What is "it" and what are the missing words?
The couldn't sit own 'till they got it out of town
To send it back was nice,
But who'd have bet the odds,
They'd send it back with mice,
And___________________________?
HINT 1:
It's totally possible in general that the asker found a satisfactory answer themselves, and such an answer can be helpful for others who have the same question
@Stiv I think perhaps STEADY : S (sore head) + TEA (a drink) and DY (the beginning and end of "day") ? And "Round-the-clock" meaning constant or steady.
/stɛdɪ/ vs /o͡ʊməhɑː/ - the first has just two short vowels, and the second has some long vowels in it. and iirc long vowels are written with a double letter in Finnish, so that could make the perceived letter-count bigger
Thank y'all for defending me. Anon, getting a message that I'm "cheating" was a little hurtful, no matter how many "lol"s are tacked on to the end. I don't feel close enough to you for it to come off as a joke - just felt like plain meanness
Inspiration by @risky mysteries
A [suffix] sitting [prefix] [infix] corner solving [whole].
Rule and Clue: The infix and suffix may not be exactly same as the whole, such as:
Infix or suffix
Whole
zen
thousand
edge
marriage
trip
contribution
I recently saw a puzzle where you were to find the 2021st positive integer co-prime with 15 (it was phrased in terms of a game but this is the mathematical core). I wrote code to find the answer but can’t see how you would have done it by hand. What is the trick?
I was trying to study some geometry, but I just can't seem to wrap my head around all this mathematical mumbo jumbo. Can you help me out?
Many an object of this type are familiar to geometers! (8)
A famous mathematician returned to sign with hat (6)
Legs itch, tea spilled (7)
A ring is nearly in...
apparently in scotland they say "outwith" to mean "outside of"
if i remember correctly, some years ago wikipedia cleansed that word from articles written in scottish english (because nobody else understands it) and some people were... not happy
can't find a reference for that right now, though... (which of course is fitting)
@Jafe IINM English Wikipedia's usual policy is that if an article is about a particular English-speaking region (or person from that region, etc) then it should be in that region's dialect; and otherwise it should be in whatever dialect it was written in by its first author.
@Anonymus25-ReinstateMonica Sorry to burst your bubble...! ;-)
@Jafe And this is totally correct. We spend a lot of time with Scots and it took us so long to grasp what it was they meant by 'outwith'. These days I occasionally find myself using it myself in conversation!
@msh210 Answer to the CCCC is HAWAII! HA (laughter) + W (work) + AI (robotics) + (fa)I(th), all clueing this movie by George Roy Hill :)
Hi @riskymysteries - Just FYI I rolled back the edit for the spoilers on that lock question. I figured that as it wasn't really a puzzle other users might try to solve but rather an enquiry for assistance it didn't really need it. (Although TBH the answer itself was a pretty much tongue-in-cheek JUST DRILL THE LOCK OFF response, so not sure how useful it is either way!)
In a nutshell, there's a game of Cryptic Clue Chat Chains that's been going on continuously for several years. Whoever solves the cryptic clue sets the next one. Solve, set, repeat!
If you solve the one that's currently in play. There's a single chain, you see. It's currently msh210's turn to set as they solved mine (above). When they have a chance they'll set it going again and any visitor to the Lair here can try to solve it (and claim setting the next clue for themselves).
I think people have done that before, probably just a case of finding a willing volunteer to take it on. But I'll leave answering that question officially to someone who's been doing this longer than me! (I've done fewer than 10, and only really very recently...)
there's a specific way they work - every clue has two parts to it, and you have to figure out where to divide the two parts and how they work. there's a guide pinned in the starboard
cryptic clues take a while to learn, but once you do they're very rewarding!
I'm also pretty near two other badges - need to review 5 more suggested edits and vote on 30 more questions to get Proofreader and Electorate, respectively.
I came across this puzzle-like endgame study. Usually, opposite color bishops are draw-ish. Here's an absolutely extraordinary counter-example. Enjoy!
White to play and mate in 8.
Source: Winning Chess Endgames: Just the Facts!
Alice moved place to nolteight street. Bob meets her after her move and he knows that the smallest house number in nolteight street is 8 and the highest number is 100. But he does not know the house number of Alice.
Bob asks her: "Is your house number greater than 50?" Alice answer is a lie.
Bob ...
What was the king's name (missing from the riddle),
but more interestingly, what was the king trying to hide?
Slay me now, and take a solemn vow,
Man can't say I might have died this way,
So thrust me through. Make it strong and true.
I'm a wreck, but long live the king __________.
HINT 1:
...
Example; You ask your one question by moving towards any door. Only the true guard will continue to stop you no what you do. The fake guard would be powerless to act, it could only pretend not participate.
Is asking your one with a action the answer to the riddle of two doors, two guards? Example; You ask your one question by moving towards any door. Only the true guard will continue to stop you no what you do. The fake guard would be powerless to act, it could only pretend not participate.
It's saying: Consider those puzzles where you are in a room with two doors that might let you escape, and there are guards who may or may not tell the truth, may or may not answer in a language you know, etc. Is a good solution to such a puzzle to take some action that will provoke the guards to act in a predictable way (e.g., trying to stop you going through the door that lets you escape), thus bypassing whatever logical shenanigans might have been intended?
Of course the answer is: no, unless you also consider that a winning chess strategy is shooting your opponent with a gun.
@GarethMcCaughan Table-flip is the only successful Monopoly strategy.
That answer made my day though ^^; I kind of like the idea that you try to bypass this clever puzzle the two guards came up with and they simply don't like that you won't engage and let you do whatever you want including fall to your doom.
@GarethMcCaughan I read your answer, and generally agree with it. But maybe there is a shade of grey in there? Sticking with the chess example, is moving your hand to a piece and observing your opponent for some sort of reaction a valid strategy? I absolutely agree this would not be a part of a chess puzzle, but it certainly seems part of chess.
More "puzzly", I definitely find when doing cryptic crosswords, I tend to "solve the setter" sometimes.
I guess there may be a difference between a puzzle and a game... in how much is meta. But then, isn't the point of the rules I have been trying (and failing!) to follow in the C4 about avoiding "setter" based solves? That the clue should work in its perfect description?
Not that I am an expert, I am just interested in the answers from the clever people here ;p
I agree that there are situations where doing something and looking for reactions is a good idea. I don't think that really applies in how-to-choose-the-door puzzles, though.
@Graylocke i think Jeremy Dover is saying that you can sometimes think "oh, this setter would pull some trick like this here, i'll look into this more"
(with the clue still being perfectly valid, and you just having found the solution more efficiently)
that's not really what the answer was about though, as i read it
Inspiration by @risky mysteries
A [suffix] sitting [prefix] [infix] corner solving [whole].
Rule and Clue: The infix and suffix may not be exactly same as the whole, such as:
Infix or suffix
Whole
zen
thousand
edge
marriage
trip
contribution
I recently saw a puzzle where you were to find the 2021st positive integer co-prime with 15 (it was phrased in terms of a game but this is the mathematical core). I wrote code to find the answer but can’t see how you would have done it by hand. What is the trick?
Which is the non-convex quadrilateral with integer sides and integer diagonals with the smallest possible perimeter?
I came across this puzzle-like endgame study. Usually, opposite color bishops are draw-ish. Here's an absolutely extraordinary counter-example. Enjoy!
White to play and mate in 8.
Source: Winning Chess Endgames: Just the Facts!
The correct approach to this puzzle will lead you to two initials which in it's entirety consists of 13 letters.
What is this 13-letter answer?
Example; You ask your one question by moving towards any door. Only the true guard will continue to stop you no what you do. The fake guard would be powerless to act, it could only pretend not participate.
