The Sphinx's Lair

Random C4 thoughts: There are some other possible Rings here, assuming "Composer of Ring" is parsed as one unit. The Royal Albert Hall is shaped as an ellipse, which is seven letters long but doesn't seem to fit the clue. It's also possible that "Royal Albert Hall" isn't meant to be parsed as one unit.

And "unveiled" might imply that the previous or next word/s have their first and last letters removed

M Oehm

7:50 AM

Interesting ...

Stiv

...and camping is done. Here's my thoughts on the C4: an 'unveiled half note' would be (-m)INI(-m), a useful 3 letter sequence that appears in the names of several composers for one thing (e.g. Rossini, Bellini, Puccini, Tartini), and also lends itself to appearing in words that end in '...inist', '...inic', or '...inial'. This last one would also use AL, an abbreviation for Albert.

Since 'royal' can also be abbreviated to 'R' there is a possibility that 'Royal Albert Hall' is not one unit but 3, maybe with 'Hall' being the def.

But I don't have an actual answer yet.

oAlt

8:11 AM

Bellini seems so near yet so far. "Composer of ring" being "bell" is possible, but even if that were the case, that will make the whole clue an &lit, which cannot be ("who unveiled" should be there rather than just "unveiled"). Also, to ring is definitely not to bell, and even if it were it would leave the "Royal Albert Hall" part unused.

Stiv

I'm leaning towards this being VIRGINIA, which follows the recent Zodiac theme (VIRGo...) but am trying to parse the wordplay...

oAlt

And it wouldn't make sense anyway for "Bellini" to somehow be "Royal Albert Hall" if the clue weren't an &lit

Stiv

Because of this person

oAlt

@Stiv that's eight letters though D:

Stiv

Yes.

Yes it is.

I am no longer leaning towards that...

M Oehm

8:16 AM

You can replace the VI with the digit 6 to bring it down to 7. :)

To relieve my bad conscience about that clue, I'll say that I made an 11th-hour addition that I thought would improve the (still not so good) surface reading. In hindsight, that made the whole clue only less approachable.

I'll also say that the two of you are very close and have already found the correct answer.

Stiv

@MOehm Perhaps then the answer is BELLINI (composer) = BELL (ring) + (-m)INI(-m), where 'in Royal Albert Hall?' is an indicator that we are looking specifically for the British term for a half-note, which is a minim...

M Oehm

@Stiv Yes, that was the idea.

oAlt

:000

Stiv

Aha!

oAlt

So then ring here is in the noun sense, I'm assuming? :0

Stiv

8:22 AM

I've heard of 'bell' being used as a verb before...

M Oehm

Yes, I was meant as a verb, see def 2 here. I've seen it used in crosswords, but I generally don't like it much, but the "Composer of Ring" was too tempting.

I also was kinda lucky that the famous Bandini is a racing driver, not a composer. I only chacked that after posting.

oAlt

@MOehm Ooh :00 (I confess I've never heard of that usage.)

@MOehm lucky indeed

M Oehm

Yeah, if I try to make sentences with that usage, it always sound unnatural to me.

Stiv

8:51 AM

CCCC: Acceptable in Tokyo (2)

oAlt

@Stiv OK substring :DD

Stiv

@oAlt Of course :)

oAlt

CCCC: Chief puzzler in PSE is filled with energy and drops one answer (4)

msh210

9:27 AM

@oAlt J(a)(E)FE

Jafe

hehehe this is J(-a)FE filled with E = JEFE (chief)

sniped

oAlt

Sniped ahahah

@msh210 correct ofc :D

Jafe

9:44 AM

i like the idea of a chief puzzler hehe

like everyone's in a super official stack exchange fundraiser with glasses of champagne in hand and the host announces "and now a speech from PSE's Chief Puzzler"

oAlt

@Jafe Lolll

msh210

10:17 AM

CCCC: Composer of Ring is no longer happy with broadcast (6)

1 hour later…

oAlt

11:25 AM

If "no longer happy" can somehow mean "sour" and "with" can somehow mean "on", I think "sour on" can be a homophone ("broadcast") of SAURON, who, according to Wikipedia and LotR lore, forged this magical (and quite evil) ring called the One Ring. But I'm 90% sure that's not the intended answer.

M Oehm

Why not? That sounds pretty promising to me.

msh210

@oAlt I'm 100% sure it is the intended answer. Or close enough, anyway. See "sour on" in m-w.com, definition 1, which it calls a verb, but defines as a sort of preposition "having a bad opinion of".

(I think a better definition would be "having a bad opinion of, despite formerly having had a better opinion of," which would match my clue better. But who am I to argue with the dictionary.)

oAlt

@MOehm 90% was an overestimate, looking back. Just wasn't sure of "on" meaning "with" (though as it turns out that wasn't msh's intention).

@msh210 TIL

CCCC: A guy you just don't endorse from the very beginning invites you to compose a song for someone who's feeling down. (3, 4)

M Oehm

12:00 PM

That's HE + Y... J... (U) D... E...

oAlt

@MOehm yup!

M Oehm

(And the correct enumeration is 2-2-2-2-2-2-3: NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NAH!)

Jafe

12:41 PM

not to be confused with (2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,6) which is the batman theme song

M Oehm

12:57 PM

CCCC: Unexpected fortune is essentially gone in not quite ten thousand years (7)

msh210

@MOehm b(_on_)anza(i)

1 hour later…

M Oehm

2:04 PM

@msh210 Yes.

Sphinx

Q: Wednesday's Fujisan Problem

Four Shinto Priests have traveled from their various prefectures in pilgrimage to the top of Mount Fuji. You must find pathways for them to move up and down the mountain until they can all achieve the peak. Often, this will require you to guide them into positions from which they can assist each ...

dominoes

msh210

2:27 PM

@MOehm Google helped me there: I searched for ⟨10000 years⟩, immediately found "banzai", and therefore knew the solution.

Sphinx

2:56 PM

Q: Avoiding arithmetic progressions in square grids

a) Is it possible to place the integers 1 to 25 in a 5 x 5 grid so that no column or row contains an increasing or decreasing 3-term arithmetic progression (A.P.)? b) Can this be done in a 6 x 6 grid with integers 1 to 36? Note: Rows or columns can contain numbers which belong to an A.P. but not ...

mathematics number-theory

msh210

CCCC: Composer of Ring is buried, e.g., in sepulcher? (7)

oAlt

3:36 PM

"Sepulcher" according to MW has the archaic meaning of "bury", but I don't know if that's relevant.

M Oehm

@msh210 I had to google it, too. I was under the impression that it meant only one thousand years. The answer itself comes from an old joke: How many A's are there in Bonanza? Let me count (on my fingers): Bam-bada-bam-bada-bam [snip] bam-bam-baah!

5 hours later…

Parcly Taxel

8:45 PM

I have an actual quickie IQ question for you

Q: puzzle - missing number in a triangle pattern

Find the missing number ? It's a question from an IQ test. I tried to solve it in that way: [(7 + 4 + 1 + 7 + 3 + 3) - 1)] ÷ 2 = 12 And [(7 + 5 + 8 + 1 + 4 + 2) - 1)] ÷ 2 = 13 So, when we apply the same for the third triangle, we get x = 8,5. Although, the value I got is not cited in the options....

puzzle pattern-recognition pattern-matching

AncientSwordRage

The only other magic ring I can think of atm is the Magician from The Magician's Nephew

Parcly Taxel

What should x be there

AncientSwordRage

Oh and Celebrimbor

Parcly Taxel

(74, 17, 33) -> 12; (75, 81, 42) -> 13; (44, 33, 22) -> ?

(options given: 10, 12, 14, 16, 18)

AncientSwordRage

9:36 PM

@ParclyTaxel I'm seeing patterns but nothing that fits

12*7 -10 = 74; 13*7 -10 = 81...

1 hour later…

Sphinx

10:50 PM

Q: Stepney Community Trust

There are 47 words/phrases hidden in this grid, Boggle-style. (This means that adjacent letters in the word/phrase must be adjacent in the grid, including diagonally, but the word/phrase as a whole need not be in a straight line; and that a single instance of a letter in the grid cannot be used ...