The Sphinx's Lair

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Jafe

1:33 AM

somehow accidentally turned on english->finnish auto translate for this site and was very confused for a sec

it knew not to translate people's names, with the exception of juicifer (probably lowercase throwing it off)

which was translated as if it was the word juicy

screenshot

juicifer

1:50 AM

1 hour later…

Jafe

2:57 AM

NYT now has word search puzzles with the title Strands... FYI if you see that term used as a puzzle type (like Connections for our connect-wall)

Ankoganit

3:42 AM

Strands is a little different from regular word search though -- it doesn't have to be in a straight line, and the goal is to use all of the grid

@Jafe i guess the way to translate GentlePurpleRain is to just space out the words

Jafe

4:01 AM

ah right

yeah GentlePurpleRain seems like the most obvious candidate for translation out of the names here, the translator is probably just a bit more conservative about touching capitalised stuff

Ankoganit

Makes sense

Jafe

@GarethMcCaughan Wanted to reply to your "things I don't understand" section in the Nine-Nine crossword. Posting here to avoid an excessively long comment. Note: Spoilers for the puzzle ahead, won't rot13 this to avoid filling the chat with gibberish...

So for once I slept on this after finding some errors during the "final" test solve. Should have given it one more day, though! "In the end" was supposed to be an indicator and there was an extra "on" in another clue. But, I managed to move that word to 14a at the last minute which makes it go before the extra "been". D'oh!

Re: Marnie, fair enough. I searched for Hitchcock horror films and somehow found that one, but as you say it doesn't look to be in the horror genre at all. Should have looked a little deeper on that one.

Even if I gave it another day I would not have spotted "rent", I just thought "rend" meant "to twist" and didn't think to confirm from the dictionary. No idea where I've got that idea.

"Principle" spelt like that I've seen used in crosswords before.(*) Chambers says it comes from a Latin word meaning "beginning" but doesn't seem to list any English meanings supporting use as a first-letter indicator. "Principal" is obviously fine and I know the difference between those words, but I simply thought that one was okay as well.

(*) E.g. Times cryptic 28961 on 5 July, 23d: Summit meeting's principle bores expert (4) for AC(M_)E

"Tracking" doesn't look good in retrospect, maybe I was thinking about "trailing" letters for last letters. By the way, I really appreciate sections like this, listing things that don't make sense. Valuable feedback every time. (Spoillers end here)

msh210

4:54 AM

@Jafe wow, I'd've said that that's an error

Jafe

5:09 AM

noted, several people in the comments seemed to think so... probably best to not use that

Stiv

5:42 AM

@Ankoganit Yes it is :) And it took a lot of googling and anagram solvers to set too!

3 hours later…

Sphinx

8:27 AM

Q: Fill the triangular grid using the digits 1-9 subject to the constraints provided

Fill the grid using the digits 1-9 four times each. No row or column can contain the same digit more than once. The total of each row and column is provided, as well as clues to the numbers forming the highlighted diagonals (running from bottom left to top right). Attribution: PUZZLEBOMB.co.uk....

Sphinx

8:49 AM

Q: xkcd 2957 - A Crossword Puzzle

The latest xkcd is a crossword puzzle. I thought it might be of interest to this community. Solve it on Penpa+ Clues: Across 1 Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote (10) 11 IPv6 address record (4) 15 “CIPHERTEXT” decrypted with Vigenère key “CIPHERTEXT” (10) 16 8mm diameter battery (4) 17 “Warthog” at...

knowledge crosswords humor

Jafe

^ not typing all that out, lol

msh210

9:05 AM

I can't find it (probably oAlt can), but I seem to recall someone's suggesting in this chat room a crossword all of whose answers are all A's. Maybe Munroe was lurking.

Jafe

Mar 17, 2020 at 18:48, by msh210

@Randal'Thor Better yet: where all the letters to be filled in are A.

someone indeed!

msh210

I guess Rand al'Thor really is Randall Munroe.

Jafe

Rand al'Munroe

M Oehm

9:22 AM

Well, Tor and Munro are both kinds of elevations ...

Jafe

alarm bells should be ringing if a Randy Hill shows up

msh210

9:46 AM

Randy Marsh

3.5k 1 14 25

graph-theory polynomials abstract-algebra matroids linear-algebra reference-request ring-theory

2 hours later…

Sphinx

12:03 PM

Q: Identify the Sixth Animal in the List and Explain the Reasoning

Here's a riddle I can't solve. If you can help me or provide guidance, I would be grateful. This is the whole text of the riddle: As regards animals, the list is currently limited to 6 elements out of 20. Here are 5 of them: bee, eagle, seagull, wolf, fox. What is the sixth element and why?

riddle word animals

Sphinx

12:25 PM

Q: Given a special name

What's the 10-letter answer to this puzzle?

knowledge visual

juicifer

12:36 PM

how many members of tsl are randall munroe sock accounts

oAlt

12:55 PM

@msh210 Oh my gosh, I just got what this meant. I saw that crossword on Twitter earlier but I didn't think too much of it.

I just thought "oh wow, he made a puzzle"

@juicifer Rand is one, and then there's probably another one

juicifer

🤔

(if you can't see that emoji, it's definitely the can-can emoji and not the thinking face emoji)

oAlt

Lol

msh210

□

(if you can't see that emoji, that's because it's the can't-can't emoji)

1 hour later…

Ankoganit

2:19 PM

CCCC: Consumer has to go behind counter to settle accounts (9)

@msh210 I vaguely recall Deusovi posting a link to an actual crossword with that gimmick, can't seem to find it now

Wonder if anyone else remembers this

oAlt

3:09 PM

I don't, but on a related note I do remember a crossword by Jafe (which also happens to be solved by Deusovi) where every clue answer started with A

Ankoganit

3:29 PM

found the message I was looking for, but unfortunately the link is dead

Apr 1, 2017 at 18:13, by Deusovi

Hey everyone - I've got a crossword I think you should all try. https://www.dropbox.com/s/quyba6at18l3645/arecklessdisregard.pdf?dl=0

1 hour later…

msh210

4:39 PM

So I guess R.M. is also Deus.

Ankoganit

I do like the theory that Randall is in fact a secret cabal of puzzlers working together, like a modern-day Bourbaki

2 hours later…

Sphinx

6:36 PM

Q: Please find the next number in this sequence: 121, 25, 36, 49, 16, 9,?

Here is the sequence: 121, 25, 36, 49, 16, 9, ? What should be written instead of the question mark? Note: Angles in a clock

number-sequence sequence

Sphinx

6:56 PM

Q: What's the price of banana?

An Iranian merchant has immigrated to the USA and opens his fruit store there. He labels his fruits in both Persian and English with the costs in dollars: سیب (Apple): 33$ per kilo پرتقال (Orange): 67$ per kilo کیوی (Kiwifruit): 42$ per kilo What's the price of موز (Banana) per kilo? This is an ...

formation-of-numbers

3 hours later…

Sphinx

10:03 PM

Q: What botany I am?

Note: I created this riddle. I am a botany that if you choose me, I will transform any enemies into a cheap and short time attacking botany which disappears after a minute, and then I will rest for a while before transforming your enemies again. If you fed me a food or boost me, I will transform ...