The Sphinx's Lair

bobble

00:21

@Sphinx this feels too open-ended; I anticipate arguments over which answers count...

AncientSwordRage

01:04

CCCC: I hear without art gallery, it's a let down! (7)

@bobble I'm inclined to agree

oAlt

01:57

Put into a system of symbols without art gallery (6)

Jafe

05:34

@oAlt no Tate hehe

7 clues left for the next gladys puzzle but prolly won't have time to finish it today

it's a triangular crossword

oAlt

interesting

@Jafe ye :)

oAlt

05:53

"washout" and "failure" could be letdowns

it could be someone who hears minus "Tate" giving something that lets down and also ends in "er" like "bummer" or "downer"

though ofc there are loads of other possibilities for this art gallery

msh210

isn't "ain't got no Louvre" a homophone for a word meaning "a letdown"?

a 7-letter one, no less

engaluv

Jafe

without art, gallery is clearly louvre without l'oeuvre

2

msh210

ASR is British, I think, so I guess Tate is more likely than, e.g., Met or MOMA.

Or "gallery" can be an anagrind (indicating a gallery of the component letters).

ahhhh… it's FAILING (=a let down), as (AILING FART (=I hear, unfortunately) without ART)*

sorry, I'll stop

Jafe

06:21

tate is only in thr UK in the real world

in crypticland, it's partially stateside

msh210

haha!

PDT

07:04

Hello everyone, I am thinking of dropping another hint for my most recent puzzle (puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/126235/use-your-fingers ) but I am not sure what might actually be helpful. For those here who have attempted it , could you please tell me where exactly you are getting stuck. I would like to know thanks.

msh210

07:47

A puzzle that I don't think worthy of posting on the site, so I'll post it here.
What comes next in this sequence?
I, G, E, C, A, ?
Answer: rot13(Na rdhnyvgl fvta. Gurfr ner nfpvv punenpgref va erirefr beqre, tbvat qbja ol gjbf.)

Sphinx

08:08

1

Q: Make a square table top with the minimal needed amount of straight cuts

inspired by : Make a square table top with six (or fewer) pieces A man had three pieces of beautiful wood, measuring 12 inches, 15 inches, and 16 inches square respectively. He wanted to use them to make a small square table top 25 inches by 25 inches, using as few straight cuts as possible. How ...

msh210

08:55

@PDT hadn't looked at it until today, but, now that I have, I don't know where to begin. I'm guessing some or more of the following may be relevant, but that's as far as I've gotten. But then I never claimed to any good – at all – at this type of thing.

Cu zber guna frira svir gjb fbhaqf yvxr jr arrq gb rapbqr be qrpbqr fbzrguvat va onfr svsgl gjb, juvpu V fhccbfr zhfg or n gb m naq gura gur fnzr va pncf, be znlor pncf svefg. Gur yvar k rdhnyf mreb vf pyrneyl uvtuyvtugrq juvpu znxrf zr guvax bs n fhofgvghgvba, gung vf fhofgvghgr mreb jvgu k be ivpr

irefn. Nynf gurer vf arvgure n mreb abe na k va gur yvfgrq frdhrapr. Gung gurer'f n fvk arkg gb gur zvqqyr cvpgher ohg abg arkg gb gur bguref pbashfrf zr - vqx jurgure vg nccyvrf gb gur guerr gbtrgure be gb gur zvqqyr bar. Be znlor gb gur gbc gjb, juvpu ner frcnengrq sebz gur ynfg ol n ubevm yvar.

Mithical

@msh210 how'd you sleep? :)

msh210

@Mithical heh

no air-raid sirens where I was, personally

I may have missed the news, but the only personal injury I heard of from last night's Iranian air raids was that one 10-year-old boy was seriously injured near Arad. Praying for his recovery

Mithical

09:15

@msh210 unfortunately can't say the same

msh210

Correction — I see now that the media say it was a 7-year-old girl, not a 10-year-old boy.

PDT

@msh210 thanks for the valuable feedback. But wow you are way off, I didn’t realize the clues could mislead to that extent.

msh210

@PDT like I said, I never claimed to be any good at this

PDT

@msh210 good to know. I think Stiv is like the opposite, with these kinds of puzzles if he told me he is struggling then I know I made it way too hard.

msh210

09:34

@PDT V qb frr gung gurer jrer gjb pnylcfbavnaf jvgu fgntr anzrf Ebnevat Yvba naq Ybeq Xvgpurare, juvpu ner lbhe gbc-evtug gjb cvpgherf.

AncientSwordRage

10:19

Someone is very close, but I expected this to be gotten by now....

oAlt

10:30

Hmmm

If Tate is really involved then I'm not seeing what this is

msh210

@oAlt I was thinking maybe "I hear" = some verb ending with -tate (even though it's not really a verb)… and then you take out Tate to get a letdown… but I can't find anything like that

msh210

13:23

a letdown is a drag… can art gallery as a verb be to pin (something to the wall)??? … then without PIN, DRAG yields DRAPING, and a draping without an art gallery is a letdown &lit. … … … yeah, I don't think this is it

(besides the weakness of all the steps I did mention, there's the _un_mentioned "I hear")

oAlt

13:49

I'm wondering which one was the very close

Gareth McCaughan

14:48

@PDT rot13(Fheryl "onfr 52" unf gb or pbeerpg rira vs gur erfg bs jung zfu210 fnlf vf sne bss. V'q orra guvaxvat yvba + pbfzvp onpxtebhaq = Yrb, ohg V thrff gur 6 vf na rahzrengvba fb znlor abg. Gur nkrf ner pbashfvat -- jvgu ahzoref 1..6 V'q jbaqre nobhg jevgvat 0..9N..M ba gur (1..6) k (1..6) cbvagf, ohg jvgu "onfr 52" vaqvpngrq gung frrzf yrff yvxryl. Creuncf gurl'er n pelcgvp jnl gb fnl "K=0" ohg gung frrzf hayvxryl fvapr na rneyvre irefvba bs gur dhrfgvba qvqa'g unir gurz ng nyy.)

but I haven't particularly attempted it: I first saw it just a few minutes ago.

(and I'm not especially good at such puzzles; in particular, Prim3numbah's generally don't fit my brain well)

PDT

15:11

@GarethMcCaughan thanks for the feedback. Have you looked at the hints too? Also it’s funny to hear that I generally find PN’s puzzles among the easier ones here - even if I don’t get it I am often very close, we probably just think alike.

Gareth McCaughan

16:43

I have looked at the hints. The feeling I get from them is mostly "if I solve the puzzle first, then I will probably be able to work out what the hints are about" :-). (I feel this way about a lot of puzzle hints.) Though the first part of the third hint seems clear enough. For the second part rot13(V thrff "gur fgevat" zrnaf gur 1Q3, 12, ... fghss) but it's not entirely obvious.

A plausible guess is that rot13(jr'er ybbxvat ng svatre-fcryyvat be fvzvyne) but if so rot13(vg'f abg pyrne jung jr'er zrnag gb qb jvgu gur nkrf) nor, presumably-relatedly, why rot13(gur jbeq "cybggvat" vf hfrq).

Another not-altogether-plausible guess is that rot13(gur urknqrpvzny-ybbxvat guvatf ner gb or vagrecergrq abg nf ahzoref ohg nf tebhcf bs punenpgref, rnpu bs juvpu vf vagrecergrq nf onfr-52-be-fbzrguvat naq cybggrq, fb gung "1Q3" npghnyyl pbeerfcbaqf gb guerr cbvagf / gjb yvarf). But rot13(onfr-52 frrzf yvxr vg jbhyq unir gb zrna gjb ybgf bs N..M be n cnpx bs pneqf be fbzrguvat) which doesn't fit well with this.

Sphinx

0

Q: Pole, rope, and chasm

You come across a chasm. It's perfectly smooth, 50m deep, and 50m across, and too wide to go around. You have a pole that is 40m long, and as much rope as you need. How do you get across the chasm? (A family member asked me this. I don't know where she got it, but I guess it was circulating in he...

strategy situation

Gareth McCaughan

17:15

^ Oh no, it's deja vu all over again. See web.archive.org/web/20150913205748/https://… (and puzzling.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6826/… for some argumentation about it)...

not the exact same question, but still.

bobble

20:56

Posted sudoku! Backstory anecdote: originally the tetrominoes were going to follow LITS rules (i.e. no 2x2 shaded regions, all shaded regions connected), but it was too hard so I softened the requirement

Sphinx

21:08

0

Q: A Crabby Sudoku

I present a *deep breath* Even-Odd TetroThermoDoku. From the back of the name to the front: Rules Sudoku: Fill each cell with a digit 1-9 such that no number repeats in any row, column, or 3x3 heavy-outlined region. Thermometer: Digits within a thermometer (gray-shaded shapes) must strictly incr...

logical-deduction grid-deduction sudoku polyomino

msh210

@bobble impressive puzzle! I think you may have a typo or two in the tetromino rule, though.

("Shade four cells within": within what? And then you say each 3x3 has to have "a tetromino (I, O, S, T)", but surely I doesn't fit in a 3x3.)

bobble

time to die in hole

about the first thing. the second was intentional

technically you're allowed to use any tetromino. pratically you can't.

msh210

Okay. So we're shading four cells within each 3x3, I assume.

Ah, never mind, I see you've edited it. Looks good now

bobble

Also, feel free to pass judgement: does it look like a crab?

I came up with the title last-minute, I'm afraid - it was in my head only as "even-odd tetrothermodoku"

msh210

@bobble yeah :-)

Jafe

21:34

doesn't exactly roll off the tongue

any chance dr xorile's family member is actually a PSE old-timer

Sphinx

23:49

0

Q: Build a slanted pyramid with ten L-shaped blocks

Consider the following L-shaped 3-dimensional object made up of three unit cubes joined at their faces: Use 10 of the above L-shaped pieces to make the following shape:

mathematics geometry three-dimensional packing

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