The Sphinx's Lair

Stevo

12:51 AM

staring at puzzling questions page waiting for a user to post a question

Avi

tries to create question

fails at solving own problem

.-.

at least, that's my current status

Stevo

1:07 AM

lol

Avi

1:17 AM

fr my brain is exploding

Taco タコス

@Stevo Done

🤣

Sphinx

0

Q: A poorly approximated crossword

Today's crossword topic is flowers: Across Daffodils, erica, dogbane, ursi, candytuft and tithonia. Daphne, eustoma, dianthus, orchid, ixia and dietes. Down Alstroemeria, dianella and day. Ursinias and paint. Today's entry is number .1269994261.

Taco タコス

Out for the night :)

Good luck!

Avi

1:33 AM

👋

really hoping i won't have to use jordan curve thm

.-.

Stevo

gu

hi

bye

Avi

1:51 AM

hi

bye

also didn't have to use jordan curve theorem

:D

Stevo

@Sphinx So it has come to this...

Taco タコス

Realized that I posted the wrong image, just in time lol

Fixed it

Now, truly off to bed!

Stevo

oh

ok

still don't get what the flowers are for... still thinking.... nothing comes up

Taco タコス

Stevo

um

nice

oAlt

5:02 AM

Ugh, why do I always miss Stiv's puzzles :P

The disadvantage of this time zone lol

Avi

5:20 AM

e.e

Stevo

7:32 AM

same here

the timezone

Stiv

8:11 AM

@oAlt Ha, sorry about that! I do try and space out my 'publish dates' across the week and the hours of the day - perhaps next time :)

Avi

o no

you're awake

time to make like a sane person and sleep e.e

AncientSwordRage

11:14 AM

@Avi you're making me question my sanity

Mithical

@AncientSwordRage That might be the sleep deprivation, not Avi.

AncientSwordRage

@Mithical "Am I so sleep deprived? No, it's the the lack of coffee that's wrong"

Sphinx

11:37 AM

1

Q: Confectionery Crime Conundrum

Yesterday I received one of the strangest cases of my career as an I.S. PI (Insightful Sleuths Private Investigator). I was reclining in my chair, working on the latest crossword puzzle when I received a call out of the blue. "You've got to help us, Investigator!" cried the voice on the other...

enigmatic-puzzle

oAlt

@Stiv Hehe, that's nice to know, although nothing to be sorry about :00

Also that seems like an interesting puzzle @Avi hope i get more free time to look at it again soon

Taco タコス

12:22 PM

Added a hint to my crossword. Hopefully it’ll get someone’s gears turning.

Sphinx

12:51 PM

0

Q: Can you prove that 3 + 1 = 5?

It’s well known that three follows two on the number line. Since three is one less than four, adding one should equal four. However, the placement of three validates the fact that adding one makes it five, not four. In fact, three’s exact placement is directly prior to five. Can you prove it?

lateral-thinking

Mithical

@Sphinx Well, since 3+1 is equivalent to 2+2, and in 1984 we've established that 2+2=5, that sounds good enough for me.

Lukas Rotter

@Sphinx Literally 1984

AncientSwordRage

@Sphinx + 1 prime number?

+ 1 in terms of when they're mentioned in the question?

"three’s exact placement is directly prior to five." is hinting something I'm sure

Anonymus 25

maybe he wants 3+1 upvotes +1 :P

Taco タコス

1:08 PM

@Anonymus25 she lol

@AncientSwordRage I'm sure of that too

@AncientSwordRage maybe

I had to leave some tags out because they would've made it too easy.

I'll add them after it's solved.

AncientSwordRage

@Tacoタコス that seems slightly naughty

Taco タコス

@Mithical I forgot about that lol

@AncientSwordRage I only do it in cases where the tag(s) would make the puzzle too easy to solve

AncientSwordRage

@Mithical AKA, there are FOUR LIGHTS!

2 days ago, by bobble

Tags aren't supposed to give information. I understand that people use them that way here, but the intent is for tags to be simple classifiers, and for all information to be contained in the question

Taco タコス

@AncientSwordRage the particular tag I'll be adding was created for the wrong reason (the former in this point). However, since it exists, it does apply, and will be added.

AncientSwordRage

I will wait and see

Anonymus 25

1:17 PM

@Tacoタコス Sorry for getting my pronouns wrong

Hope I didn't insult you

Taco タコス

@Anonymus25 you're fine lol when I see it in chats, it's usually due to habit so I simply point it out and move on :)

With pronouns being a touchy topic in today's world, I try to do my best to keep people in the mindset of at least being aware. You never know who will be offended by even an accidental slip.

@AncientSwordRage I'll add it lol

Now, I'm sure it'll get an answer in less than 30 minutes lol

AncientSwordRage

@Tacoタコス ehhhh I wouldn't say they're 'touchy'

I think it's good to speak up when able if somebody gets misgendered though?

Taco タコス

@AncientSwordRage Let me rephrase, where I live it's a touchy topic. People around here are, old fashioned. As such, the local community is behind the rest of the world on it, and rather divided. My apologies.

AncientSwordRage

@Tacoタコス ahhh RIIGHT gotcha

apologies

Taco タコス

@AncientSwordRage no, twas my assumption lol I have to remind myself that the rest of the world is more progressive than where I live. I failed to do that this morning

I'm still waking up

AncientSwordRage

1:36 PM

@Tacoタコス I mean maybe where I live (IRL) is even less progressive than where you live (IRL) but I have my SE head on which is where I live most of the time (I'll let you decide if that means I live in my head, or on SE)

Taco タコス

@AncientSwordRage perhaps both lol

@AncientSwordRage so maybe that tag wasn't as big of a hint as I thought?

AncientSwordRage

6

Q: "The man was either mad or both"

In the delightful Fry and Laurie sketch The Letter, several puns are expertly delivered by Stephen Fry, however there is one I don't understand. At 4:45 in the video, he says "The man was either mad, or both", and it seems this should be funny, but I don't get it. Where is the pun in this sentence?

meaning jokes puns

Taco タコス

5:04 PM

@BeastlyGerbil the mobius sudoku golfing challenge is live.

Avi

@oAlt hopefully - it seems to have flown under the radar :P

Taco タコス

6:55 PM

@MOehm I just genuinely wanted to know what the OPs intended answer was for that puzzle. The fact that my answer is considered “correct” by the OP as compared to the answer given by ExtraFishness shows that the puzzle lacked the cultural link I mentioned when stating that I didn’t like the “why”. The answer by ExtraFishness was correct in everything but the culture (Japanese vs Chinese), which is impossible to distinguish from the puzzle itself.

Sphinx

7:25 PM

0

Q: A cool clock puzzle

I have designed this clock puzzle for you to solve! 17:45 + 22:05 = 1510 20:55 - 17:30 = 35 06:40 * 19:20 = ?

mathematics calculation-puzzle formation-of-numbers number-theory

0

Q: A cool number puzzle

Another puzzle to solve! :) $5+3=28$ $7+3=?$

calculation-puzzle formation-of-numbers number-theory number-property

Stiv

8:58 PM

@AncientSwordRage Just to check - does your CCCC use an indirect anagram, implied by 'dressed'? e.g. LIAM for the ILAM in Jafe's earlier suggestion (thinking of the Gallagher brothers...)? I'm guessing it was his answer that was very close - FILAMENTS seems to be a nice fit in many other ways...

bobble

9:13 PM

An old comment, with a truly worrying sentiment - that 7 valid answers is a "good number"

The question has 6 answers disregarding mine. I think that's a good number. Now that I see these also good answers to my question, I can see my question is a bit broad! I was only in think of sleep when I was going to post it. But thank you for your advice. I try not to answer my own questions with such words in the future. @Randal'Thor — aminabzz Aug 12 '20 at 13:24

AncientSwordRage

@Stiv darn it. I did it again without realising 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

Yes that is correct

Sep 23 at 15:40, by Mithical

*lightly smacks ferret with a rolled up newspaper*

Stiv

Hey, it happens :)

bobble

This comment exchange led to me voting to close:

@aminabzz then I recommend adding more detail to your question to help add clarity. — Taco タコス 39 mins ago

I can't. It may spoil the answer. — aminabzz 29 mins ago

Stiv

So the intended wordplay is F (Female) + LIAM* (singer, dressed) + (-t)ENT + (-dres)S = FILAMENTS (def = 'strings')

AncientSwordRage

9:34 PM

@Stiv exactly as intended

Stiv

Okay, gotcha.

AncientSwordRage

@bobble fully agree

Stiv

The indirect anagram aside, I wonder whether 'singer' to LIAM is a bit too vague a definition? I rather stumbled upon it in the end. I'd been considering lots of mononymous singers, like Cher, Pink, Nas, Bono, Sting, etc. but nothing was turning up. It was only when I returned to an earlier remark in the thread about 'ILAM' that the possibility suggested itself to me!

Cool word to clue, though - and I really like 'strings' as the definition :)

Sharp, straightforward, and a callback to recent clues

AncientSwordRage

it was something I started looked at as an answer to a previous C4
: Female singer dressed....

Yes, it's a little vague, true

Perhaps I thought of it as Oasis was bigger here in the UK while they were active

Taco タコス

Almost asked a dumb question about the daily rep limit lol

Then I realized that accepted answers aren't included in the count.

@bobble I concur; initially VTC'd for lack of detail, but retracted after giving it a second thought and arriving at a conclusion. So, I can't help with the votes now lol

bobble

9:49 PM

Putting a comment on the Q explaining the problem would be helpful. I don't know how to word it right, but it would help any potential CV reviewer who doesn't take the time to look at the answer's comment chain.

AncientSwordRage

@bobble I got it

How's this, @bobble @Tacoタコス:

> It looks like there is at least one viable answer that is not correct by your intention when you set this puzzle. Because we can no longer assume any viable answer is what you intended, we're reduced to a "guess what I'm thinking" problem, which are not on-topic here.

bobble

Maybe throw in a link to the canonical post (puzzling.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1254/…), but other than that great!

AncientSwordRage

@bobble brilliant, I couldn't find that myself

Taco タコス

@bobble I second this lol

Stiv

10:06 PM

CCCC: Fictional isle ultimately overrun by wild lavender (9)

Taco タコス

Rep limit is reset at midnight UTC right?

bobble

noises of assent

Taco タコス

If so, I have two hours to finish creating my puzzle lol

Hoping others find this just as fun as I did lol

bobble

436 messages found

Taco タコス

@bobble lol

🤣

437

bobble

10:13 PM

@Stiv NEVERLAND - LAVENDER* with overruN "ultimately" in the front ("by" it)

I had quite some pain when I tried to anagram LAVENDAR... luckily only wasted two minutes or so on that

Stiv

@bobble Indeed :) Tag, you're it!

Taco タコス

10:37 PM

I think it's ready for public consumption. :)

How's this read as the objective of the puzzle:

> What is the highest score achievable by a single player? For your answer, you can assume the following; your opponent isn't making the most advantageous plays, the tiles you receive each turn are the most advantageous for your end goal, and the tiles your opponent receives each turn are the least advantageous for their goal.

Meh

Now that I think about it, the lack of context makes it hard to judge

bobble

Might be simplest to make the opponent's objective to fail miserably?

Taco タコス

I think that's why context matters

Sphinx

0

Q: Spin the letter-cogwheels!

Two rows of five horizontal cogwheels each are installed in a wall. Each cogwheel has five cogs protruding from the wall at any time. On each of these cogs is printed a single letter or a blank space. Thus, each row shows an adjustable line of text twenty-five characters long. By spinning each of...

pattern letters

Taco タコス

@bobble oh wait

I see what you're saying now

You're saying to simplify my statement that the opponent's objective is to fail miserably

bobble

Yeah, because there are a whole host of things that you can do which are not advantageous (I assume), and we need the opponent to act in a pre-determinable way

Taco タコス

10:43 PM

I concur :)

That turns it into:

> What is the highest score achievable by a single player? For your answer, you can assume the following: The tiles you receive each turn are the most advantageous for your goal. Your opponent's objective is to fail miserably. The tiles they receive each turn are the most advantageous for their goal.

In list format in the quesiton

bobble

Alternatively, their goal could be to help you as much as possible

(Whether that is a significant difference depends on context)

oAlt

@Avi :P

bobble

10:58 PM

CCCC: Seclusion of four in animated picture's introduction to start. (7)

Taco タコス

@bobble perhaps adding a final question of:

> How does the answer change if your opponent's objective (along with the tiles they receive) changes to assisting you in your goal?

Sphinx

11:31 PM

0

Q: Can you solve this sortpher?

(Sort-cipher, heh heh.) This is a follow-up to "Bees sting." = [1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 5, 6, 4] If, indeed, "Bees sting." = [1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 5, 6, 4], then can you reverse-engineer this sentence?: ??? ??? ?? ??????? ??????? ?????? ????????? ???? ??, ????, ??? ???, ? ?????; ??????, ?? ?????? ????. = ...

cipher pattern letters

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