The Sphinx's Lair

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oAlt

00:18

@msh210 yep!

@Jafe amazingly, no

1 hour later…

Sphinx

01:48

Q: Can someone please help me understand how to solve this stenographical puzzle

The puzzle contain sexadesimal cuneiform symbols which I decrypted to numbers: Then 1 = A, 2 = B, etc. Which gives us latin alphabet: I'm stuck here.

2 hours later…

msh210

03:59

CCCC: Be burning mad about N.C.–Indiana game finale (10)

oAlt

04:34

@msh210 i(NC IN _e)rate

Though the definition should probably be "cause to be burning" or "burn" or the like, but I'm not an expert

And (assuming the answer is correct) I found it anyway, so it's not a big problem

msh210

05:15

@oAlt yep

msh210

05:36

@oAlt I figured "to be burning something" is close enough to "to incinerate something".

oAlt

06:05

I see, understandable

CCCC: Country's small car, an almost violent one (5 6)

2 hours later…

Stiv

07:38

@Jafe Did you watch Eurovision last night? In particular, did you see the Finnish entry? Absolutely bonkers. Got our vote at home... (worth seeing if you haven't) Didn't score well overall but hey, it'll be remembered...

Windows95man - No Rules! (LIVE) | Finland 🇫🇮 | Grand Final | Eurovision 2024

►

@oAlt SAUDI ARABIA = S (small) + AUDI (car) + A (an) + RABI(-d) + A (one)

oAlt

@Stiv Yep, entirely correct :)

Sphinx

08:38

Q: Can you draw these figures?

Beginner puzzle This puzzle is intended to be suitable for people who are new to puzzle solving. Clarification: Both experienced solvers and new solvers are welcome to post solutions to this puzzle. Which of the figures shown below can be drawn with one continuous line without drawing a segment ...

visual

Jafe

@Stiv haven't watched it hehe, heard it was pretty, um, visual

finns love watching that show even though we have a long history of ~zero points until very recently

Stiv

Well, they went all out for spectacle this year. Best entertainment of the night...

CCCC: Shocking revelation: Police officer admits arson on TV set, I recollected (12,7)

oAlt

~~I wonder what theme he's hiding this time, if there's any...~~

Well, the Internet just led me back to PSE

msh210

08:57

@Stiv c(onversationsto*)opper

Stiv

@msh210 Correct!

oAlt

@msh210 Nice find

msh210

@oAlt thanks

msh210

09:16

CCCC: John to satisfy, eating Lucy's entrance: it may be romantic (6,5)

Apr 11 at 8:58, by Jafe

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

Jafe

10:08

hahah

unisex toilet fits the enum and could be a "john" but don't quite see how

voice from the back: "unisex toilet? what kind of uni did you guys go to"

msh210

19 hours ago, by Jafe

i should really stop counting altogether at this point

Jafe

(counts) yeah that makes sense

msh210

10:24

Argh, there's a problem with the clue. Edit incoming…

3 hours later…

oAlt

13:46

@msh210 can d(L_)elight

msh210

@oAlt yep!

It seems like you're solving all my clues these days.

NTTAWWT

(after checking the archive) I guess that's not quite true.

oAlt

@msh210 Interesting

also checks Right, Stiv seemed to have solved one recently

CCCC: Sit outside after bacterium is split in two by traditional scientist (9)

Ugh... I shouldn't have written it that way looking back. But hopefully it's still solvable

msh210

14:05

@oAlt S_t after E. coli is split in two by OG = ecologist

nice clue

What do you think is wrong with how it's written?

oAlt

@msh210 Correct and thanks :) I guess since "E. coli" is already two parts, then with another division it would be split into three parts, not two. But I guess you can get away with that by writing it as ECOLI without spaces...

(Anyway yeah once I saw "ecoli" in ecologist I was like, I have to make this a clue)

msh210

14:21

CCCC: Leave Southern city with force, following the ultimate in adventure (4,4)

1 hour later…

Sphinx

15:28

Q: Stuck at a possible Steganography puzzle

I have been challenged by a friend of mine who is taking a bachelor in cybersecurity and he made this puzzle just for me to solve it since I challenged him. I have been trying for so long, but cannot understand it. The puzzle is in numbers which I believe is meant to be transferred to latin alpha...

logical-deduction cipher steganography cryptography

2 hours later…

Sid

17:54

'Ello. Just want to say that I am chuffed to have answered "cruciverbalist" for a question saying, "someone who creates or solves crosswords" in a Quiz recently and the only reason I know of that word is lurking around on Puzzling.

The Quizmaster was genuinely surprised someone managed to guess the answer, hehe'

Sphinx

18:07

Q: Making 1353 using Four fours

As the title says, the goal for this puzzle is making 1353 out of simply 4, 4, 4 and 4. Here are all of the allowed operators. Addition (+), Subtraction and negatives (-), Multiplication (*), Division (/) Roots (√), Exponents (^) Decimals and repeating decimals (.) Percentages (%) Hint: It has ...

mathematics calculation-puzzle

1 hour later…

bobble

19:07

@Sphinx repost

2 hours later…

Sphinx

21:32

Q: Old wooden cross puzzle

I have a couple of wood puzzles that my grandad made. Not sure when he made them but he was born in 1896. I believe he was involved in the manufacture of wooden propellers for First World War aeroplanes. Sadly I don’t know more, but I should imagine he was a fine wood worker given the tolerance r...

pattern

Q: Shortest battleship game, to find the ships

This is a variant of this riddle. A (somewhat peculiar version of the) game of battleship, is played in the following way: The first player places as many ships as he wants on a very large $N \times N$ board. Every ship is of width $1$, and could be of any length up to $N$. Ships can be placed h...