The Sphinx's Lair

Sphinx

06:59

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They're simple Vowelburgers™, but they are great for munching on while watching TV. Meat Vowelburger™ A LA E Ogre I Job O Marvel U Malibu

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

@Jafe Well, I remember that there are riddles that tell you gow to cross a stream without getting wet, in the winter. But that is quite a stretch...

Rand al'Thor

08:54

@hexomino Congratulations on beating me to the gold tag badge in word and becoming the first PSE user to have two gold tag badges :-)

Sphinx

09:32

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Q: My Prefix is the word I want. What am I

My Prefix is the word I want while also it describes the whole. My Infix is a negative that brings you close towards this goal. My suffix are two seperate words, which can describe the look. But users will not read through them unless they did what it took

riddle word rhyme affix-riddle

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

10:05

Woooo, just like I said, hexomino is the new Deus

Deus the Jedi and Hexomino the Rabbi lol

hexomino

@Randal'Thor Thank you, I do feel quite proud of this.

@Anonymus25-ReinstateMonica Very kind of you to say, but I do think Deusovi is especially talented at puzzling whereas I still have a lot to learn.

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

10:30

@hexomino What do you mean? Remember the time of the Kaboomy Numbers poem puzzle I randomly thought of? I must say you are almost like Deus, because you snipe puzzles before others can even pull the trigger lol :p

Que pew pew noises

Gareth McCaughan

10:52

No one is the new Deusovi. Deusovi is still here. Hexomino is also a tremendously talented puzzle-solver.

I don't see anything particularly Jedi-like or rabbi-like about either of them, and I think calling someone "the Rabbi" is liable to feel pretty weird to anyone around here who happens to be actually literally Jewish.

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

Cuz Rabbi translate to "Teacher"

Lol

Gareth McCaughan

11:44

If you were going to give one of them the title Teacher then I think it would be Deusovi rather than hexomino, because it seems to me that Deusovi has done more explicit-kinda-teaching-y things here than hexomino. (Most obvious example: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/45984/cryptic-clue-guide)

And while "rabbi" does originally mean "my teacher" or "my master", in actual use calling someone "Rabbi" is not at all the same as calling them "teacher"; it's specifically suggestive of a particular sort of teaching and leadership.

Just as "madrassa" originally just means "place of study" but if you call somewhere a madrassa you're suggesting that a particular sort of study happens there. And "buddha" means "enlightened person" but you wouldn't use it, e.g., to describe the key figures of the European "Enlightenment" in the 17th and 18th centuries.

oh, actually I think it's more literally "awakened one". You definitely wouldn't e.g. use it to mean just a person who has literally woken up from sleep recently.

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

IT'S A METAPHOR OMAIGASH rolls eyes and facepalms

Btw, do you know where Rubio and GPR are?

Most inactive, I must say

Gareth McCaughan

I know it's a metaphor. I'm saying it's a bad metaphor. For which I have to explain what about it is bad, and then you say OMG IT'S A METAPHOR YOU MORON.

I think Rubio and GPR have been busy with Real Life.

(And the reason why I'm bothering to argue that it's a bad metaphor is that it's also a metaphor that's liable to make some people -- namely, people who are actually Jewish -- feei weird and uncomfortable, and I don't think a bad metaphor is good enough reason for doing that.)

Anonymus 25- Reinstate Monica

12:24

@GarethMcCaughan Sorry

Sphinx

13:49

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Q: Give me an R and I'll run!

Give me an R and I'll run Give me an AR and I'll come running Give me a T and I'll stop you from moving Give me a D and I'll make you move Leave me alone and I'll send you in different directions! Can you tell my name? As far as I know, this is original.

word

Sphinx

14:40

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Q: Don't like those synonyms

Stand alone I am someone with authority Add a "B" or an "H" or an "L" All three are synonyms Who am I?

word word-property

msh210

17:09

While I agree it was not a good metaphor, I have to say that personally it didn't make me uncomfortable (though I'm Jewish). That said, if someone had called me the rabbi of PSE, or of anything else, I definitely would be uncomfortable. Or, for that matter, if someone had called me the priest or imam of anything.

Mithical

It just struck me as weird.

Prince North Læraðr

18:07

Yeah, calling someone like "pope" in here would be pretty weird

Prince North Læraðr

18:19

@Anonymus25-ReinstateMonica I've noticed you seem to have a habit of comparing a lot of good puzzler or puzzle-solving as Deus-esque. I'd avoid that. Deus is extremely talented, but each puzzler in this room has their own set of puzzles that they enjoy solving and are good at. Saying someone is like "deus" seem to me as trivializing that person's accomplishment by tying it in an inappropriate fashion to deusovi.

It also puts Deus at an awkward position

msh210

@PrinceNorthLæraðr well, that's even weirder, since there's only one at a time

Prince North Læraðr

@msh210 Very true

Mithical

@PrinceNorthLæraðr or calling Deus a "god"

msh210

@Mithical well, with a nickname like that…

Prince North Læraðr

@Mithical Yeah. I mean, I'm guilty of it too -_-; Every once in a while, when the situation is appropriate for it, I think it might be fine to joke around about it, but perpetually edifying someone that way would put Deus in a very awkward position

Mithical

18:23

Only the god of eggs. :P

But... yeah, deifying someone for their puzzling abilities or whatever is different from a good-natured tease in any case.

Prince North Læraðr

^

Exactly

There's a lot of other stuff that's great about Deusovi aside from puzzles: Great moderator, communicator, tutor, etc.

~~Also, Deusovi lacks the power to simply make up words, unlike Gareth who can time-travel~~

Jul 26 '19 at 5:51, by Alconja

I'm starting to think Gareth has a superpower where he can make up words to suit his C4s, then somehow inject them into the timeline fooling everyone into believing they're real... He clearly can't manipulate memories, only physical artefacts, which is why they always seem so obscure/archaic.

^^proof

Deusovi

@PrinceNorthLæraðr thank you - i'll be honest, it does make me slightly uncomfortable at times. i appreciate being held in high regard, but i would prefer not to be put on a pedestal in that way - i am an actual person

Prince North Læraðr

18:39

Yeah, I can tell. I understand where anon is coming from - I used to do it a lot when I was a new user too. But I did notice after a while that you seemed to be a bit uncomfortable around it

bobble

There was a really weird mess-up of the formatting here that I fixed by deleting one character from a hidden HTML comment.

Dmihawk

19:00

morning folks :)

Rand al'Thor

@msh210 Oh really? :-)

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Shhh, we should start pointing out his bad sides to neutralise the effect of the deifying.

Not that putting puzzlers on pedestals is a new thing:

Jun 1 '15 at 20:05, by leoll2

The puzzling altar is currently occupied by JoeZ, sorry

Prince North Læraðr

Jan 12 '17 at 9:01, by Deusovi

oh no, counting - my only weakness

Jun 20 '19 at 12:22, by Deusovi

also, I discovered that I can't count, which may be an issue

Oct 27 '20 at 14:55, by Deusovi

hm, this is a tough puzzle so far. partially because it actually seems difficult, partially because it involves one of my biggest weaknesses - counting

Nov 4 '20 at 16:28, by Deusovi

oh no, my only weakness! physical injury of any form!

@Randal'Thor I think I've posted enough scandalous messages by Deusovi

Such scandals

Deusovi

in my defense, counting is hard

Prince North Læraðr

Counting is very hard

I can't count either, don't worry

flashbacks to when I put the sqrt2 as 2 in last semester

@Deusovi Hehe, meanwhile, I see OMAHA as 6 letters and STEADY as 5

Lukas Rotter

^ it was a rough day, I also can't count

Prince North Læraðr

19:13

Deus, stop infecting us, darn it

matt

@Deusovi quick, what's 87 plus 12

Prince North Læraðr

Oct 27 '20 at 14:57, by Deusovi

second only to "basic arithmetic on single-digit numbers" and "remembering to actually read the puzzle text"

Deusovi

99

matt

[literally every math teacher on every problem] "show all work"

Prince North Læraðr

I actually kind of like showing work

Deusovi

19:14

not sure what answer you were hoping for there

Prince North Læraðr

It's very satisfying to get to the correct answer after showing work

And also, you kind of can't do uh trigonometry in your head

Mithical

@PrinceNorthLæraðr joke's on you, I can't do trig period

matt

w o l f r a m a l p h a

Prince North Læraðr

@Mithical Joke's on you, I'm in trig and I can't do trig

(or pre-calc doing trig stuff)

Mithical

I gave up math after passing my high school exam and now I am free to focus exclusively on letters instead of numbers :p

Prince North Læraðr

19:17

I am cursed with doing math for one more year after this

Rand al'Thor

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I can do integration by parts in my head.

Prince North Læraðr

Sounds impressive. What is integration?

Dmihawk

I quite enjoy mathematics, but then I am strange

Deusovi

impressive! (that would likely be more impressive to north if he was familiar with integration at all)

ah, beaten to it

Prince North Læraðr

@Dmihawk Nah, enjoying mathematics is PERFECT NORMAL.

:P

Rand al'Thor

19:21

Mith and North picked the wrong room to show off their aversion to maths :-P

Prince North Læraðr

Oh no! My hatred for math within a puzzling room with a bunch of math nerds! Whatever shall I do?

Dmihawk

head South? :P

shows himself out

Prince North Læraðr

Hehe

Dmihawk

:o

I'm finally being moved to a new team! I can stop job-hunting :D

Rand al'Thor

@Dmihawk No need to be so hawkish.

Prince North Læraðr

19:27

@Dmihawk Yay!

Dmihawk

@Randal'Thor touche :)

Prince North Læraðr

You're a programmer, right?

Dmihawk

yeah, pretty much

Prince North Læraðr

NZ still makes me think it's an American State. 'Murica, baby!

Dmihawk

Nezada? :P

although we don't have anywhere near enough casinos

Rand al'Thor

19:31

@Dmihawk Congrats!

Prince North Læraðr

New Zexico

Dmihawk

haha I like that one!

thanks @Randal'Thor :)

@PrinceNorthLæraðr how are all your exams and stuff going? The end must be nearly in sight for you?

Prince North Læraðr

@Dmihawk Pffft, my semester has barely begun. It's been a month

O_O oh the pain that is to come

Dmihawk

oh? have you just had a bunch of assignments etc. to turn in?

Prince North Læraðr

Yup

Dmihawk

19:33

I could've sworn you were studying for exams recently, or am I mistaking you with someone else?

Prince North Læraðr

Oh, I have been studying for exams. I just have them very frequently

Dmihawk

brutal :(

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah. I have a math exam tomorrow, for example, on polar coordinates

Dmihawk

feeling ok for it?

I know a few people who are always happy to math tutor ;)

Prince North Læraðr

yeah, not too bad. Still want to study a bit more for it, but I should be good. I'm a bit confused about spirals, so I need to look back into the textbook for that

I have SAT next month (American standardized test thingy for colleges), another state standardized test that literally does nothing besides waste your time (literally it has no impact on your graduation or colleges), ACT (different standardized testing) in April, and then two AP tests in May

No wonder why I'm getting white hairs :P

On the bright side, I'm going to go pick a potential prosthesis out for my trumpet today! Very excited

Dmihawk

19:38

@PrinceNorthLæraðr start with the Archimedean spirals :)

that's a lot of assessments, I feel for you :(

oh neat!

Prince North Læraðr

Yay! I just found out we won our trial from yesterday!

Dmihawk

congratulations! (even though I have no context on what the trial was for)

Rand al'Thor

@PrinceNorthLæraðr You can get a spiral when r is a strictly increasing function of theta, rather than something periodic like a trig function. Then as theta goes from 0 to 2pi and beyond, the curve just keeps on moving outwards, going on and on since theta can increase forever round and round.

Prince North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor Right, I remember that much. I'm just trying to remember the specific spiral shapes, if we had any. We didn't go over much about spirals, but I'm just double-checking I know my stuff :)

Rand al'Thor

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Seems like your state/country is putting the "ass" back in assessment :-P

Prince North Læraðr

19:45

Hahahaha

Dmihawk

have to agree there

I remember having exams no more than twice a year, and the first one was a "practice" in case you missed the real one for some reason (i.e. they had a measure to weight your final grade against)

Gareth McCaughan

20:38

@Mithical Trig period is 2pi. There you go.

msh210

21:21

@Randal'Thor fair enough

@PrinceNorthLæraðr 90 degrees north, and 90 degrees south

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Is it common to take the ACT and the SAT? Back in my day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), people took either or, AFAIK.

@PrinceNorthLæraðr is your trumpet missing a part? (kidding)

@PrinceNorthLæraðr congrats

C4 hint: Knowledge of American baseball may prove helpful.

Sphinx

21:55

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Q: Sixteen chess pieces on a square board

It is well known that the eight main chess pieces cannot cover a chess board. Suppose I have two sets of the eight main pieces. What is the size of the largest chess-like square board all of whose squares can be simultaneously be attacked by one of the 16 pieces? Two bishops must occupy white cel...

combinatorics chess

Stiv

22:43

One thought on the CCCC: "Happy follower" might be 'Jack' as in this guy. Meaning that if we can get a phrase where the second part means 'to cross a stream', all meaning 'flip', then that's one possibility - e.g. 'JACK KNIFE' perhaps (as in, a truck), but I've never heard of 'knife' meaning that. 'Ford' being the other word to try and squeeze in as an alternative somehow...

Gareth McCaughan

I think JACKKNIFE as a verb can be (9) or (4-5) but not (4,5); at least I'm pretty sure I've never seen it written as two separate words.

Stiv

Indeed, that's something that makes me hesitant to suggest this... I've been stuck on the idea of 'Happy follower' meaning something that follows 'Happy' in a nickname, particularly with hints suggesting references to sport (and baseball specifically in the latest hint). Struggling to see much else right now! :)

Jafe

23:02

@Stiv "ford" actually works -- it's FORD+FRICK, who followed Happy Chandler as the Commissioner of Baseball

@msh210

Prince North Læraðr

@msh210 Eh, people take both, but only really study for one. Like I only really care about the SAT, but am taking the ACT bc my mom's like "you should just try it"

Stiv

23:21

@Jafe Ah, so close! Right ballpark (pun intended) but I had my back to the pitch, looking at it all the wrong way!

Jafe

i appreciate the assist (sorry, wrong sport)!

Graylocke

23:41

@Stiv I stand by my stupid and coincidental solution to your puzzle ;p

msh210

@Jafe yes, indeed!

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