The Sphinx's Lair

Jafe

00:07

CCCC: Nobel laureate Bob Dylan perhaps picked unusual chord (11)

TakingNotes

00:18

@Jafe SCHRODINGER (nobel laureate) = SINGER (Bob Dylan perhaps) picking *CHROD

Jafe

01:11

correct!

Sphinx

01:34

0

Q: Can someone make a longer and better story with these following rules:

Each word has to have up to two different characters per word. The total amount of characters in each word is as long as you want, as long they are real, preferably English, words. I have created one, with the slightest help from AI, although they weren't that helpful, which I am kind of proud of...

TakingNotes

CCCC: From a close acquaintance: “Hello, I’m needing Ahab periodically in 60 minutes.” (2, 9)

PolygonPotpourri

01:52

@TakingNotes HI NEIGHBOUR? ([From a close acquaintance, ‘Hello’] INEIGHB (I’m needing Ahab, periodically) in HOUR)

TakingNotes

yep!

PolygonPotpourri

@TakingNotes O… kay. Don’t think that’s an actual phrase, but whatever.

TakingNotes

clearly you've never had a friendly neighbour

PolygonPotpourri

CCCC: In Italy, 3/π<50×3 (6)

TakingNotes

@PolygonPotpourri In TRE (Italy 3), PI< L (50) = TRIPLE (x3)

PolygonPotpourri

02:23

@TakingNotes Yup!

The parsing is TRE divided by (PI< + L) [*3] = TRIPLE, but this is close enough.

TakingNotes

CCCC: Be our, and others’, featured musical opener in 'Bird of Prey' on a central Melbourne thoroughfare (6, 6, 4)

Sphinx

03:23

1

Q: A code I hope takes a while to solve

Here's the message I have created: 19 16 19 15 23 16 24 11 11 24. 25 19 25 19 15 16 11 16. 25 19 25 19 15 25 16 26 19 26 '24 12 25 12. 26 19 26 15 19 29 23 25 23 25 16 30. 12 25 12 19 29 14 11 14 25 16 30. 12 25 12, 11 14 11, 26 19 26, 11 23 25, 21 19 25, 11 30 11 22 11 24 14 12 15 12 15. 11 22 1...

mathematics cipher formation-of-numbers

Sphinx

05:13

0

Q: Deghotify: “Tghght gghth Gghggh tght Ggh ghgh gghggh tgh.”

All pronunciations have been taken from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. All words of the sentence that aren’t proper nouns exist in the Scrabble TWL dictionary.

english

oAlt

06:22

@TakingNotes Bourke Street Mall = B our + et al. featured m_ in kestrel (bird) = B our kestre(et (m_) al.)l

It's not a thoroughfare in the meaning of "highway", but in the meaning of "passage"

TakingNotes

06:45

@oAlt yep!

oAlt

CCCC: I deceive; I went somewhere else in this chat? (4)

ofc, I meant bird of prey rather than just bird in the previous message

Jafe

08:06

i went somewhere else in lair -> liar

nice construction

msh210

08:27

ha! nice clue

oAlt

@Jafe yeah and thanks

PolygonPotpourri

Indeed, an indubitably excellent construction by the wise @oAlt!

msh210

Mar 13 at 18:10, by msh210

That word always makes me think of cereal.

PolygonPotpourri

08:43

I wonder what the most starred message in the Lair is...

oAlt

Iirc it's about pickles (14), but just check to be sure

msh210

Oct 28, 2022 at 6:02, by Jafe

to my knowledge, this is the all-time most starred Lair comment, with 15 stars:

oAlt

Ahhh

PolygonPotpourri

@msh210 Hm. And the most starred joke and pun? I really like those.

Y'know, I've always had a liking towards anagrams. I praise whoever makes them, and I aspire to create some that will awe.

msh210

@PolygonPotpourri so when you called oAlt "the wise" you really meant that he's a wee s**t?

2

PolygonPotpourri

08:57

@msh210 No, and he can definitely see with his own two eyes that that would be insulting to him!

oAlt

09:13

wha- oh

Jafe

CCCC: During tornado loco, he's not livin' la vida local (2,3,4)

msh210

@Jafe on the road (not livin' la vida local) = during TORNADO*, HE

Jafe

correct!

msh210

09:38

CCCC: Even thing that tornado affected (5)

oAlt

Jun 6 at 13:12, by oAlt

@msh210 I'm guessing this is night anagram, where even = evening archaically or poetically

no worries about the repetition, the anagram indicator this time is quite creative

msh210

ack, sorry, forgot I'd used the same construction before

(and yes you're right of course)

Sphinx

09:57

0

Q: Based on only one of the two

The list of words you see below have been alphabetically sorted. They are not the only words that could've been in the list (in fact there are many more, I just chose these). Advisor Analysing Beforehand Best Classy Eight Ellipse Feet Heated Hinting Lengths Orient Shake Turfskiing...

knowledge enigmatic-puzzle

oAlt

I haven't checked if there's more than one word fitting this clue, but:

CCCC: In UK, settlement at the west of London (capital)! (7)

Jafe

10:13

there's a bristo in edinburgh so maybe it's BRISTO+L_ &lit?

oAlt

@Jafe I'll give it to you, intended parsing was [In Brit., s_] + o' + L

Jafe

ahh'

CCCC: Fly, fly fantasy game (9)

msh210

10:27

@Jafe Run! Escape!

oAlt

Ahhh

msh210

(h/t)

Jafe

correct

msh210

CCCC: Oddly, place a bet with chips: at first, it's tolerable (10)

Stiv

@msh210 ACCEPTABLE = (PLACEABET+C_)*

PolygonPotpourri

10:34

@Stiv Ah; thought 'oddly' meant odd-lettered numbers.

msh210

@Stiv I'll allow it.

Stiv

@PolygonPotpourri It can do, or it can be an anagram indicator

msh210

(or in other words yes that's my intention)

PolygonPotpourri

Hold on, odd-lettered numbers?

Stiv

@msh210 And that's ok

CCCC: Recently deceased cops heading for trouble (really?!) (8)

PolygonPotpourri

10:36

Are those numbers with an odd number of letters, like one, two, three, six, seven, eight, ten, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, twenty-one, negative one, and so on?

Jafe

no no they're numbers with odd-looking letters like s!x and s€ven

PolygonPotpourri

@Jafe Or even numbers with extra number in them! (e.g. 0n3, tw37v3, f0rty-$ev3n)

That's 141% number per number!

Jafe

have you considered a career in advertising

2

PolygonPotpourri

Now how much of a great deal for numbers is that!? Come on over to The 1337-Speak store, and get more number per number!

msh210

@Stiv latterly (recently) = late (deceased) copping t_, + rly (really)

nice clue

Stiv

10:43

@msh210 Yes, and thanks :)

msh210

CCCC: Deceased, not here-and-now! (4)

PolygonPotpourri

@msh210 LATE ddef?

oAlt

@msh210 past ddef?

oh hmm

msh210

not my intention, I'm afraid

PolygonPotpourri

Those are both periods of time relating to different things, and yet relating to the same thing.

@msh210 Neither of them!?

msh210

10:46

@PolygonPotpourri right

PolygonPotpourri

@msh210 DE(-ceased) + AD = DEAD &lit?

msh210

what's "ad" in the clue? and where do you get removal of "ceased" from?

oAlt

@PolygonPotpourri that's right BUT de- as in the prefix meaning to reverse

PolygonPotpourri

No wait, DE(-ce -as)ED = DEAD?

msh210

@PolygonPotpourri that spells deed

oAlt

10:48

defrosted = not frosted (specifically, the opposite of being frosted)

PolygonPotpourri

@msh210 Ah. Remove CE (now) and SE (here!)

oAlt

Oh

msh210

@PolygonPotpourri yes!

PolygonPotpourri

@msh210 Nice! What was the quickest clue solve ever, actually?

oAlt

Tbh, de- being "not" still feels a bit iffy. un- does a better job than de-, for example, in conveying that meaning. So in hindsight it's good that that's not the wordplay involved...

msh210

10:49

@PolygonPotpourri Thanks. If you're asking me specifically, I don't know.

I assume it was a matter of a few seconds.

PolygonPotpourri

@msh210 Hm. A great &lit, too.

msh210

thx

@oAlt facebook.com/841891/posts/…

oAlt

Hah

PolygonPotpourri

11:06

CCCC: Philosopher Lucas raised the roof, boosting joy levels in the jamboree (9)

Fun fact: This clue relates to my favourite number, right now.

Not-so-fun fact: This clue doesn't use every word.

oAlt

(kidding)

Sphinx

12:08

0

Q: Z-A-Z (a grid with digits)

Fill in the question marks with the correct values. What's your mood like today anyway?

knowledge enigmatic-puzzle visual

oAlt

12:27

Aristotle, Heidegger, and Nietzsche are all 9-letter philosophers

In fact, Descartes is another one, and this time he's related to numbers

oAlt

13:12

@PolygonPotpourri Idk, but I do know more instances of people answering the C4 at the same time than instances of people answering the C4 within less than ten seconds

PolygonPotpourri

@oAlt Hm.

Lukas Rotter

13:46

@Stiv Did you already have the solution and just waited for me to undelete the puzzle? :D I noticed a mistake and had a meeting directly afterwards, so it was delayed a bit.

Stiv

@LukasRotter I had actually been in the process of writing you a comment asking you to check row 4 when the puzzle was deleted! I carried on writing my solution in Word in the meantime in the hope it might be undeleted shortly with the fix :)

I'm currently replaying the games with my daughter, so this subject springs to mind immediately for me right now!

Lukas Rotter

haha nice. I guess I was being a bit "hasty" with the puzzle posting ;)

Stiv

I wasn't sure if there was something a bit more 'enigmatic' going on with the blank box of calm, but the fact that 'sassy' appeared to have been shunted off the edge made me wonder if it wasn't so deliberate after all... It happens!

This puzzle of mine will always serve as a reminder to me to check, check and check again!

And yes, ironically I just had to edit that remark as I had put 'remind' instead of 'reminder'!

Lukas Rotter

14:17

There's still a 250-rep bounty for a ddef cryptic clue, btw.

oAlt

15:05

Oh thanks for the reminder :)

Sphinx

16:09

0

Q: What do you see?

Which option A-E should replace ?

enigmatic-puzzle visual

Sphinx

17:59

0

Q: A little Emoji puzzle #2

Can you place the emojis in the correct order beside the correct ordinals and justify why you have done so? (You can use each cell only once) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

knowledge pattern emoji

Sphinx

20:11

0

Q: Self-referential, numeric crossword

This puzzle is inspired by this amazing puzzle. In this crossword, every solution is a unique positive integer. Ignore spaces and dashes (e. g. 285 would be entered as TWOHUNDREDEIGHTYFIVE.) In addition, the clues are scrambled up, but I've given you which ones are across and which are down; hope...

mathematics crosswords

Transcript for