive verb form, "part X" (i.e. "split X into parts"), telling us to "part OF + END with F".

Deusovi

@mbingo And that's correct!

@Avi No. You need the whole clue, "high-strung type of note", for that interpretation (i.e. a specific note that is literally highly-strung).

mbingo

@Deusovi Sweet!

Deusovi

[continuing previous message] That's why it's a ddef &lit: the whole clue is the definition, and also the whole clue is the wordplay (which happens to be another definition because it's a ddef)

Avi

Energetic hermit and instrument (8) - THER(E)MI* + N

wait no

hermit has no anagrind

Energetic hermit has energy and instrument (8)

yes

Fool's instrument (4) - TOOL (ddef)

Mithical

8:57 PM

Does that work with Fool's instead of fool?

Avi

"fool" is "instrument"

that's how you read that

not "instrument belonging to fool"

Deusovi

"Energetic" for "insert E" is questionable.

Also as an anagrind.

Avi

Poor hermit has energy and instrument (8)

Avi

9:10 PM

argh

I want to do "fool's instrument" as the definition for ENTERTAINMENT (as in jesters)

but I broke it down as ENTER + T(MAIN*)ENT and now I can't do the wordplay

HTM

@mbingo Wow, that's sneaky, didn't think of it like that

Avi

Confused Tenten eats crashing train with energy???

?!

ENT + (-asc)ERTAIN

ENTREAT* in ment?

Gareth McCaughan

Having fun in East Antrim, fooling about among the trees (13) [(E ANTRIM)* in ENT...ENT] but that's a bit sketchy for a couple of reasons

Avi

Entreat tin men?

Gareth McCaughan

"playing among the trees" is arguably sounder, and less inclined to produce smutty thoughts which might be a plus or a minus

Avi

9:22 PM

Ten men treat in evil jester's trade (13)

@GarethMcCaughan hehe

Gareth McCaughan

I like the "ten men" one

(could consider "foolish", "dancing", etc., instead of "evil")

Avi

dancing would work better, i believe

:( hard to make my sudoku

because it's really hard to check

I think people are tired of vowelburgers

time to fix that

@mbingo Ending up gulping never led to an enjoyable activity (8)

mbingo

Hmm, I'll think on it...

And I need to get a C4 in...

Haha okay, apologies for the surface, but:

CCCC: Part of climax with unconcealed private (6)

Gareth McCaughan

9:42 PM

Too bad you couldn't make it privates, plural.

The trouble with vowelburgers is that usually they take like three seconds to solve.

mbingo

@GarethMcCaughan I know... unfortunate. :(

msh210

On prescription pads, doctors write c with a horizontal line over it to mean "with", and s with a horizontal line over it to mean "without". (From Latin "cum" and "sine".) Do you think it's fair to use "with", "without", and close synonyms ("lacking") in cryptic clues to indicate the letters c and s? (I do think so, but I'm seeking others' input.)

msh210

9:57 PM

@GarethMcCaughan And there's a way to word them that they don't. That was one of my few published (in print, not on e.g. SE) puzzles: I gave a list of words that had a in them and asked what they had in common. (As I recall, the list included mass, pats, and ball, among others.)

(That was in Games, of blessed memory.)

You could even ask a vowelburger question as is — a list of five definitions or synonyms — except without indicating it's a vowelburger question and you get a better question already.

Sphinx

1

Q: Another faceless jigsaw 2

This one is tougher. Start with a square. Suppose the top and bottom of the square can be either straight or have an interlocking pattern, as shown in the two examples below: And suppose the left and right of the square can be either straight, concave or convex, as shown in the examples below...

jigsaw-puzzle

HTM

11

Q: A cotton-y connection

The following words and phrases have something in common: Final In case Record Defeated Desire Figure out what that connection is, then fill in the blanks with suitable phrases: Cotton item ??? Cotton item Cotton item ???