The Sphinx's Lair - 2020-06-02

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12:35 AM

@Avi These are comments that aren't necessarily appropriate for TSL. They're not really useful or meaningful to people who aren't you, so they're probably better left unsaid.

5 hours later…

5:18 AM

@GarethMcCaughan "Fitting the pattern of" = À LA. "other clues" is a plural "other" = ALIA. "I follow my earlier answer" is an answer à la an answer = A À LA A. "with ... a" = A. Thus we get "name for Rand al'Thor", @Randal'Thor's real name, ALAALIAAALAAA.

5:37 AM

:00000

5:53 AM

hahahah

6:05 AM

Unreal answer

Also about the previous clue, doesn't definition by example require a question mark at the end?

i think it's enough if you have an indicator like "maybe", "for one" etc

0

Q: 120 degrees and circles

The bigger circle has a radius of $1$, and it is tangent to the two straight lines that forms an angle of $120$ degrees. The smaller circle is tangent to the two straight lines and the big circle. What is the radius of the small circle?

mathematics geometry

sometimes it's marked with just a ? but in that case the question mark should be directly after the thing that's being defined by example

so you wouldn't put "gareth blah blah?" but "blah blah gareth?" would be ok if i understand correctly

2 hours later…

7:54 AM

"fitting the pattern" could be CORRESPONDING, which includes RESPOND+I (I following answer), but i don't see how the other parts could fit

in particular, NG seems pretty unlikely to be "a name for Rand al'Thor"

1 hour later…

9:04 AM

hmm, wouldn't that be "response"

nvm, answer can be a verb as well, my absolute bad

1 hour later…

Gareth McCaughan

10:31 AM

@msh210 Nope. No one other than you, me, and Rand himself know Rand's True Name, so that (while otherwise perfectly unobjectionable) wouldn't have been a fair answer.

11:08 AM

@GarethMcCaughan No one other than us knew it, you mean. Sorry about that, @Randal'Thor.

Gareth McCaughan

11:43 AM

Also, I should have written "knows", not "know". Sorry about that, grammar-sticklers.

0

Q: Deducing Puzzles

There are some puzzles , where it is very difficult to find the solutions and many will probably think that there are no solutions . But actually solutions are hidden as clues in the puzzles . Here are two puzzles that require such logical deduction to deduce the clues and finally the solution ...

logical-deduction enigmatic-puzzle lateral-thinking

3 hours later…

2:59 PM

Look dead, perhaps, when drunk (6) - LOADED

can somebody explain this one? I don't really get it

apparently Look becomes LO, then dead* is ADED

still think Look->LO is a bit susp

"Lo!"

lo = look is fine i think

as in "lo and behold"

yeah, it's archaic but definitely a thing

ahhh

I thought it was an abbreviation at first, which was why it confused me

then there's me, a person who has never gotten, and will never get, any cryptic clue whatsoever

3:11 PM

don't worry

as long as you keep trying you'll get one eventually

for example, approximately 3-8 months passed between the last 2 times I got a CCCC

@bobble I've been watching the CCCCs for years now and I've solved exactly one. :)

but, I still got them :)

I'll stick to the number and line puzzles, thank you very much

hehe - I have something rather incomplete lined up in the number/line puzzles department

currently working on a CCross though

I've so far solved one. Pure wordsearch, so it was, for once, doable :D

3:18 PM

CCCCs are generally harder than cryptic clues 'in the wild'. You don't get any crossing letters, and the easy ones are all snatched up by the skilled solvers.

The challenge is what makes it fun :)

1 hour later…

4:34 PM

CMC: make a CC about Spanish anarchists :o

possibly involving Revolutionary Catalonia

I'd rather stay away from politics

4:57 PM

i mean, it was more about the fact that "Revolutionary" is an indicator

5:08 PM

Revolutionary Catalonian besieging Finnish composer's home (6)

i suppose the proper demonym is "catalan" but oh well :P

5:36 PM

come to think of it that should probably be in the plural... one dude isn't much of a siege, no matter how revolutionary he is

user image

probably Catalonian is acceptable but not in widespread usage

ah, excellent

2 hours later…

7:29 PM

@jafe AINOLA (hidden in CATALONIAN<)

7:54 PM

0

Q: Scrambler puzzle (CTF crypto problem by me!)

Before anyone starts hyperventilating, this is not part of an ongoing CTF! I just made this example CTF problem for fun... To learn more about what a CTF is, check out this Wikipedia page. For this problem, the flag is in the format: (so you'll know when you've found it) flag{xxxxxxx} Her...

8:18 PM

0

Q: Cut It Up! (then find a phrase)

This is a "sorry for messing up yesterday's clues" puzzle. For each shape below, divide along grid-lines into identical pieces (rotation and reflection allowed). The first shape has 6 pieces, and the second has 3. I tried to make the grids look pretty :) Then find the hidden message, which defi...

logical-deduction word visual geometry

8:35 PM

@BeastlyGerbil I found a slightly different set of shapes (namely, the bottom/left on the right side hole), where the 2 shapes are flipped horizontally

The rest remains valid

@Avi could you describe the shape? Not quite sure what you mean :)

uh, basically, it's the exact same

except the bottom left two shapes

can be flipped horizontally

not sure how to post it here without spoilers :(

Ahhh ok I think I see what you mean

I don't think the actual shapes layout matters too much, as long as the shapes are correct.

hopefully so :)

I think the numbers may possibly be a phone pad cipher but not sure

Few too many ones for that possibly

8:43 PM

yeah

it looked like a1z26 at first, but I didn't get much out of it

Neither

Im assuming the 'ty' is a hint somehow

he claimed that the first is a lowercase 'f'

the latter looks like a 'y' or 'h' to me

I can... just about see an 'f'

if you look at the blue rotation for the first it's more clear

(as colored within your diagram)

Yeah I can see it now

FY?

8:47 PM

could be some sort of cipher, or cipher key

The only abbreviation that seems common is 'fiscal year' which seems unlikely :P

Trying coordinates but not getting much

i tried separating them into the horizontal segments of 'F' (filling the blocks with the numbers given)

but there is one more block than #s given

Thats a good idea too!

Lots of possibilities, not much to go on though

basically something like this :(

(spoilers):

user image

Might be relevant that theres one 'missing'

8:58 PM

yeah, it is kind of suspicious, but I'm not really seeing anything there

9:50 PM

Found a traditional crossword clue that might be of interest: "...at a Prague chess match?" (4,3,1,9) Answer: rot13(GURL FNJ N PMRPUZNGR)

Chess beginner has no hope (... that's not cryptic)

7 more clues to go :)

@Alconja how many times has etymology blocked one of your really good CCs?

10:57 PM

@hexomino your -7 seems pretty legit

Thanks, I think it must be right. So many times I've looked at that puzzle with no idea.

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Jun '202

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