The Sphinx's Lair - 2020-11-22

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12:09 AM

Hahah

Prince North Læraðr

12:22 AM

"I adjusted the small stick back up," Tom erected

3 hours later…

3:18 AM

was watching cutthroat kitchen and... there was a Chef Mick

3:36 AM

started work on FTC crossword, but I have almost no progress despite working for an hour...

3:52 AM

same although i gave up much earlier than an hour

5 hours later…

9:21 AM

1

Q: Lost in this Loopy puzzle

I got this Loopy (Cairo) puzzle, but got stuck here: I have no idea how to proceed without guessing with backtracking. Are there any local deductions possible here?

logical-deduction slitherlink

5 hours later…

1:55 PM

1

Q: Guess these Anime Movies

I Hope you are doing well and safe 🥰 . Are you fan of anime 🤩 ? If yes this puzzle is for you .Let's see how much you know about anime movies.Below images has 5 pictures each picture represent a anime movies . Look at each component inside each picture to get correct movie name . I know this p...

visual rebus movies anime

2:45 PM

0

Q: It is good, it is bad, it is powerful

1. Take 0 out then you are really in it 2. Take 1 out then it is unreal 3. Take 2 out, then you are back to 1 4. Take 3 out, then you are back to 1 5. Take 4 out, then you are back to 0 What word am I?

3:05 PM

staying up late to barely catch up on some requirements ;_;

2 hours later…

5:07 PM

@Deus @Gareth troll in the dungeon

thanks

(already flagged, but just pinging in case you're in chat to hear that)

yay

oh it was that guy again ;-;

6:04 PM

Just a warning to people not to click on this guy's links - he's started to hide hyperlinks to inappropriate sites beneath the URL text. Always hover before clicking (or just flag immediately without engaging at all...).

6:26 PM

@msh210 There. Are. Seven! Lights!

0

Q: Could a non-native english speaker workout cryptic crossword puzzles?

I am fond of puzzles related to mathematics, and I am very keen to solve cryptic crosswords. However, The main obstacle is that they seem to require superb linguistics background knowledge/skills. As a non-native English speaker, I might attribute my hampering to the lack of skills any ordinary n...

cipher cryptography

6:55 PM

@Sphinx Pretty sure we have some non-native English speakers here on this site who are great at cryptic crosswords. @jafe?

Not to mention non-Indonesian speakers who managed an Indonesian-language cryptic crossword ...

7:26 PM

@Mithical I had no idea what that was a reference to. Googled it, found vimeo.com/87527854 , but I'm guessing there's some older reference that Google isn't showing me.

@Deusovi no apology necessary: quite the contrary

Prince North Læraðr

@Stiv Good reminder. Thanks

Chain of Command (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"Chain of Command" is a two-part episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. It aired as the 10th and 11th episodes of the sixth season, the 136th and 137th episodes of the series. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode, Jean-Luc Picard is removed from command of the Enterprise for a covert mission, and his replacement is assigned to deal with the Cardassians openly. The second part of the episode is noted for the intense performance of Patrick Stewart...

@bobble I wouldn't really call this puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/105090/… a rebus puzzle

@Deusovi ah, thanks. That explains why Googling "there are seven lights" didn't get me much.

@Sphinx When trying Israeli (Hebrew-language) cryptics, I found that there are a two main hindrances: (1) You have to know the language well. Much as your standard, uneducated anglophone who has never done a word puzzle and has no experience with wordplay will not be able to make much progress in an English cryptic crossword, so too will someone on that level of Hebrew, even if he is experienced in cryptics, will not do well in a cryptic crossword. [continued]

@Avi I guess? There were pictures hinting at words, so I assumed rebus. I can edit the tag back out

7:34 PM

If you look at the pictures they're more hinting at the events/major points within the movies and not really word components themselves

I didn't know that at the time of the edit - the answer wasn't out yet

(and I haven't been on the site since)

fair

[continued] (2) The standards and rules. I know the standards of an American cryptic crossword, less so of a British one, but not of an Israeli one. (But #2 is, I guess, easily surmountable. I can read up on the standards.)

I need a libertarian crossword and answer sheet

so I can marvel at some devilish wordplay (no PD though, pls)

@Deusovi That episode summary actually sounds familiar to me. I think I may've seen it, years ago, though I was never a fan.

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I think we're waiting on your C4, right?

Prince North Læraðr

7:46 PM

Yup

I was dreaming that I was coming up with a C4. That's how much it's been on my mind :P

Model eaten by insect (8) - DOM IN ANT

not ximenean

How to respond to ASL (6)

RE: SIGN

Major turnout, or failure? (5) - JAM (-or)

City planners are eating their hearts out

Prince North Læraðr

Okay Avi

No need to flex

^

I googled libertarian crossword clues but couldn't find any so I'm making my own :(

what is even going on here

7:56 PM

47 secs ago, by Avi

I googled libertarian crossword clues but couldn't find any so I'm making my own :(

what is a libertarian crossword clue

non-Ximenean, I suppose

ahah! I just finished a (very small) FTC crossword.

@merrybot davidastle.com/da-blog/ximenes-vs-araucaria

imo my three clues were (1) meh, (2) decent, and (3) accidentally ximenean &lit, but also suspicious af

not sure if definition is required for libertarian clues (probably is?)

@Avi that still makes zero sense

8:03 PM

crosswordunclued.com/2010/01/ximenean-vs-libertarian.html

try that then

Anyways, the general Ximenean rules are in Deusovi's cryptic clue guide and deviations from that are usually cleverness, mistakes (aka junk), or libertarian cluing

at this point i don't even know what to say other than ???

??? what don't you understand

Ximenes was some dude who said stuff like "indirect anagrams bad" and "single letter selection of synonyms no fun"

by obeying those rules in cryptic crossword clues, people who create clues (also known as setters) prevent the clue solvers from becoming super frustrated

because if nobody had fun solving crosswords, then the setters would be out of a job

wait, this is a job?

@Avi there are specific conventions that libertarian clues follow - it's not just "anything goes", afaik

Prince North Læraðr

Hm, @Deusovi what's the rule for homophones when they're prononounced differently depending on the regions?

8:10 PM

@Deusovi I would be interested in knowing more but I couldn't find anything related to that on google

i don't know the specific leeway that libertarian constructors give themselves - not sure what's fair and what's not

Prince North Læraðr

For example, I was going to use "epoch", but they're pronounced differently depending on if it's British or American

i think you just learn it through practice solving british cryptics

@bobble if you're good enough

@PrinceNorthLæraðr depends on your audience - i personally stick with american english homophones because i speak american english, but wouldn't be surprised to see british english homophones from a british constructor

Prince North Læraðr

8:12 PM

Hm, I guess it depends on how you pronounce things too

Bc I would've clued it as "ee-pock", bc that's just how I thought it's pronounced

that's the british english pronunciation

american english is more like "eh-puck"

Prince North Læraðr

I know. But I thought that was just the normal way to pronounce it, until I heard Google pronounce it

honestly i'm fine with either, but would prefer if rhoticity was kept

Prince North Læraðr

The what now

-er at the ends of words

Prince North Læraðr

8:14 PM

Ah

or after vowels in general

Rhoticity in English

Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant /r/ in all contexts by speakers of certain varieties of English. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic varieties, the historical English /r/ sound is preserved in all pronunciation contexts. In non-rhotic varieties, speakers no longer pronounce /r/ in postvocalic environments—that is, when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel. For example, in isolation, a rhotic English speaker pronounces the...

Linguistic nerd-ery?

anti-bad-pronunciation-nerd-ery?

"bad"?

bad

8:15 PM

there's nothing wrong with nonrhotic accents

yes, they are incorrect

:/

no, they are not, and calling them incorrect is a fundamental misunderstanding of how language works

I see - I shall then persist in this misunderstanding

Calling a dialect "incorrect" is both wrong and incredibly disrespectful to those who speak it. This is not funny.

Sec

But in the dictionary, there's only one pronunciation for "hard" and "butter"? Isn't it fundamentally wrong to mis-pronounce the word

8:20 PM

dictionaries are descriptive of language, not prescriptive

they, like linguists as a whole, describe how things are currently done, not the "correct" way to do them

Ah, I see

Makes more sense then

Dictionaries also tend to lag behind new linguistic developments

question, Avi: is the pronunciation of "hard" in your dictionary /hɑ(ɹ)d/?

in addition, many dictionaries only write pronunciations for one specific dialect (or are at least meant primarily for one specific dialect), because of how varied dialects can be

@merrybot no

Prince North Læraðr

8:22 PM

Okay C4, though it's not that great

wiktionary has this for "hard":

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: häd, IPA(key): /hɑːd/
(General American) enPR: härd, IPA(key): /hɑɹd/

Prince North Læraðr

CCCC: Get used to the weather before starting on the air conditioning! (9)

AC + CLIMATE

not quite sure how the grammar works there though

Prince North Læraðr

Wow

yeah. Couldn't figure out a way to says "starts"

weather is not climate
but dang, that was fast

8:24 PM

specifically, how does "X before starting on Y" mean "YX"

So it's just that some people say one thing and other people say another and hopefully everybody understands each other and nobody is wrong and everybody should be happy

Prince North Læraðr

I was trying to do "starting on" as in "take the beginning of"

@avi yes, exactly

ok, great

@Avi i mean, basically? language evolves a lot over time, and things we say now would be seen as "incorrect" in a different place or a different time

8:25 PM

e.g. tomāto / tomäto

Prince North Læraðr

That was faster than that one that @jafe 's clue from before

it's not like british english is completely incomprehensible to an american english speaker, or vice versa

@PrinceNorthLæraðr AC is a common enough abbreviation that you don't need to clue initials there - it's an actual thing, so it works as a direct synonym

"turn on the AC" is a pretty natural thing to say

(and you could also synonymize AC as, say, "cooler")

the thing i'm confused about is the ordering though

Prince North Læraðr

@Deusovi True. But then "turn on" would be extraneous words though

Oh I messed up the ordering smh

@PrinceNorthLæraðr oh i'm not saying that you should use that exact phrase in your clue, just pointing out that "AC" can be treated as a word

Prince North Læraðr

@Deusovi Yeah, I did know that, but was trying to make the surface smoother

8:28 PM

so it works as a plain synonym rather than needing to be indicated (though you can indicate taking first letters if you want)

also, why the ! at the end?

are exclamation points allowed to end non-&lits?

Prince North Læraðr

No real reason besides I read that sentence as an exclamation

yeah, they are

Prince North Læraðr

Though I see it could just be read as a statement

I read that clue initially as "Turn off the cooler and get use to it"

The clue should've been "Get used to the weather after starting on the air conditioning! (9)", though the "starting on" is still a bit dubious

"after using air conditioning"?

Prince North Læraðr

8:30 PM

What "using" doing?

Oh is it part of the indicator for "comes after"?

yeah

"X after using Y" seems perfectly fine to me for YX

Prince North Læraðr

Ah. Didn't know I could do that

same for "after writing Y", or similar

Prince North Læraðr

Get used to the weather after using cooler (9)

something like that would work, sure

(or you could use "air conditioning" there, which is still alright)

Prince North Læraðr

8:32 PM

Yea

I just didn't want to type out "air conditioning"

fair

@Deusovi true, imagine time travelling back to when they spoke old english

even, say, 15-20 years ago, "google" was not a verb

and of course there are things like the cot-caught merger, where (some) american english speakers have a homophone and british speakers don't -- the reverse of the rhoticity thing, in a way

9:01 PM

@Deusovi AC isn't a thing in British English.

No, wait, I mean AC isn't a thing in Britain.

The British version of AC is "open the damn window".

:-)

so then do i say "turn on the open the damn window"? :p

Prince North Læraðr

Hehe

air conditioning is an abbreviation of OPEN THE DAMN WINDOW

OPEN THE DAMN WINDOW + CLIMATE was actually my answer all along

better change the enumeration to (24) then :p

9:22 PM

"My messages keep disappearing," complained Tom, resentfully.

Prince North Læraðr

I don't get it

Oh okay I kind of get it

his messages were re-sent fully

because they kept disappearing, so he had to resend them

Prince North Læraðr

It's alright

Aargh! Two of my crossing words in Jedi At Last mismatch!

need help?

9:26 PM

I may, but I'll try it on my own for now. Just wanted to vent.

mmh

@Avi cute

Prince North Læraðr

How do I find the median without having to rearrange all my numbers in order?

5

Q: Find the median of an unsorted array without sorting

is there a way to find the Median of an unsorted array: 1- without sorting it. 2- without using the select algorithm, nor the median of medians I found a lot of other questions similar to mine. But the solutions, most of them, if not all of them, discussed the SelectProblem and the MedianOfMedians

arrays algorithm median

(apologies for the delay in the CCCC - having trouble coming up with a good clue. will get back to it later tonight)

9:39 PM

@Avi . . . I think I've figured it out. The setter was being more devious than I had thought.

Or, to put it more kindly, merely meant something different from what I had thought.

@PrinceNorthLæraðr nice

Prince North Læraðr

@msh210 Hehe, I didn't make it up though :/

Curtesy of wikipedia

oh

Prince North Læraðr

I wish I made that one up

Oh, I thought I put the whole thing around in quotes

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Nov '2022

The Sphinx's Lair

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