The Sphinx's Lair

2:35 AM

1

This puzzle uses X characters of text. Can you replace "X" with the correct number? Spaces and punctuation are counted too. Good luck!

Sphinx

5:43 AM

2

Q: A sneak peek at July, 2034

This calendar contains all the rebuses you’ll need to help prepare for July, 2034: A saying that reputedly evolved from a Welsh nursery rhyme. A saying that is also in a pop song’s lyrics. A figure of speech that is also a pop song’s title. A figure of speech that has become a meme. A U.S.A. ...

rebus

Sphinx

7:16 AM

0

Q: Song 3 by Mr Physicson

Mr Physicson has been programming some nuclear reactor results filtering program. So, when he returned home tonight, he incorporated a bit of this new knowledge when he was singing to his son: x=person:property(("small sized"&&"black skin")|("small sized"&&"red skin")|"good deeds") set x_count=1...

wordplay music

Sphinx

8:48 AM

1

Q: Note of greetingth

A friend of mine thent me thith note. He'th a little bit thy and often preferth to thend a metthage rather than thay thomething in perthon, even if it'th quite thort, and thometimeth amutheth himthelf by putting it in the form of a putthle. I honethtly have no idea what to make of thith one thoug...

word knowledge enigmatic-puzzle cipher cryptic-clues

jafe

8:59 AM

@GarethMcCaughan this is pretty difficult... for the three-letter version there's a crime leader (Gus) F+RING in Breaking Bad but i doubt that is the intended answer

Sid

9:53 AM

So I was doing a Crossword and one of the clues was:

Profession many rush to get (5)

The answer is apparently CREED

Can anyone explain how this works?

jafe

c is 100 (many), the rush is a reed plant?

Mithical

A "rush" is a REED, "c" might be... ninja'd.

I don't know about the "to get", though.

jafe

of course, the definition is not an occupation but something that is "professed"

Sid

Many can be used in that way? To clue C or D or M or whatever?

hexomino

CCCC Hint: The wordplay is not difficult but the word itself is obscure (some people here may have come across it but I would say most would not).

msh210

10:12 AM

@hexomino clearly then the definition is "Group of eight", for GBTPAD. :-)

hexomino

@msh210 X-D

Sphinx

1

Q: This day in history V

Well done to Beastly Gerbil who got the answer to This day in history IV. Something happened on 4th May a certain number of years ago. Can you tell me what it was and how many years ago it happened? In a city that borders Lake Michigan Drew the attention of 200 policemen With 1.5k where it to...

riddle history

Sphinx

10:45 AM

1

Q: What is a Vowelreuben™ Word™

This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles. If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Vowelreuben™ Word™. Use the examples below to find the rule. $$ % set Title text. (spaces around the text ARE impor...

pattern english word-property

msh210

11:45 AM

@hexomino og< + do + a_ d_

(with help from Qat: I searched for og..ad)

oAlt

ughh, earlier I searched for "octoad" and "ogdoad" popped up, but did not think about it a second time :((

Sphinx

3

Q: A courious odd one out

Which one of (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) is the odd one out and why? Source: based on a puzzle from Alex Bellos

pattern lateral-thinking odd-one-out

hexomino

12:38 PM

@msh210 Correct, well done!

Sphinx

1

Q: Tic tac toe - Sudoku: A variation in which the centre box defines the layout of the other boxes

I stumbled across this interesting variation of Sudoku the other day and thought I'd give it a try, it has however baffled me and I've been unable to progress past the very early stages. The puzzle comes from the "World Class Puzzles NL" set of daily puzzles, this one published on 2020-04-29 s...

grid-deduction sudoku

msh210

@hexomino thanks

CCCC: Rides south with no purpose (8)

Sphinx

1:28 PM

1

Q: Prime to number conversion

This puzzle relates to Prime to Prime: Get all first 25 Prime Numbers using up to 4 Primes and its sequel Prime to Prime Sequel Using any three of the first 4 prime numbers (2,3,5 and 7) and the folllowing math operations get the first 23 numbers (from 1 to 23). x / + - ^ ! !! Square ...

mathematics primes

Sid

SIDLES fits well with this C4, except it's (6) and not (8), hehe

msh210

1:42 PM

@Sid One second, lemme count again... (counts)... yeah, it's 8. :-)

Anyway, IDLE would be better than IDLES for "with no purpose".

hexomino

@msh210 I think it might be NEEDLES +S = NEEDLESS (where I think "rides" means annoys, like needles)

oAlt

(there's.. quite a lot of people here, this ain't usual haha)

Mithical

:eyes:

msh210

2:31 PM

@hexomino yes indeed

msh210

2:44 PM

that was quicker than I'd expected. nicely done :-)

(because of the unusual synonyms rides and needles)

msh210

2:57 PM

@Mithical "👀"? What does that mean, anyway? I've never understood what that meant when people posted it.

Mithical

Often it's just like an "I'm here" thing

msh210

ah

Sid

Ah. That was a nice one. Rides->Needles. Very nice.

msh210

@Sid thanks

Sid

@Mithical Are you the person/bot formerly known as Mithrandir?

msh210

3:03 PM

person/bot/alien/tortoise/crocus

Jan 4 at 17:10, by Gareth McCaughan

@OmegaKrypton As a general rule, you should probably expect questions of that sort to go unanswered. There are many reasons why someone might change their username, and some of them involve not wanting the link between old and new names to be any clearer than necessary. (I am making no comment on the present case in particular.)

Jan 4 at 17:11, by Gareth McCaughan

(Also as a general rule, there's something to be said for not asking such questions in the first place.)

@Sid ^

Gareth McCaughan

3:26 PM

@jafe Nope, not that.

hexomino

CCCC: Musical and stylish before now. (7)

Gareth McCaughan

So, the Listener's intended solution was ALICE, because of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_band.

My (I think much better, except that it does want the extra space) answer was QUEEN, which (1) means "female" (when describing cats; there is a further implication of a breeding female, though, which I'd forgotten), (2) is the name of a band, and (3) describes the leader of a country.

Sphinx

0

Q: A book of mystery - Page I

THIS IS MY FIRST TIME WRITING A PROPER STORY RIDDLE SO EXCUSE ME IF IT'S NOT GREAT. YOU'LL GET A NEW PAGE OF THE BOOK EACH TIME YOU SOLVE THE LAST ONE. ENJOY! As he lay on his deathbed, aged at just forty four, Your uncle James was holding your mother's hand and yours. To her, he gave a house, ...

riddle story

Sid

4:14 PM

@msh210 Wasn't a clear answer but thanks. I haven't been around SE enough to know that changing usernames is such a touchy subject.

Omega Krypton

oh hi sid

Sid

Hey.

Is there a thing where you get Puzzler's block despite not creating a puzzle in years?

Omega Krypton

block?

@sid

Sid

Well, just not getting any new and decent ideas for puzzles, despite not being nearly as busy as I have been, in the past.

Omega Krypton

i still dont get what you mean by block... sorry

Mithical

4:19 PM

Like writer's block, but for puzzles.

And yes, I've been up against that for the past week or so.

Omega Krypton

@Sid a good idea is to go to tag page and find a random tag

rebus?

Sid

Well, I have an idea for a while now. The hard part is making it into a decent puzzle.

Maybe the actual problem is I am too lazy.

Omega Krypton

lmao

Sphinx

4:49 PM

2

Q: A couple have 9 children, half of children are boys, how?

My friend asked me the puzzle, A couple have 9 children (none of them were adopted) Each child must be either a boy or a girl Half of that couple’s children are boys How that can be possible? I failed to answer. So, how it is possible?

logical-deduction

Beastly Gerbil

@Sid don't worry that's a very real thing, you just need to get inspired by something and the ideas will start coming back :)

Mithical

@Sphinx Fairly sure that should be lateral-thinking, especially if my answer is correct

Beastly Gerbil

Agreed and changed

Sphinx

5:52 PM

0

Q: A man was born in the 18th Century. In certain year of his life, the square of his age was equal to the year. What year was he born?

He was born in the 18th century, the square of his age was equal to the year he was born.

mathematics

jafe

@hexomino CHIC+AGO

see also 1 down here :)

(the difference being that your surface actually makes sense)

jafe

6:43 PM

hmm, when someone moves "at a cracking pace", does the "cracking" actually mean fast or is it just "good"?

i've been assuming it's "fast" but the dictionary doesn't seem to agree

North Læraðr

I have never heard that saying before lol

Deusovi

also never heard it

North Læraðr

Okay, I thought I was going crazy for a moment

Is that like a region specific term (like Australian or British?)

jafe

ah, all the more reason to throw that idea away it seems

i'm sure i've heard it but no idea where

Beastly Gerbil

I've heard it used in other phrases meaning great, but not in that particular phrase

Mithical

6:51 PM

@jafe I've always interpreted it as quick

hexomino

7:05 PM

@jafe Aha, I had not seen that. It is of course correct

jafe

CCCC: Spooner's testament I'm not contracted to follow (7)

hexomino

@jafe I think "cracking" means fast here but more generally can mean "good/great". You could say somebody a cracking smile, for example, to express that you like it.

jafe

i see

well, the clue was: Making unpleasant noise, West interrupted Swift (dropping mic, ultimately) (8)

with "cracking" for "swift"

making CRA(W)(-c)KING

Sphinx

7:49 PM

2

Q: x⌊x⌊x⌊x⌋⌋⌋ = 2020

Solve for $x$: $$ x \left\lfloor x \left\lfloor x \left\lfloor x \right\rfloor \right\rfloor \right\rfloor = 2020. $$ The floor function $\left\lfloor t \right\rfloor$ has the usual “greatest integer $\leq t$” definition. Attribution pending