The Sphinx's Lair

North Læraðr

00:06

Now to our regularly scheduled chat :)

Gareth McCaughan

@bobble I feel like I have pretty much all of your C4, but there's one thing that confuses me (and makes me wonder whether maybe some of what I think I have is wrong; there are other bits of parsing that are possible).

bobble

Is it the "everything"?

Gareth McCaughan

MAG(-azine) (-art)IC(-les) & (-c)ALF LYING HAH, all that about H(-ags)O(-gres)R(-agamuffins)W(-ork) IT, with (-w)ORN at the end, gives MAGICAL FLYING HORSE WITH A HORN ... except without the SE on the end of HORSE.

I don't mind taking "everything" to mean "all that stuff we just said", so the "everything" is OK.

But I'm missing the SE.

bobble

My intended parsing is WORK = SEW

Gareth McCaughan

I wondered about SEW earlier but couldn't convince myself that "work" was a def for it...

I was put off for a while by wanting "deteriorated" to be WORSE; don't know whether that was deliberate, but well played if so.

bobble

00:10

wordplays.com/crossword-solver/work

had SEW as a possible answer for WORK

@GarethMcCaughan that was an intended red herring, as well as "telling" (not actually a homophone indicator)

Gareth McCaughan

Right.

bobble

I'm giving it to you since you basically got it

North Læraðr

Wait someone explain the parsing because that was confusing

Gareth McCaughan

Sure.

"Magazine" gives MAG, a standard abbrev.

"Essential articles" gives IC, the central letters of ARTICLES.

"Beheaded baby! Cow" gives ALF because a CALF is a baby cow.

"Telling fake news" gives LYING, because that's what it means.

"A laugh" gives HAH. ("With" just means "followed by", here.)

So far, we have MAGICALFLYINGHAH.

North Læraðr

Yup

@bobble Nice tricky surface, btw

Gareth McCaughan

00:13

Now, all of that ("everything") contains (is "about") H O R SEW IT, where HOR are "the early signs of ...", SEW is apparently indicated by "work", and IT comes from "It" in the clue.

so now we have MAGICALFLYINGHORSEWITHAH.

North Læraðr

and (w-)orn

I see

Wait

Gareth McCaughan

And now, "in the end" we have (-w)ORN, as you say. Done.

North Læraðr

How did you remove the w?

unopened?

Gareth McCaughan

"Unopened", yes.

North Læraðr

Hm, how does that work as a deleter?

Gareth McCaughan

00:15

"Without its opening letter".

North Læraðr

Ahhhhh

clever

Gareth McCaughan

OK, now I'll see if I can move all those messages.

bobble

I felt slightly guilty about all the moving parts, but most were straightforward

And I REALLY liked the answer

The intended solving method was figuring out the answer and then fitting the wordplay to it

Gareth McCaughan

→ 150 messages moved to A brief chat about inclined planes

bobble

@Avi, now that you see the parsing - does it make beheading more okay because it is a baby cow that is beheaded and not a baby human?

Gareth McCaughan

00:22

OK, lots of messages about inclined planes moved. I hope I haven't made what remains incoherent.

Avi

01:26

@bobble yes i do happen to be biased in favor of the survival of human babies as opposed to calves

North Læraðr

Ohhhhhh I have such a good cryptic clue

matt

which is?

North Læraðr

Rudderless Greek racers with additional top deck! (6)

matt

ok let's see

North Læraðr

My first &lit, though I'm not sure it counts as one

matt

01:33

what's an &lit ?

Sphinx

0

Q: Find the hat colors - Riddle 3

This time I added a special rule, please let me know what you think about it! CHALLENGE: You have to guess which ones are wearing green hats and which ones are wearing black: SPECIAL RULE: All the prisoners wearing black hats now have a special condition. They see black hats as green, and green o...

North Læraðr

It's a three-part clue where the definition is part of the wordplay

Kind of

matt

hmm

North Læraðr

> "Finally, we have the &Lit clue. It's sort of an exception to the "three parts" rule in that the definition and subsidiary indication are one and the same. That's why it's called "&lit": that stands for "and literally so". These clues are usually unindicated, but occasionally given an exclamation point at the end."

From Deus' Guide

matt

can I assume "top deck" is D_ ?

North Læraðr

01:38

I'm not giving any hints just yet

matt

ah of course

this is h- no I have to stop saying that

North Læraðr

Rudderless Greek racers with additional top deck! (7)

Messed up my count

Sphinx

02:23

0

Q: Find a generalized method to find the optimal grid cut to fit the constraints

I've tried to lay out the idea here below, the question is how to fit the 6x6 grid such that is contained in an LxH rectangle such that the top horizontal line is set back from the top of the rectangle by 1/4", and the left, right, and bottom edges of the grid have an overhang no more than or equ...

mathematics geometry optimization construction

Jeremy Dover

02:57

@bobble If you've got just a little time, check out the two studies I've posted. They're both pretty small and not very hard. They're like healthy snacks :-)

Deusovi

@NorthLæraðr that sounds like "not a cryptic clue"

North Læraðr

@Deusovi yeah...

i misread the &litclue

The CC is still fully legal though

I think

There's one part where the legality might be funny but the parsing is legal

I think

DROMON(-S)_D

idk how legal that is though....

Plurality of "dromon" is where I was a bit funky on

I'm not sure if that counts as a &lit

Ohhh the entire clue is the def

I was always thrown off by the "Cast, or characters in play! (6)". I thought there still had to be a def within the clue

bobble

It's ACTORS*, anagrammed from "Cast, or", with indicator "characters in play" (as in, "the previous characters are in play & move around)

in case you hadn't already figured that out

North Læraðr

Yeah I did

But I thought CAST served as a ddef to ACTORS

Which in hindsight makes no sense bc CAST is singular and ACTORS is plural but like

It's just really good surface :P

bobble

03:17

I have trouble constructing logic puzzles - it's why I've been sticking with crosswords

Deusovi

yeah, the entire clue is the def, and the entire clue is the wordplay

North Læraðr

03:35

@Deusovi Ahh

Wow, that's one hell of a surface

Deusovi

yep, balancing the two meanings is really hard

they're often not disguised, because just making one that works is a feat in its own right

bobble

Jul 13 at 20:29, by Deusovi

Ubangi's routing! (6)

an old one that Deus made in chat for the funsies

Deusovi

eh I wouldn't say that one's great

either as a clue itself or as an example

Oct 3 '19 at 8:34, by Deusovi

CCCC: Protruding part on Earth's surface! (5)

Jun 4 '19 at 5:22, by Deusovi

CCCC: Item for pushing agenda, ultimately to assimilate nonbeliever! (10)

these are both better &lits, I think

bobble

those were before I joined

what are their answers?

& wordplay?

(the & was an intended pun)

Deusovi

03:56

https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/51949301
https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/50549862

there are the two answers

bobble

nice

Avi

04:10

how does Earth's surface become E_?

Deusovi

the first letter of EARTH

bobble

surface = top

Avi

oh

was not aware of that meaning of surface

couldn't it apply to either side?

or both, I guess

as in, E_H

bobble

My cobbled-together Python script told me that I had indeed gridded my way into an impossible situation

... yay, progamming?

Deusovi

yeah, it could also work for "E_H"

Sphinx

13:36

0

Q: Not a Levy on Me

Never living, but bearing life within. Often monochromatic, all around the world. Can be found on your phone, nowadays. Lined up together, taken in order. Under a label proclaiming its nature. Essential in some situations. Handing over money to escape: Every usage costs you dear. Raise your hand ...

riddle word

bobble

15:24

@GarethMcCaughan, it's your turn for a CCCC

Sphinx

15:40

0

Q: Hi , can anyone help out with this?

Which is the odd one out from the following: 2 , 3 , 9 , 19 , 36 , 62 , 92 Options are 1) 3 2) 9 3) 19 4) 36

logical-deduction number-sequence arithmetic sequence odd-one-out

North Læraðr

18:03

Eh imma save the clue for an actual Cryptic Clue Crossword

bobble

18:49

Is it okay to have a cryptic crossword with complete checking? I've gridded an Around-The-Bend (variety crossword, completely checked) and want to make it cryptic, but I could use standard clues if checked cryptics are frowned upon.

North Læraðr

CC: Starts noting the secondary clues heading back to the sign?

Jeremy Dover

Deusovi and jafe would be better sources, but I think the two main reasons cryptics aren't fully checked is because: 1. arguably, every cryptic clue IS checked by itself, having the definition and wordplay, and 2. not having full checks forces the solver to address every clue. Your call if #2 is not that important to you.

bobble

One "solution" (may cause more problems) I've been considering is making some of the clues cryptic and some normal but phrased like a cryptic. I'm not sure that this would solve any problems - it just sounds cool in my head.

Gareth McCaughan

@bobble Yeah, I know. As you might have noticed, I'm often a bit slow about posting new clues. I'm fairly fussy about the quality of my clues :-). Don't worry; I haven't forgotten.

bobble

It better be worth the wait, or else..... <dramatic music> just kidding, of course it'll be great :)

Gareth McCaughan

19:03

(Alas, being fussy about the quality of my clues doesn't guarantee that they're actually any good. But it does mean that I usually only post ones I think are quite good.)

Sphinx

19:23

0

Q: Guess the hat colors - Riddle 4

And today's puzzle, a freshly made one that I am thinking of adding to my collection, I hope it's challenging enough! CHALLENGE: Guess the hats of the prisoners. SPECIAL RULE: There are three types of hats now. There is one multicolored hat, which is both green and black. The rest of the hats are...

logical-deduction visual meta-knowledge hat-guessing

Deusovi

20:14

@bobble "okay" by what rules? you're not going to be sent to Crossword Jail if you do it

you might just find that people solve your puzzle by getting fewer clues than you might like

bobble

Seeing as I don't really care about how many clues people solve, I'm going to make it a cryptic :)

Deusovi

i've seen fully-checked puzzles that also use cryptic clues, but they're usually genres that require a bit more logicking to fit the words into the grid -- a Some Assembly Required, for instance

aframegames.com/puzzles/SAReq_02.pdf (here's an example if you haven't seen that variant)

bobble

ooh looks cool

(I don't have a more coherent thought at the moment)

Gareth McCaughan

20:44

CCCC: Play the organ in a concert, one A shaking British experts in the depths (8, 12, 6)

(not terribly happy with this one, but it'll do)

Avi

btw can some of the more experienced solvers rate the surface/correctness for the clue that I posted the other day?

Letter started with "I Love You" given without disclosure? Extremely cowardly. (4-7)

L_ + ILY + (-d_e)LIVERED, [cowardly]

Jeremy Dover

21:16

@Avi I think it looks pretty good. I would have used "starting" instead of "started", but that's a nit. I like it.

Avi

22:15

@JeremyDover that works for the surface but I wasn't sure that "X starting" is standard (at the time of writing the clue)

Jeremy Dover

!Avi "Standard" is a relative term. But if that concerns you, "beginning" would certainly work.

Avi

That would definitely do the trick. Thanks for your feedback :)

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