The Sphinx's Lair

Prince North Læraðr

00:35

@juicifer My dude xD

Prince North Læraðr

00:45

You're having to make me keep on using incongnito mode

cable lengths is another one

"turned" could also be the definition

Prince North Læraðr

01:14

I'm starting to think "turned on" might be like a charade

like FLICK(ED)?

Also A FLICK is also a unit, apparently

Flick (physics)

In optical engineering and telecommunications engineering, the flick is a unit of spectral radiance. One flick corresponds to a spectral radiance of 1 watt per steradian per square centimeter of surface per micrometer of span in wavelength (W·sr−1·cm−2·μm−1). This is equivalent to 1010 watts per steradian per cubic meter (W·sr−1·m−3). In practice, spectral radiance is typically measured in microflicks (10−6 flicks). One microflick is equivalent to 10 kilowatts per steradian per cubic meter (kW·sr−1·m−3). == History == In radio astronomy, the unit flik was coined by a group at Lockheed in Palo...

Flick (time)

A flick is a unit of time equal to exactly 1/705,600,000 of a second. The figure was chosen so that time periods associated with frequencies commonly used for video or screen frame rate (24, 25, 30, 48, 50, 60, 90, 100 and 120 Hz), as well as audio sampling (8, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, and 192 kHz), can all be represented nicely with integers. That is useful in programming, because non-integer computing generally involves approximations, and possibly leads to noticeable errors. A flick is approximately 1.42 × 10−9 s, which makes it larger than a nanosecond but much smaller than a...

msh210

Another 5,7 (big) unit is light century. And if a bulb is turned on, it's light. But the rest doesn't seem to fit.

Prince North Læraðr

Turned on could also be to like rebel, so maybe "BY PENIS BIG" or "BY PENIS" could be an anagram, though I find it unlikely

SNIPE is an anagram of penis though

Stop making me type this word so much juicifer

merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turned-on

merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/turned-on

Jafe

01:40

once made my friends a word search puzzle where every row was just that word repeated multiple times

instructions were "find a body part word, whoever has the longest one wins"

answer was "spines", spelt down one of the columns

still liking "unit" as the def tbh

Ryan M

It's clearly the secret Russian military unit Gibsi Nepybno, a unit so secret that you won't find anything about it if you search for it

Yeah, I'm skeptical of "unit" or "big unit" as a clue part

they feel...not sufficiently specific?

Prince North Læraðr

02:41

That's a fair point

@RyanM Hey you can't be sharing this here. There are eyes everywhere

Jafe

06:03

damn i tried to make my tetris crossword extra clear so there's a logical path through, and somehow it ended up being solvable without considering the tetris stuff at all

note to self: assume solvers are freaking geniuses

Jafe

06:31

waait a minute, baseballer randy + johnson is nicknamed "the big unit"!

@juicifer ^

Ankoganit

oh heh

should've guessed sports are involved

Jafe

talk about having a porn star name from birth

his parents were like "what's a good first name to go with johnson? oh, i know!"

Ankoganit

poor guy must have had a rough time in middle school

Jafe

then again the guy was 6'10"

hence the nickname, i assume

Ankoganit

fair

Prince North Læraðr

07:20

@Jafe randy is "turned on"?

oh huh

ii guess so

Jafe

according to austin powers, at least

think it's a british word

see also,

Jan 3, 2023 at 5:40, by Jafe

CCCC: Randy is what Pacino and De Niro were in '95 (2,4)

Prince North Læraðr

ah

dang if i'd just looked up "big unit" it would've led me directly to the answer!

Jafe

in addition to seeing a bunch of listings for apartments i can't afford

(aussies call an apartment a unit, i think it's used in the states too?)

msh210

@Jafe yeah, though IIRC I've seen it mostly in realtors' ads and not in laymen's speech

The Empty String Photographer

@Jafe it’s strange how large plonker also matches the length…

Jafe

07:46

oh it matches the length alright

3

The Empty String Photographer

@Jafe and since he’s a male adult, he has … a disturbing part of the clue

Jafe

Disturbing part of clue? Er, I expected... (5)

that's not c4 btw, i'm waiting on juicifer's confirmation

The Empty String Photographer

08:20

Also not c4: Bomb comes third four times (1,4)

Note: numbers are spelt out as words

Ryan M

@Jafe eerie (hidden word)

Jafe

yep :)

Stevo

08:48

@TheEmptyStringPhotographer the first thing i think of with 1,4 and bomb is a nuke, but I don't see the wordplay

oAlt

09:01

@TheEmptyStringPhotographer A C4/CCCC, since C comes third in the alphabet and is repeated four times, probably

The Empty String Photographer

09:25

@oAlt it’s also a bomb

msh210

09:38

@TheEmptyStringPhotographer I thought it was an explosive substance

(from which, to be sure, one can make bombs, but that's not the same thing)

and how does "comes third" mean "c"?

The Empty String Photographer

10:39

@msh210 c is third letter of alphabet

Jafe

doesn't really answer the q does it

i mean you can maybe put "third letter" or something in a clue and say that's c but "comes third" doesn't really mean that

Sphinx

10:54

0

Q: An odd odd one out

Which of the following is the odd one out and why? Nearly successful actress Aim in France Movie Doctor A type of lute

The Empty String Photographer

11:15

@Jafe so let’s ping @juicifer

Jafe

i have

The Empty String Photographer

Oh

msh210

11:29

(his profile claims he's in Massachusetts, where it's currently 7:28 a.m., so give him a chance

)

Jafe

but i pinged at 2:30am, prime time for checking the lair!

msh210

good point

juicifer

12:38

@Jafe yes he is :)

Jafe

CCCC: Female swans have one? No they don't (5)

juicifer

fun* fact about randy johnson: he once killed a bird with a pitch

(accidentally)

@Jafe ha, this is PEN(I)S

Jafe

12:51

yes

msh210

13:05

yesterday, by Jafe

no note for that asterisk, just leaving it there in case i need to amend the statement later

juicifer

13:16

I think it depends on how much you enjoy watching a bird disappear into a cloud of feathers

CCCC: A male goat and a swan has one? Yes (5)

msh210

@juicifer bill Y

juicifer

yes

msh210

CCCC: Marley, do a curtsey for Weird Al song's short refrain (3)

Jafe

bob 3def?

or is there a fourth one... hmm

bob is a weird al song, to bob is to do a curtsey, bob marley

wiktionary says "short stanza ending a poem", so that's the fourth one

msh210

Well, you got it, anyway. The intention was: Bob (Marley); bob (do=hairdo); bob (a curtsey); Bob (Weird Al song); bob ('short' used to mean 'shorten' = to bob); bob (a refrain in a poem or song)

Jafe

13:26

ohh so a sextuple

oAlt

OH there were two more

msh210

now you have to clue THORNTON

(we just had BILLY and BOB)

Jafe

hah

juicifer

lol

Jafe

CCCC: Billy Bob? That's just a lot (7)

juicifer

13:35

are thorns just

and also is 7 8

Jafe

let's say yes

msh210

I've never met an unjust thorn.

@Jafe but tons

Jafe

yup

msh210

thank you, Google

Jafe

same

msh210

13:36

CCCC: Sliding, make it to first base. Lacking is time to eat a meal (9)

juicifer

hm, usually you just run through the bag at first. must've been an errant throw I guess

msh210

novice player, forgot you're allowed to overrun first

oAlt