The Sphinx's Lair

12:32 AM

It's a good mix

@JeremyDover the capital is ankara

1 hour later…

bobble

1:55 AM

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

2:46 AM

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?

3:14 AM

crossword is uuup

bobble

3:32 AM

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

geography cryptic-crosswords

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...

last minute, of course

is there another way?

chess optimization retrograde-analysis

4:02 AM

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...

4:52 AM

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

1 hour later…

msh210

6:06 AM

@JeremyDover GOBLIN ("gobblin'")

6:26 AM

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

6:44 AM

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

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

7:07 AM

the meta's a crossword too, fwiw

sorry to hear about your laptop

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

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

Stiv

7:44 AM

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

8:27 AM

yesterday, by Mithical

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…

9:49 AM

@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

10:31 AM

@msh210 @AncientSwordRage unfortunately msh210 got it first :P

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

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

@oAlt Mine is far from complete

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

2 hours later…

msh210

12:19 PM

@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.

@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!