The Sphinx's Lair

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Jafe

02:10

surely this is north islander, an anagram of "not the one said" with... something... replacing... something (i haven't figured it out)

looks like we'd need to get rid of t,e,o and find two r's and an l somewhere... not looking good on second thought

1 hour later…

Sphinx

03:20

Q: Professor Rackbrane: Count the triangles

Professor Rackbrane has just given me the following puzzle as an example of those that interested his party at Christmas. Draw a pentagon, and connect each point with every other point by straight lines, as in the diagram. How many different triangles are contained in this figure? To make it qui...

oAlt

04:19

@Jafe cc: @msh210 North Islander (New Zealander) = nor (and not) this (the one said) + wander replacing W (success, win) with L (failure, loss)

Nice spot with the North Islander though, I didn't think of that

And nice construction in "and not the one said to wander"

1 hour later…

msh210

05:26

@oAlt thanks! your solution was indeed my intended one

2 hours later…

oAlt

07:23

Sorry I got two more NZ clues

msh210

"Sorry"? That's great!

oAlt

CCCC: Moving back up, decent new New Zealand bridge (4)

Lol

msh210

07:36

Huh. There's a new NZ bridge called Kāeo, which is A-OK (decent) with the back K moved up… except that it also has an E instead of the hyphen. So I guess that doesn't work.

Jafe

when are they finally gonna build a bridge between old and new zealand

msh210

or hampshire

Do you think it would be fair to use "New Zealand bridge" to clue the letters WZ (since they're the ones that bridge the two words… sort of)?

Or maybe "South Haven bridge" to clue H?

Jafe

not sure i'd like that, although i can kinda see how those letters are what bridges the gap

there's a kopu bridge in nz

which is up, ok backwards

in which case i don't get what the first "new" is doing, the bridge is from the 1920s

ah no wait i didn't read deep enough, apparently they're building/have buit? a replacement recently

@msh210 i wonder whether a tunnel would be more feasible... of course neither option is like super feasible

oAlt

08:19

@Jafe yep, your turn

Jafe

CCCC: New Zealand's broadcast Big & Small (4)

oAlt

dang I should have made this a theme in a crossword... well no worries there's ~195 more options

@Jafe KIWI, key (big, important) wee (small) homophone

Jafe

yup

someone was gonna do it anyway

i see people scrubbing it off their clue backlogs

oAlt

Though it was the very simple "New Zealander's fruit" so no harm in not using

I'll go somewhere else

CCCC: Capital city's band's hue-shift (8)

Jafe

dushanbe = band's hue*

oAlt

08:28

yep

Jafe

CCCC: Capital city is kinda not great, hehe (7)

msh210

@Jafe bish, kek

Jafe

yep

or b-ish, however you wanna spell it

msh210

ahhh I thought you were going for bish ("(British, slang, dated) A mistake."). B-ish makes more sense.

Jafe

oh right

i actually checked that word in the dictionary first but couldn't think of how to make it work

oAlt

08:37

@Jafe Funny surface I like it

Jafe

thanks

msh210

08:47

CCCC: A capital city (Baku) is in a tizzy in anticipation of large commencement (5)

oAlt

@msh210 kabu* l_

msh210

@oAlt yes indeed

oAlt

CCCC: Be back in Central Asia (2)

Jafe

_is_<

oAlt

yes

Jafe

08:54

CCCC: What's inside many a bird is desire to bang (8)

msh210

I… suppose that's true.

Jafe

if i can't go one day without making some kind of innuendo clue i thought why make it subtle

oAlt

😭

msh210

Surely, many a bird eats iris-seed*. #GreatC4Solutions

Jafe

09:10

so that's why they keep trying to peck people's eyeballs

msh210

that's only the Australian ones

2 hours later…

Jafe

10:59

i got swooped by a magpie this summer, for the first time in 3 years here

which is good because if you apply for citizenship as a swooping virgin i assume they just immediately put it in the rejected pile

msh210

11:38

were you wearing something shiny?

Jafe

11:52

i wasn't looking especially fabulous, i think i just went too close to wherever its nest was

i've had like a few "warning" swoops but that was the only time it actually made contact (with my biking helmet, so no eyeball damage)

1 hour later…

oAlt

13:16

@Jafe wishbone = wish (desire) bone (to bang, in the context of intercourse)

Jafe

correct

oAlt

CCCC: A path to China from Afghanistan with a king getting awful while carrying a cup of gold (6 8)

gotta continue the theme from earlier

Jafe

13:38

this is surely the WAKHAN CORRIDOR from afghanistan to china... if cup can be c it could be W/ + A + K + H(AN + C)ORRID + OR

oAlt

@Jafe That's correct!

Jafe

almost had an alternative reading with king = khan and awful = 'orrid but it doesn't quite work :P

oAlt

(c = cup of)

Yeah I noticed the khan connection too haha

Sphinx

14:24

Q: Hard Numeric Puzzle Sequence: What comes next? 2759, 4248, 1152,?

Hard Numeric Puzzle Sequence: What comes next? 2759, 4248, 1152, ? Does anyone has a solution or any idea how to solve this? What is the pattern Thanks Richard

pattern sequence

Jafe

CCCC: She parks by novel way to Pakistan from Afghanistan (6,4)

<- a sucker for geography themes

juicifer

"she parks" must be ROSA

Jafe

she do be parks

Daniel S

14:46

@Jafe KHYBER PASS = (she parks by)*

Jafe

correct

Daniel S

CCCC: Team circumcision at unusual locality (the Yorkshire, instead of the French). (7, 4)

juicifer

is there a usual locality for a team circumcision

oAlt

15:03

That's just the hospital ig

3 hours later…

msh210

17:40

@DanielS bris + (la→t')olcity*

GentlePurpleRain

18:22

Nice! I had the "la -> t" and the "city" part, but I hadn't figured out the rest.

2 hours later…

Sphinx

20:09

Q: Rubik's 4x4x4 Cube - Is there a "pair of moves" view of parity algorithms?

When figuring out Rubik's cubes, there are a number of intuitive approaches that help and are (at least for me) satisfying as an approach. One of the most powerful ideas especially towards the end of a solve is the idea of a pair of moves (I'm not sure I've seen this articulated, but I can't imag...