The Sphinx's Lair

12:36 AM

@bobble I think this (the question) probably needs a tidy up

As in the number of answers

1:14 AM

Please do not answer questions which are off-topic per our attribution policy; that policy is in place to prevent cheating and plagiarism. (In particular this question follows a pattern of copy-pasting poor-quality questions off of Indian banking-exam test-prep sites) — bobble 3 hours ago

@bobble this Q has needed one more CV for a while

oAlt

2:04 AM

@AncientSwordRage NORTHUMBERLAND = NORLAND (Miami Gardens neighborhood) containing THUMBER (hitchhiker). The Northumberland Hussars' headquarters was in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which was part of the (historical, not modern) region of Northumberland.

Only issue is that garden ≠ Gardens, but since the clue was not that hard I'll let it pass. :00

msh210

2:42 AM

@oAlt nicely found

oAlt

2:56 AM

Thx

Admittedly I didn't even know at first that "hitchhiker" had a synonym lol

msh210

3:16 AM

@oAlt I was guessing that it was going to clue FORD or the like.

Konchog

4:59 AM

@bobble, I believe I have enough information to solve - and I am puzzled as to why people found this so hard. If you consider that the word “car” is often derived from “wheel” (we have it as a slang word), it’s easy enough to find via Google translate that in Sesotho the word for car is ‘Koloi’ - and the word for wheel is ‘Kolo’.

…. Google “traffic warning sign with wiggly lines coming from car” is enough. Indeed you don’t need the car- just traffic warning sign with wiggly lines or wavy lines is enough.

.... hence I am surprised that anyone struggled given the level if genius one finds on PE.

AncientSwordRage

5:19 AM

@oAlt correct!

@oAlt I shall do my best to not let it happen again 🥺

oAlt

6:05 AM

@AncientSwordRage no pressure

CCCC: Before the leaders of rural Ottawa (not to be confused with a certain city in Canada) (7)

Sphinx

8:35 AM

0

Q: Words for Small Sets

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #1: Restricted Title: xkcd 1xxx More like Words for Sets of Small, hah! Intrusion [3] Aurora [2] Consortium [2] Sord [1] Convocation [1] Maelstrom [3] What am I? Checking your answer (Hint):

AncientSwordRage

@oAlt I have Ontario – (Ont+a)* +rio (Rio, a certain city), but that ignores the obvious R_ O_ rural Ottawa

oAlt

@AncientSwordRage not my intention. :0 the definition won't also work; I've learned that at the very least a noun phrase rather than an adjective phrase should be used (so "it's in Canada" could work, but not "in Canada")

AncientSwordRage

9:09 AM

@oAlt I've not see the same thing but I can dig that

oAlt

mm

@Sphinx interesting puzzle

AncientSwordRage

@Konchog did you want to workshop your Raining Cephalopods question?

Not saying I'm free to help but, if you wanted ask for help making it less broad, here would be the place. Or meta

Sphinx

9:52 AM

0

Q: Nothing complicated, just a simple principle

You're infront of a rather odd eight ball pool table with the holes covered up such that the whole table is perfectly flat. It has unusual inner dimensions, 9 and 26, with all balls (1-15) with radius 1 and lighter than usual (except the white ball) You rack it up and you're just to about to mak...

mathematics enigmatic-puzzle rebus

Sphinx

10:17 AM

0

Q: 1,1,1,-17,? What's the next number and what's the pattern

1,1,1,-17,? What is the pattern and what number comes next

mathematics logical-deduction calculation-puzzle

Jafe

10:54 AM

@oAlt TO can mean "before" (two minutes to midnight), so i think this is TO+R_+O_+NTO*

oAlt

@Jafe Correct! :D

Jafe

yay

CCCC: For example, oAlt here, in a city in Canada (6)

oAlt

Lolll

@Jafe I think that's REG (regular? I'm not familiar with that usage) + IN A; capital of Saskatchewan, Canada

Konchog

11:20 AM

@AncientSwordRage, yes sure - I’m currently ill with Covid (caught 48 hours ago) so am not at my best.

oAlt

Oh, nvm. I retract the question mark. Apparently "reg" is indeed slang for "a regular" (a frequent visitor to a certain place) according to Wiktionary.

Also, get well soon and get lots of rest Konchog :00

Jafe

@oAlt correct!

oAlt

CCCC: Quiet year – in the middle of card game (7)

Sphinx

0

Q: Checkmate N Kings with M Knights Perfectly

We have this Existing Puzzle which has got the valid and invalid cases listed ; the Accepted Answer is along the lines of what is invalid and what is valid. But there was a flaw or fault in the Puzzle (not in the Answer, which satisfies the given Conditions) which has been corrected now, by addin...

optimization chess checkerboard

msh210

11:36 AM

@oAlt I'm guessing there must be a card game named p yr amid.

… and a Web search assures me there is.

oAlt

@msh210 correct! In fact, Wikipedia lists two card games with that name :0

Neither of which I know of, but anyway

Puzzling Meta

1

Q: Best puzzles of 2022 Q2 (April - June)

This question is part of the best-puzzle award series What are your nominations for the best puzzles, here on Puzzling.SE, of the second quarter ( April / May / June ) 2022? Suggested guidelines for nomination: Nominate each individual puzzle in a separate answer, so they can be upvoted/dow...

discussion best-of

Sphinx

12:00 PM

0

Q: What is the two word answer?

I can be a number Take away one, it is the same number Take away two, it is the same number Take away three it is another number Take away four, back to the original number Take away five, it is the same number What am I?

word

Sphinx

1:19 PM

0

Q: Guess the secret number

I think of a 2-digit secret number XY, where X is the first digit (non-zero) and Y is the second digit. You can make guesses to find it. If your guess is correct then the game finishes. Otherwise after a guess AB, I will tell you the result of $|A-X|+|B-Y|$. What is the minimum number of guesses ...

strategy

bobble

2:12 PM

@Konchog it may be easy to get to the intended answer. That is never what I was arguing against. It is just too west to get to unintended answers as well. You can argue all day about how simple the path to the answer your want is, but that doesn't change that many other simple answers were found as well.

Also, I just woke up - Pacific time

Information embedded in the question proper is not only to lead people to the correct answer, but also to lead them away/invalidate any and all unintended answers.

At this point it might be too late for that question, though, since we also have policies against invalidating pre-existing answers.... I'll plug for this meta post of mine

14

A: Re-asking a question when an unintended answer is given

Okay, since it's been a day I'll post my thoughts for voting. I think that re-asking a question with a different phrasing is good, provided that the new phrasing removes ambiguity and invalidates the unintended answer. We often have questions which are not specific enough with their initial phras...

bobble

3:15 PM

@bobble weird typo... west -> easy

msh210

4:09 PM

CCCC: Harder pitching protégé who played in Rev. Spooner's revolving hotel (5,4)

Konchog

4:58 PM

I’m still confused. I mean the title ‘raining cephalopods’ - I thought it was a good clue itself. After all what do you think driving over cephalopods would be like?

Sphinx

5:09 PM

1

Q: Upside-Down Map

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #1: Restricted Title: xkcd 1xxx. The streets and addresses are fictional. It's your friend again; they've moved to a new address (you already know city and country), and they've sent you another email: Hey! You were pretty quick solving the las...

enigmatic-puzzle visual story

bobble

5:19 PM

@Konchog are you still arguing that it's possible to get to the intended answer from non-hint parts of the question, or are you arguing that the intended answer is clearly correct/no others fit?

AncientSwordRage

7:36 PM

@Konchog if the question was "what number am I thinking of" there's lots of potentially correct answers, even if there's only one correct/obvious answer. The answer should be almost certain they are correct when they get it and not encouraged to post guess-answers. Because people do and will.

Sphinx

0

Q: Can anyone explain the link?

I had a crossword clue: They're neat! The answer was "Oxen" I cannot see the link?