The Sphinx's Lair

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12:03 AM

This isn't a blog platform or a discussion forum. "Here's something cool, isn't it interesting, let's talk" is not something that works on this platform. See our tour for how we work and check out what is on-topic in our help center. — bobble 5 mins ago

I'm going out to bike. Perhaps I'll check the blog post when I get back, perhaps not.

AncientSwordRage

12:52 AM

@Dmihawk it's a tricky one and one got at least two partial solves

@bobble no need it's closed!

bobble

@AncientSwordRage just combine two half-solves and it's done, right?

AncientSwordRage

@bobble now I have one clue that's double the length it should be!

I'm sure somebody will solve it before I'm up in the morning though

5 hours later…

Anonymus 25

5:38 AM

@Dmihawk I'm tempted to say the answer is SHIP, def is at sea, quickly move weight as SHIPLOAD without load

3 hours later…

Jafe

8:42 AM

i think it's some word for "quickly move" which is some 8-letter word for "weight" minus L,O,A,D in some order

Anonymus 25

9:00 AM

@Jafe Not possible, only word for "quickly move" that has L,O,A,D in it is HEADLONG, and HENG isn't an English word

Oh wait, mistook you

2 hours later…

msh210

10:52 AM

I didn't know headlong was a verb. You live and you learn.

AncientSwordRage

I think it's RATE, but I only have pieces of the puzzle. Weight without load is TARE, which you 'move' as an anagram indicator. Rate is also how 'quickly' something changes, but also the navy ranks are done by RATE

@Dmihawk can you check my logic?

Jafe

11:15 AM

that's an indirect anagram though

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe oh no... good point I had forgotten about those

Jul 13 at 12:05, by Jafe

rats, back to the drawing board

1 hour later…

Jafe

12:28 PM

hah, it finally happened... came across a clue in an online cryptic which is word for word identical to one i've used previously on PSE

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe I wasn't going to ask for proof but I appreciate it

Sphinx

12:54 PM

Q: this is a riddle that will become four numbers but I don't know what the answer will be

We are four brothers. Two of us are twins. Our first brother born in February and the older in September.

riddle

1 hour later…

AncientSwordRage

1:59 PM

@Sphinx @bobble that's still not a great Q even after your edits

bobble

@AncientSwordRage oh, it's terrible. I regularly edit, downvote, and/or closevote all at once

AncientSwordRage

#NonSetterHints the current C4 is making me think of words like CLIP, RATE, TEAR, KNOT, ROPE, LOAD etc, with 'weight without load' a ~well known clue for TARE.

@bobble I'm imaging you using each point on the bobble crown to poke shortcuts on a custom Puzzling keyboard at the same time

bobble

It's a possibly salvageable question (in the sense of "acceptable and on-topic for the site"), so I'll fix it to the best of my abilities in case it is saved. Might prevent some downvotes for cosmetic reasons.

@AncientSwordRage I don't have any custom keyboard shortcuts; the only interesting thing about my keyboard is I installed Japanese onto it

AncientSwordRage

@bobble that IS interesting

the interesting thing about my (phone) keyboard is I have installed the IPA

@bobble yup, I try and take the same approach on SFF

Sphinx

Q: Sub Battle Sudoku

Please find below a variant Sudoku which incorporates elements of Star Battle. The Sudoku is a standard irregular Sudoku, and the clues outside the grid are sandwich clues: the sum of digits strictly between the 1 and the 9 in the appropriate row/column must add up to the sandwich clue. In additi...

logical-deduction grid-deduction sudoku

bobble

2:13 PM

Apr 8 at 15:48, by bobble

Okay, Rajorish, I have absolutely no idea how to save your question. I have no answer. I was just tidying up the grammar in case other people can figure out how to help you.

Here's a time when my clean-up was interpreted as genuine interest in the question

AncientSwordRage

@bobble that sure looks like a time... D:

bobble

Question: are questions with accepted answers supposed to have their titles turn green in chat oneboxes?

I found myself surprised upon seeing it happen, but perhaps I simply forgot

Mithical

Pretty sure, yes.

oAlt

3:14 PM

@Sphinx Drat, I really wanna finish this (I got past the easy part) but now 1) I'm at an impasse 2) I'm getting sleepier at the moment

6 hours later…

Dmihawk

9:33 PM

it's not SHIP

@AncientSwordRage is closest, although now I'm worried to ask about indirect anagrams...

can you not clue a word, to then be anagrammed?

Gareth McCaughan

Only things that literally appear in the clue should be subject to anagramming.

So e.g. it would be fine if the def is "Quickly move" and we need a word meaning "weight" from which the (scrambled) letters of "load" are to be removed. Not so much if something meaning "load" is to be anagrammed.

AncientSwordRage

9:54 PM

@Dmihawk you can do what you want, but it's frowned upon to require something to be anagrammed that's not directly in the clue.

It's fine (at least to me), say, if you spell out that it's indirect

Q: Everyone's OK with indirect anagrams, right?

22nd of May turned out not so fine! (6) Oh, and did I mention topical?

cryptic-clues

Dmihawk

ah, that's my bad then, sorry folks :(

@AncientSwordRage pretty much had it, so I'll give the solve to you

AncientSwordRage

10:09 PM

@Dmihawk you day pretty much... Do you want to explain the rest?

Dmihawk

weight without load = TARE
at sea = (TARE)* = TEAR (def: quickly move)

AncientSwordRage

Also is the room okay with me saying this one? Or do we want @Dmihawk have another go?

@Dmihawk ahhh I considered something that at some point

Sphinx

11:01 PM

Q: One-sided chess: Self stalemate revisted

An old self-stalemate puzzle has been popping up in my feed lately. I was unable to do better than the existing answers, so I created a different puzzle from it. For reference: One-sided chess: Can you stalemate yourself? Goal: Set up all the white pieces so that no piece has a legal move, as clo...