The Sphinx's Lair

The surface reading relies on conTENT to retreat, the wordplay uses CONtent to retreat, though

@MOehm ADVENT = AD (PR announcement) + VENT (release) = coming

@Stiv Yep.

9:52 AM

Very topical!

Yeah. The lush advent decoration here probably made me unconsciously pick that one. Or the upcoming advent calendar. :)

Stevo

ahh, i was searching announcement with PR at the start, cause followind made me think...

10:26 AM

CCCC: LotR character eager to hold ring at last, ending in demise (6)

@Stiv GAMGEE = (rin)G in GAM.E + (demis)E, with an extended def.

i like how the surface describes a different character

Well, Sam's not eager, but at least tempted, no?

could be, it's been like 20 years since i read it... pretty sure he resists it like a badass in the films

Yeah, I haven't read it for quite some time, either. In any case, it's not his demise.

10:44 AM

Martin says: "Initially holding a follower of God, beautiful!" (9)

CHRISTMAS

Good clue?

so martin = CHRIS, says initially = S, that's holding A = CHRISAS... not sure i get where the TM comes from or what the def is

Stevo

11:09 AM

i guess goodnight!

11:19 AM

@MOehm That's the one, although as Jafe says I was aiming to define an entirely different character with the surface :) So no extended definition intended, more a Gollum-shaped distraction...

Yes. I've seen the error of my ways, but I had already written "extended def".

CCCC: Provoke online scheme after exchanging one part of a musical prank with another (5)

T(rick > ROLL)

@Jafe Yes. (I spare you the link.)

already heard it today in an uber driver's playlist

Oh, IRL rockrolling.

11:29 AM

no quick close option in that scenario, unless you really want to invade the guy's private space

CCCC: Swamp snake's skin (6)

(I wanted to clue "Stoned LotR character?", but "character" is a bit loose and the character is in The Hobbit, not LotR.)

hehe

11:41 AM

@Jafe slough ddef

that's right

CCCC: Tires deflate? Sadly, it's connected to a decrease in pressure (4,4,4)

12:21 PM

Fun fact: 12! ≈ half a billion (or half a milliard if you're British and over a certain age).

@Jafe Actually, "follower of" is supposed to mean "goes after"

Christ+ M(A)S

The wordplay works afaict (good job) but I don't see how the definition does.

Christmas is beautiful, right?

Ankoganit

Definitions need to more specific

A good rule of thumb is if you can replace the word with its definition in a sentence, it's probably a good definition

yeah beautiful = christmas doesn't work, beautiful is an adjective and christmas is a noun

Ankoganit

12:28 PM

(without changing the meaning, of course)

(also what jafe said)

12:52 PM

Hmmmm

1:31 PM

@Jafe I love these clues, I'm not sure if anybody noticed, but Charles Richard Wilson (who goes by Ricky) is the lead singer of Kaiser Chiefs, but Ricky Wilson is a member of The B52s, who sang Rock Lobster, another name for Crawdads

I definitely overegged that one

2:33 PM

You don't want to overegg your crawdads.

2 hours later…

4:11 PM

@msh210 you can still write that here if you want, at the very least I think @Mithical could read it, or you could repost in English if you preferred

Mithical

4:21 PM

I actually don't speak Yiddish

1 hour later…

5:47 PM

@Mithical ahhh ok, I know Yiddish and Hebrew are related (and I'm assuming you can read Hebrew?), but I didn't recognise anything but the script

Mithical

They're related, yes. I can read Hebrew, muddle my way through Aramaic, and sound stuff out in Yiddish.

6:32 PM

@AncientSwordRage They're not technically related (Yiddish is a Germanic language whereas Hebrew is Semitic), but Yiddish has borrowed quite a few words from Hebrew and uses roughly the same script.

Any ideas toward the C4? I imagine one hurdle should be pretty easily cleared, leaving one more.

6:57 PM

Well, this looks a lot like (TIRES DEFLATE)* and there's FLAT right there.

7:26 PM

@Mithical ahhh now I know

@msh210 that's cool! I mainly suggesting to encourage other to post these sorts of messages (partly so when I do mine it doesn't look out of place 😜)

@MOehm REST and DIED as well but nothing else I can see

Also I'm wondering if it's about altitude/pressure not stress pressure so RISE is in there too

It could also be an anagram of deflates after a synonym of tires, for example flags.

FLAG LATE FEDS clearly ™

Well, the S must be part of FLAGS. Of course, "tires" could be the def.

@MOehm true, but it's 4,4,4 not 5,4,3

Yes, I know. But the second word could start with an S, no?

7:56 PM

@AncientSwordRage new.wordsmith.org/anagram/…

… fwiw.

@MOehm true!

8:11 PM

@msh210 23 involving FLAT

7 involving RISE

23 with FLAT versus only 7 with RISE? How depressing.

@msh210 It's a let down

> it's connected to a decrease in pressure

HOLE or HOSE?

Q: Find two integers based on their sum and a random number

8:54 PM

Alice, Bob and Charlie play a game. Alice writes down two positive integers on a blackboard visible to Bob and Charlie. She says that one of them is of her own choice, the other number is the sum of two positive integers, which were secretly communicated before by Bob and Charlie, respectively. N...

mathematics logical-deduction

Q: How many seats around the table?

9:44 PM

This puzzle is very much inspired by a recent, excellent, one, posted here. If anyone, in particular the author of the other puzzle, prefers this one to disappear, I will immediately do so and I apologize already beforehand for plagiarism (as I am rather new here on this nice exchange but perhaps...

mathematics logical-deduction story probability

mathematics calculation-puzzle

10:34 PM

Q: Reversible number problem

This are the reversible numbers In this example we have an operation that on one side gives the result 6 and turning it gives it 12. Is it possible using reversible numbers and mathematical operations +, - , * to find a solution for: 2021 and 1202 2022 and 2202

1 hour later…