The Sphinx's Lair

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Gareth McCaughan

1:49 AM

CCCC hint: At least two of the speculations made so far in chat are correct.

3 hours later…

HTM

4:51 AM

OK, I'm pretty sure we're on the right track with "beau" being the def. Dunno what the other one(s) are though

Can "uncertain" be a non-anagram indicator of some sort? "Certain" could mean "some but not all," so it's a stretch, but "uncertain" could mean "only certain letters in 'un'," which would be U or N

bobble

I would think if "uncertain" was an anagrind, then it would have to be before fodder

HTM

Another thought I had: maybe it's "uncertain about" instead of just "uncertain"

But hard to see how that would be helpful

I'm gonna throw out another possible word for y'all to dissect: CAVALIER, def "beau," and contains I = "current" which is "about" a word, and ER = "uncertain"(?) or possibly "queen" as in "Elizabeth Regina"

Dunno how to get CAVAL from the other parts of the wordplay though

@bobble I don't think "uncertain" is cluing an anagram here - the word would then have to contain either an anagram of QUEEN or of ABOUT most likely, and none of the possible solutions I've come across has all those letters in them

So it's either some other tricky kind of indicator, or it's straight cluing a word

Jafe

i think figuring out "uncertain" is key here, all other parts have some kind of reasonable ways they could contribute to the wp

HTM

Oh, maybe "uncertain about" could be a deletion indicator?

So the wp could be a word meaning "Haggard queen" without a word/abbreviation meaning "current"

Jafe

hmm not sure i see how "uncertain about" would mean that

HTM

5:06 AM

My thinking is that if you're uncertain about something you've written, you would most likely delete it

I'm gonna troll through H. R. Haggard's wiki page again to see if I've missed anything useful

Jafe

re: what speculations are correct, i'd be very surprised if "haggard queen" didn't refer to a queen in a book by haggard

it's such a nice misdirection, with "haggard" at the start to mask the fact that it's written with a capital letter and everything

also i believe the setter has been known to enjoy the occasional book

HTM

Yeah, that's possibly the other correct speculation being referred to

Jafe

"queen of the dawn" apparently has a queen called Rima

turn that about and it has useful letters for a word like admirer (although that's one letter too short)

Maqueda is a queen in "queen sheba's ring"

Ayesha/She in "she" as mentioned before

Jafe

5:29 AM

maybe "(i)s uncertain" is a unit and clues some short synonym for "hesitates" or something?

HTM

Unlikely, I think it would've been written as "is uncertain" if that was intended

Jafe

yeah that's a good point

HTM

Uncertain about uncertain... the irony

Jafe

heheh

HTM

And about "about" as well to some degree

Jafe

5:43 AM

short synonyms for "uncertain": iffy, hazy, dicy, coy, shy, lost

haggard puzzlers uncertain about current c4

HTM

Nice :)

8 hours later…

Sphinx

2:18 PM

Q: Do you agree, or do you have to think about it?

Try make sense of the characters written below. It should lead you to a person. C: 57 350 676 (6) E: 68 79 (4) GL 18 I Ma (3) Who is this person?

4 hours later…

Sphinx

6:34 PM

Q: Tessellation with nonagons and equilateral triangles

What type of convex nonagon is required to tesselate a plane with equilateral triangles and nonagons? All sides of the nonagons are equal. NOTE: Partial tessellation of a plane should accompany your answer.