The Sphinx's Lair

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Gareth McCaughan

01:18

CCCC hint: First letter is C.

@GarethMcCaughan I realise that the second part of that comment is stupid because ASR specifically said "and then clue SIDE separately"; sorry about that.

3 hours later…

AncientSwordRage

04:15

@GarethMcCaughan CRWTH is a stringed instrument, and three's a crowd, making this a DDEF

Jafe

04:55

aha!

i looked at three=crowd but i wanted to make it C (string, in some instruments) plus ROWD and there's no instrument named rowd

Jafe

05:34

when a welsh virtuoso plays a solo, the crowd goes wild

msh210

@AncientSwordRage nicely found

juicifer

yeah well done

4 hours later…

Sphinx

10:13

Q: i need help to see why the answer to a cryptic clue is..gentle

The cryptic clue is a tender trap. The answer is "gentle". I can't see the trap reference. Can somebody help me to see it, please?

cryptic-crosswords

1 hour later…

AncientSwordRage

11:14

@msh210 I'll wait for confirmation though

After ETHER I'm not confident in anything 😅

Jafe

11:35

hehe

Parcly Taxel

Jafe

@ParclyTaxel hi

Gareth McCaughan

12:14

@AncientSwordRage Yup! CROWD is it. Well done. I hope you do agree that this answer is a better fit than the many others that were proposed :-).

Jafe

that it is

although i was almost convinced by ETHER where "stringed" would have been "[preceding letters] made into a (different) string" :P

an example of everything being a possible anagrind, i suppose

AncientSwordRage

CCCC: According to facts: Alien knocked over by chin punch, dropping swag from rascal. (11)

Sat on that a while, hope it's enjoyed :)

@GarethMcCaughan It's very good, nothing else seemed to quite fit, but I'll admit it's an unusal word for sure

Sphinx

Q: Be Paired or Be Square

8 white and 8 black dots are drawn on a piece of paper. Parcly and Tori take turns drawing edges between white and black dots not already adjacent (so the graph is always bipartite); the first player to complete a 4-cycle (square) loses. If Parcly starts first, who has a winning strategy and how ...

mathematics strategy game graph-theory

AncientSwordRage

13:03

@ParclyTaxel heya!

Jafe

@AncientSwordRage TE< + CHNI* + (-s)CALLY(-wag)

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe yup!

I thought that might last longer 🤔

Jafe

it's often difficult to judge

CCCC: Three-stringed instrument for a dog running back to meet a famous member of its species (9)

that cccc link always displays wrong for like half a second which is enough to give me the heebie-jeebies every time

Mithical

Should really post a new version of that message that works better as a link

CCCC is Cryptic Clue Chat Chains! Latest clue is pinned on the starboard! Join the fun! See Deusovi's Cryptic Clue Guide and GPR's Archive & Statistics of past clues.

Jafe

updated that one place where i always copy the link from [x]

too late to edit the current one, though

Mithical

13:13

diamond powers go brrrrr

Jafe

unlimited powerrrrrrr

Parcly Taxel

@AncientSwordRage Been quite a while – my latest question is rather peanuts compared to the actual research I'm doing. I am also working on the 3×3 and 4×4 versions of Zarankiewicz

The MSE question that started it all dealt with the 3×3 case, so I worked on that first

I hope I have provided enough detail, for I went crazy over having made the first progress on the 3×3 case since 1967 (and other advancements too)

AncientSwordRage

@Mithical beat me to it

...we are the crystal gems...

@ParclyTaxel I'll be honest I rarely check main... I'll need to look into that later

Stiv

@Jafe BALALAIKA = (A LAB)< + LAIKA

Jafe

@Stiv that's right

Stiv

13:30

Only just learned that Sputnik 2 burned up on reentry. Meaning no disrespect to dog owners (or dogs), that is one expensive cremation...

AncientSwordRage

14:00

Not all space dogs though, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmo_the_Spacedog

Jafe

14:33

feature film coming up in phase eleven

8 hours later…

Sphinx

22:07

Q: Three lines to get twenty triangles

Shown below are five squares. Starting at any point, draw three straight lines without lifting the pen, and create exactly twenty (20) triangles. It is understood that this will create some other shapes also. Bonus question: What is the maximum number of triangles you can get with the 3 continu...