The Sphinx's Lair

AncientSwordRage

12:46 AM

@Sphinx you've not made it on PSE until you've had a bobble edit

Also, was that enough of a parody?

Chris Cudmore

Not really. Just your basic sequence puzzle.

OP should at least multiple choice the answer to make it look like an IQ puzzle

Beastly Gerbil

@AncientSwordRage probably not a huge enough parody, in the end it is sorta just a number sequence with a bit of a twist, theres not really another puzzle type hidden anywhere within

AncientSwordRage

Ahh well, never mind 🙃

I might remove the challenge header

Beastly Gerbil

The idea def has potential to be a parody, off the top of my head you could have done something like the next number being 'B4A' in base 13, and then having to take the numbers or letters before the letter A to spell something out, and that way you'd get steganography in there as a different puzzle type

But yeah, probably as it stands it works the same as most other normal number sequences, although I do like the idea of having to work out the introduction of letters all of a sudden

Sphinx

1:37 AM

0

Q: Sequence of numbers - what comes next?

What is the next number in this sequence, and why? 4 2 3 4 6 2 4 8 3 _? Also, since people here find sequence questions to be arbitrary, the following uses the same rule. What number is next? 4 5 6 4 4 8 9 2 2 9 3 9 4 3 4 4 4 6 2 _? Attribution: Me. I wrote this, and expect it to be answered fai...

M Oehm

4:20 AM

@ChrisCudmore Yes, that's correct.

Sphinx

4:53 AM

0

Q: What would this number be? This is all the context I have, and this is solvable supposedly

Welcome To Floor Negative One. Each number is the sum of the previous two numbers. Start from C @ 1, 6 long. At the end of the chain, every letter resets the count. Spaces exempt.

number-sequence

M Oehm

@AncientSwordRage: I've seen that you have poasted a hint for the "Three people in France" puzzle. (Or a non-hint, at least to me. I don't find it particularly helpful.)

I had looked at that puzzle earlier, and my only idea was that if the thing alledgedly given to the poor was a brioche and the three were in one of the places n France called Roche, the'd all three be bi. (But -scuit isn't anything on their table, as far as I can see.)

("posted", even.)

whiskrs

9:41 AM

Two favo[u]rite Suomen words, both made up

Täällämme: We are here
Meillämme: Together

No language is off limits
Learn Suomi from a lurjus; correct me if i'm luptusxxxlauri
Those words might show up in a crossword

whiskrs

9:59 AM

("luptus" is bone-Helsinki derisive, my native language)

Sphinx

10:37 AM

0

Q: Pseudo Roman Cipher

A while ago, I made this puzzle and gave it to my friend. But his comment was not so good. "This looks fine except it's not realistic", he said. I know he is smart but ... :( I don't want to believe that. Anyway, what do you think about this puzzle?

enigmatic-puzzle visual grid-deduction

AncientSwordRage

10:48 AM

@MOehm you've got one part right, the place they are is unfortunately obscure, so not Roche.

@MOehm I didn't want to give too much away in my first hint

Stiv

11:17 AM

@MOehm My thoughts on this puzzle were that they are all rot13(evpu, tvivat n 'evpu GRN' ovfphvg, bar bs gurz orvat SVYGUL evpu, naq gur OevBpuR yrnqvat gb guvf cynpr va Senapr: link). However, I can't make the second half work yet... There's a LOT of unknowns here, and I can't work out if 'place of birth' is a country, town or a type of building...

M Oehm

Oh, that's better, @Stiv. Quite promising, even, and it fits with ASR/PF's comment above.

@AncientSwordRage Aha, thanks. I think Stiv has a better way in to the second part. (The few Roches in France seem to be rather small with fewer inhabitants than the place Stiv suggested. I guess that La Rochelle, the "little Roche" is better known than either.)

(I just picked Roche, because it sounded like a plausible name for a place in France. And now that I've seen the clarification, I was on the wrong track all along: I didn't consider adding something could lead to an expression with several words and therefore would have thought that "it" would appear three times in the letter pool, which encouraged me: Bibi is a likely nickname.)

AncientSwordRage

12:33 PM

@Stiv I may have made this too hard

But you're on the right track

I'll have to learn from this for my next "who's the time traveller" question

Chris Cudmore

CCCC: A self important person has all the awards? (7)

AncientSwordRage

1:00 PM

Clearly™ this is 'Hug(e eg)o' but the EGG (eggheads are probably self important) has been misspelled...

msh210

@ChrisCudmore EGOTist ddef

Chris Cudmore

1:14 PM

@msh210 Yup.

msh210

1:39 PM

CCCC: Ma, pa, household go on destination. Man's formaldehyde, music add farce! (2,3,4,3,6,4,3,2,3,6,3,2,6,2,3)

:-D

Chris Cudmore

Good God.

For those playing at home, total enumeration is 52.

Which is the length of the clue, minus 'farce' Semi &lit anagram maybe?

Jafe

full &lit, i'd reckon... farce is the indicator

juicifer

is this a clue or a memoir?

Jafe

maybe it's Oh Dad, Poor Dad - Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad

although mama's is 5 letters not 6, and feeling is 7 letters not 6

Mithical

Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad

Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur Kopit. == Background == Kopit was on a postgraduate scholarship from Harvard University when he entered the play in a playwriting contest. The play won the contest and an undergraduate production at Harvard, and gained the notice of the Phoenix Theatre in New York. Kopit explained: "I had been writing short stories, and I was having a lot of trouble with the narrative point of view. When I wrote a play, I found that I lost myself...

Jafe

1:51 PM

ah no wait it's mamma's and feelin'

my bad!

so yeah &lit anagram of all that, with "farce" being the anagram indicator

Chris Cudmore

Well, all the letters check out as an anagram of "ma ... ... add" so I'm pretty confident it's correct with the exception of the apostrophes.

msh210

@Jafe there you go!

Chris Cudmore

How in the name of heck did you find that?

Jafe

searched for musicals with long names :P

msh210

well done

Chris Cudmore

1:58 PM

and msh210, how did you make the anagram?

oAlt

@msh210 oh my gosh that enumeration

msh210

@ChrisCudmore painstakingly

(by hand)

Well, that's a lie.

Chris Cudmore

Had to be by hand. Qat and Anagram server just barf on that string.

Jafe

nice clue

msh210

I picked out some good candidate words to make the remainder shorter, and then used an anagrammer.

@Jafe thanks

juicifer

1:59 PM

a shame you couldn't include the subtitle too

Jafe

i'm not familiar with the plot but i assume formaldehyde plays a role

CCCC: A way to move your body to avoid being transported by underworld ferryman (10)

msh210

@Jafe the dad is preserved. I'm guessing formaldehyde was used somehow; I don't honestly know.

Jafe

right

Chris Cudmore

From Wikipedia: Plot: Described by the author as a "farce in three scenes", the story involves an overbearing mother who travels to a luxury resort in the Caribbean, bringing along her son and her deceased husband, preserved and in his casket.

juicifer

@Jafe char(lest)on

Jafe

2:01 PM

darn, i was sure that would take longer!

that's correct

msh210

wait, you're redoing the state capitals?

Jafe

that was a leftover hehe

juicifer

I did have to look up charon's name because I couldn't remember but everything else clicked into place pretty quickly