The Sphinx's Lair

Jafe

00:34

wonder if it could be the '99 woodstock

juicifer

03:09

or the small yellow bird woodstock

oAlt

03:35

@juicifer I'm glad I know that reference

Also I'm so close to solving the Independent crossword for today (Oct 29) but the center and northeast quarter are missing :(

oAlt

04:24

Well, I finished it at least, but I had to reveal seven letters

Rot13(Gur pyhr fvk qbja), my last one in, was painful. I had to reveal two letters there

oAlt

04:49

It still feels like it should be the name of a song, but just in case

bobble

@oAlt, are you here right now? Please try to flag something, how many flags per day do you have?

I'm about to post a bug report and go to sleep, but I want to check first

(or anyone else, but you talked the most recently)

Nevermind, Mith says it isn't a bug

msh210

06:46

@msh210 "Let's Go Get Stoned" is unlikely, anyway, since TakingNotes uses apostrophes in enumerations.

Sphinx

07:06

1

Q: Chess proof game after Black's 12th move reaches a draw?

A remark by Benjamin Wang reminded me of this puzzle (A.Buchanan, 2021) What's the entire game leading to this position, where Black's 12th move has just drawn the game. (To be precise: in formal chess problems under the Codex there are 4 ways of drawing a game: stalemate and draw by repetition ...

0

Q: moving coin from place n,n-1,n-2 to smaller places until no one can move

The fields of a table 1 x n are labeled 1, 2,...,n. A coin is placed on each of the fields n - 2, n -1, n. Two players play a game in which they alternately move a coin from a field j to an unoccupied field i, such that i < j. The game is lost for the player who cannot move a coin anymore. Does t...

mathematics pattern strategy

Sphinx

07:51

0

Q: Minimum number of elements in all sets

I have an interesting problem: Several (K) people go to the bookstore to buy books. Each person buys four (different) (more generally, m) books, and every two people share exactly (only) two (more generally, n, where 1 ≤ n ≤ m) of the same books. Now, what is the minimum number of kinds of books ...

mathematics combinatorics

oAlt

08:28

@msh210 (and for a stronger one:)

Oct 23 at 9:27, by TakingNotes

i think rather than establish that only punctuation marks are meant to be listed in clues i'd make it that any non-alphanumeric characters should be labelled in the enumeration

msh210

ah

PolygonPotpourri

Could this perhaps be a Schrodinger &lit?

Jafe

you mean the answer would be two different kinds of immolated grub that are also woodstock hits?

has anyone ever found out how much wood a woodstock would stock if a woodstock could stock wood?

4

PolygonPotpourri

08:52

However much wood a woodstock could if a woodstock could stock wood.

Jafe

DEA #1 can of course be the letter D but maybe it's not for one of the answers... like why would you use the word DEA there if it could be any word starting with a D

perhaps the word immolated minus d, e, a or something

PolygonPotpourri

IMMOLT?

But I'm not Molt!

Jafe

hi molt, i'm dad

PolygonPotpourri

You're dead!? Go back to your grave!

Jafe

over my dead body!

PolygonPotpourri

09:03

@Jafe Okay! knocks you to the floor standing atop your dead body Now, could you go back to your grave, please?

Jafe

*hissing noises*

PolygonPotpourri

...why do I feel like some ethereal force has condemned me to eternal agony?

Jafe

"fire" was performed at woodstock and appears in terms meaning immolated but can't see what to do with that

PolygonPotpourri

'even then' triggers my spinning cryptic alarm, and tells me that it's HN.

Jafe

fun fact: fire has many rhymes other than desire but no songwriter has ever heard of them

"i have only one burning desire: let me stand next to your fire" - jimi hendrix
"gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which i desire" - metallica
"you are my fire, the one desire" - backstreet boys
"your services are no longer desired; you're fired" - my boss

3

PolygonPotpourri

09:13

Except Eminem, on Godzilla. (Verse 3)

Sphinx

11:12

0

Q: no need for change of an ice cream store

There are n + m people waiting in line at an ice cream store. Among them, n people have only 1-dollar bills, and the remaining m people have only 2-dollar bills. Each ice cream costs 1 dollar. Initially, the ice cream store has p 1-dollar bills. If each customer buys only 1 ice cream, what is the...

combinatorics

oAlt

@Jafe I don't remember that last one (jk)

juicifer

12:38

@oAlt are you kidding me? that's by far the most memorable line from the artist formerly known as my boss

Jafe

nowadays primarily referred to with a non-unicode character known only as the hate symbol

oAlt

13:22

Loll

msh210

funny

Jafe

hahah

oAlt

Lolll

It's relatable since I have similar moments where I'd become deaf for no reason then only realize later what they were actually saying

msh210

sorry, what?

oAlt

I guess I'm not the only one

Jafe

13:36

"what about you, do you enjoy riding on them" "what??"

2

any chance one of the definitions in the c4 is just grub? plenty of multi-word dish names out there

oAlt

yeah, I wonder if the definition is at the beginning instead

or "grub immolated"??? Ehhh seems unlikely

Jafe

grub immolated

Sphinx

2

Q: One number placed in 3 places makes these equations correct

Three equations Text Version 8 = 4 9 = 27 16 = 64 Make all the 3 equations correct by adding a (same) number in 3 places. It must be the same exact number. This number (in 3 places) is the only thing that can be used in the final answer.

mathematics

TakingNotes

13:56

CCCC hint: The definition for both answers is the same; namely [it was a Woodstock hit!]

going to bed in a sec so i thought i'd post it a bit early

oAlt

There's so many Woodstocks, even though most of them are just repeating the previous songs

oAlt

14:16

Yeah my eyes are kinda tired

msh210

A Woodstock hit (even assuming it means the '69 festival) need not be a song: it can be a hit in the sense of dose ("a hit on his joint") or some other kind of hit.

juicifer

ok so I have a full answer for one and am stuck on wordplay for the other. one answer is FEE(-d_) LIT STILL and I'm pretty sure the other is LIVE IN THE MOMENT, respectively the second and third singles from portugal. the man's 2017 album woodstock

IN THE MOMENT could be clued by [then] but I can't figure out how to get LIVE from the rest of that

msh210

14:59

oh, nice find!

juicifer

thanks

Stiv

15:42

@juicifer Very well found! If 'Grub' could be DEVIL, and 'immolated' a reversal indicator this time, then removing the 'D' as before would give you LIVE as required... Although this might be a lot of 'ifs'!

oAlt

And also where does "even" come into play?

Stiv

Actually, I think I've got it, one sec...

LIVEINTHEMOMENT is an anagram of IMMOL(-a)T(-ed)+I(#1)+EVENTHEN

So 'grub' here is an anagrind

oAlt

> To dig; to dig up by the roots; to root out by digging; often followed by up.

I guess it checks out

Stiv

It would be a pretty freaky coincidence if it didn't!

juicifer

@Stiv oh, nicely done

oAlt

15:47

I mean, grub isn't the first anagram indicator I'd definitely think of

juicifer

I did notice that a lot of the letters were there but I didn't pursue that any further for some reason

Stiv

It was oAlt's comment about where does "even" come into play that made me realise the letters were there... and then those of THEN too... and then... etc.

juicifer

@oAlt sure but when you need a word that is an anagram indicator but also means "feed" it might be

oAlt

But that was a nice construction, @TakingNotes , I didn't think such a cluing was possible :) and also nicely found juicifer and Stiv

@Stiv Ahh

@juicifer Yeah I guess

Stiv

If these are the two answers ('if', again, but clearly they are, right??) I would vote juicifer to take the next clue since you did all the heavy lifting in breaking into the clue, finding the right album, and solving one - I just swept up the second once armed with the equipment you provided...

juicifer

15:51

fair enough

oAlt

(Agreed - I had already abandoned the idea of Woodstock referring to another thing that's not the concerts)

Sphinx

16:25

0

Q: Worst peg solitaire game

I wonder if there is an algorithm for the worst game to keep as many pegs as possible. I tried to search for "peg solitaire worst score/ max leave" etc, but it’s not quite that. The question applies to both classic and generalized versions of the game. For example, which is presented in my favour...

mathematics geometry algorithm

Sphinx

16:47

0

Q: In a 3x3 grid, I'd have to put numbers from 1 to 9 in a manner so that respective row, column and diagonal add up to 25

Is there any strategy or way of approach to this problem, or is trial and error method the solution to it?

logical-deduction calculation-puzzle magic-square

TakingNotes

20:17

@juicifer @Stiv that's it!

for the first one, i have it in my notes that 'even then' was the synonym of 'still', i don't think i even realised that just 'then' could also work

juicifer

oh I parsed it the same way you did

I'm not sure "then" would work for "still" but I'm not entirely convinced it wouldn't either

CCCC: Objective: absence of DEA #1 (1)

TakingNotes

20:35

@juicifer IDEA - DEA = I

juicifer

@TakingNotes yep :)

TakingNotes

20:58

CCCC: Craving part of snowman I ate (5)

msh210

21:17

@TakingNotes _man I a_

TakingNotes

@msh210 you got it! (and as a matter of interest, that's also the last answer in a sequence i've been doing!)

msh210

not if i can first; 45; hooked on; party; hot rocks; poke your eyes out; bohemian; alternative; power; pokémon; angry white man; rama; poker face; now that's what i call...; hamilton; feel it still / live in the moment; mania

Sphinx

22:00

0

Q: Is it true that if he plays long enough there will be a series of consecutive days during which he will play exactly 23 games?

Grandmaster Lev Alburt plays at least one game of chess a day to keep in shape and not more than 10 games a week to avoid tiring himself out. Is it true that if he plays long enough there will be a series of consecutive days during which he will play exactly 23 games? Attribution: Mostly Southam...