The Sphinx's Lair

« first day (2633 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1231 days later) »

AncientSwordRage

00:32

It's a good mix

@JeremyDover the capital is ankara

1 hour later…

bobble

01:55

What do we want? "TIME TRAVEL!" When do we want it? "DOESN'T MATTER!" — Criggie yesterday

Sphinx

02:46

Q: A counter intuitive puzzle

I have found a counter intuitive puzzle. I have read the answer given at the source and understand it completely. But, what I am unable to understand is why my intuition turned out to be wrong. Following is the question : Alice has a dozen cartons, arranged in a 3x4 grid, which for convenience w...

bobble

@Sphinx the - ! that's a terrible title

@Sphinx and their quote didn't match the actual source - it introduced some grammar errors? huh?

Jafe

03:14

crossword is uuup

bobble

03:32

how late did your procrastinating friend wait to write the blurb?

Sphinx

Q: The end of a wild ride

This is part 13 of the puzzle series that started at Living the traveller's dream. Each part is solvable on its own. Dear Puzzling, My long trip is finally over. This is my last destination before heading home. It has been a wild ride! I hope you have been paying attention, because you will ne...

geography cryptic-crosswords

Jafe

last minute, of course

is there another way?

Sphinx

04:02

Q: How old is Grandfather?

This position has been used in hundreds of chess problems for various reasons by a plethora of problemists over many, many decades. It is known as "Vielväterstellung" in German, or "The Grandfather Position" as I know it in English. However, how old is Grandfather? Find the fastest possible proo...

chess optimization retrograde-analysis

Jafe

04:52

"london bankers" could be the letters LN but the preceding "of" makes that unlikely

1 hour later…

msh210

06:06

@JeremyDover GOBLIN ("gobblin'")

oAlt

06:26

Ugh, I'm trying to solve Jafe's crossword but I got interrupted five times... And the last comes in the form of my laptop dying, which is great /s

I just wanna leave another mark 😭 (disclaimer: I know that this is not a big deal in the end, it's just that my competitive spirit has been amped up especially since this is the last crossword in the latest Gladys series)

Anyway

(p.s. I'll say this just in case: I don't intend the above to come off as complaining. By that, I mean I don't have any hard feelings and everyone's more than welcome to beat me to it :P )

msh210

06:44

@oAlt Second-to-last, no? — if that's any comfort.

oAlt

Actually could be, yeah. Just didn't assume that since Jafe didn't explicitly say it would be a crossword... but yeah, not surprised if it was lol

Jafe

07:07

the meta's a crossword too, fwiw

sorry to hear about your laptop

oAlt

Ah, interesting... re: laptop, no worries lol

Stiv

07:44

Morning/Afternoon/Evening all! Just back from 6 days' camping with zero signal. So, what are the highlights of the week - what did I miss??

Mithical

08:27

yesterday, by Mithical

Q: Join me in Welcoming Valued Associates: #945 - Slate - and #948 - Vanny

I’m excited to introduce you to the two newest members of the Community team. Slate and Vanny have joined us as Associate Community Managers. They are joining JNat and Catija on Community Ops and will report to me. Slate and Vanny will eventually oversee tickets that come through the contact us f...

discussion featured announcements community-managers

1 hour later…

AncientSwordRage

09:49

@Jafe is 'statement turkey' a mistake in a speech/statement?

or is turkey indicating stuffing one word inside another?

IT IS GOBLIN!

:O:O:O

Quick... how to articulate how....arghhh

Turkeys making threats => Gobl, + in => goblin, and the 'race of london bankers' are the goblins of GRINGOTS!

I HAVE skipped steps here :(

FAR too excited by that flash or inspiration

oAlt

10:31

@msh210 @AncientSwordRage unfortunately msh210 got it first :P

AncientSwordRage

@oAlt oh no, I thought it needed an explanation to be a valid answer?

oAlt

Not so, ALTHOUGH I do want an explanation since I don't know how to parse the clue (aside from the fact that I know it's a homophone)

And idk if the explanation will suffice for Jeremy, or if he wants a deeper one instead

AncientSwordRage

@oAlt Mine is far from complete

but I'm certain 'race of london bankers' is the def

oAlt

2 hours later…

msh210

12:19

@AncientSwordRage oh I thought my indication that it's a homophone was sufficient. My full explanation is that "In statement" is the homophone indicator, "Turkey making threats" clues "gobblin'", "exposing" is a connector, and the rest is the definition.

AncientSwordRage

@msh210 thats cool! I'm happy with that, it makes sense now, I just didn't realise it was an explanation at the time

Jeremy Dover

@msh210 That is of course correct!

Sphinx

13:20

Q: puzzle about prefixes of French words in the Princeton linguistics challenge

Link- https://lingclub.mycpanel.princeton.edu/challenge/french.php I am unable to come up with a complete solution. No outside knowledge is said to be required for the solution to this puzzle. my observations: words which are not without a prefix only have ré as their prefix. words whose meaning...

language

msh210

13:51

CCCC: Like countries fightin' a drug? (8)

John Dvorak

is fightin' like fighting but in space?

wait, no, that's fihtin.

oAlt

14:22

@msh210 epic, thanks for the clarification too

@JohnDvorak I see what you did there :p

AncientSwordRage

14:41

in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, 11 mins ago, by xkcd

This data is actually going into improving our self-driving car project, so hurry up--it's almost at the minefield.

oAlt

Hahah

Mithical

in Tavern on the Meta on Meta Stack Exchange Chat, 15 mins ago, by Tinkeringbell

oAlt

Perfect

AncientSwordRage

@Mithical exactly

bobble

14:56

@AncientSwordRage I'm not sure what to think of how I immediately solved this in my head

Is it sad or cool?

AncientSwordRage

@bobble extremely cool

like.... frosty

bobble

@Stiv check the starboard!

2 hours later…

AncientSwordRage

17:18

@bobble and the port and the aft

I'll show myself out

bobble

@AncientSwordRage you should, after your egregious misspelling of our revered High Inquisitor's name

3 hours later…

AncientSwordRage