@GarethMcCaughan TENOCHTITLAN, yes. (Sorry, I just dropped in and haven't seen what came up earlier in the game.)

pass 33; reference I don't know, and even if it's guessable I don't feel like trying a hundred things in the hope of guessing it

@RE

oops

TERRARIA

@Randal'Thor no apology needed; I wasn't complaining

33 Yes, now it's Terraria

sigh

Too much of a cheap shot, @Gareth ?

I thought we had a rule or at least a norm that once it's been established that a defender knows nothing at all about something we don't then hammer on that to get infinitely many letters in the same game

but never mind

Gareth defending: T E T

7 stays

8' dies (TENNESSEE)

I was unaware of that rule or norm, but I'll stick to it for now on.

4. V = n^3sqrt(2)/12

is that allowed

I don't think it's an actual rule -- I don't really see how it could be -- but the idea is that the goal is to have fun rather than to win

@mdc32 well, I'm a mathematician so I'd have thought it should be

Yes, and Gareth will get it in 2 seconds

Even though I do not know currently

looks like it's probably TETRAHEDRON (meaning a regular one) and seems like the right sort of shape for that

@GarethMcCaughan I thought you were an *ex-*mathematician?

34. A certain new year

impressive

@Randal'Thor I'm an ex-academic-mathematician. I still have "mathematician" on my business cards.

(Though I'm outdone by one friend of mine who, working for a computery company, had "Geometer" on his)

Geometer... as in, his job is geometry?

@mdc32 was I right about 4?

yes you were

2. Lockjaw

contact 2

yeah, it was a company making IIRC a ray-tracing coprocessor + software and he did lots of things involving triangulations and splines and so forth

@Randal'Thor 2 is TETANUS

+1

(probably too easy)

14. (4-1-4) phrase

35: An Oceanid titan

@Sp3000 Perhaps the letters in 7 are short names for the TETROMINOES?

@Sp3000 14 is surely TETE-A-TETE

@MikeQ contact

(goddammit, I was about to clue exactly the same word)

:-D

7 is indeed TETROMINOES

well, 7 has to be right because i was about to clue that

And 14 is correct

@MikeQ 35 might be TETHYS though I don't know whether that's what Tethys actually was

35 bingo

7' Game with 7

contact 7' but Gareth knows it

@mdc32 7' probably is TETRIS, unlike that earlier one

yeah, that's right

9. 9-letter mathematics word that turns into a chemistry word with a change of its first vowel

24. Grand, Middle, or South

@Sp3000 9 is probably TETRATION

1: What to do when cable is down

Yup

@mdc32 perhaps 24 is the TETON mountains in the US

yeah

(note: Tetons = tits. They are called that because they look like breasts. Really.)

Contact 1

What language?

French?

French

@ffao Perhaps one might TETCH (which I think means to grump, just as tetchy means grumpy).

though I doubt that's what you have in mind

37. Tie up a tea anaesthetic (6)

indeed that is not what I had in mind

@MikeQ 37 is T-ETHER.

37 yes, TETHER.

the mathematician part gets rid of so many options involving "tetra"

1 is making me feel very stupid at the moment. Still thinking.

bah, I can think of a few different ways to interpret 1 and neither of them is provoking my brain into giving me an answer. Pass 1.

TETHERING? (internet)

I mean none, not neither (n>2), sorry

that's it, Sp

ah, clever

Gareth defending: T E T R

34 dies (TET)

38. Only four of them is probably insufficient to count as a school

wait, there were two 1s? I don't think I even noticed the other one

Sorry, it was 34, I saw 1 and wrote 1.

whose new year is called Tet? I'm sure I should know.

Vietnam

ah

I always assumed the Tet Offensive was called that because of where it was, but I guess it must be when

You would guess correctly.

@MikeQ Perhaps 38 is TETRAPOD, making a pun on "pod" for whales and dolphins?

... I'm having trouble coming up with any clues which Gareth might struggle with but someone else would contact ...

38, no but that's clever

39. YHWH

@MikeQ well, a group of four is sometimes called a TETRAD but I don't see any connection with schools in any sense so it probably isn't that

Also no.

@MikeQ That would be the TETRAGRAMMATON

39 yes, that is TETRAGRAMMATON

and now any Orthodox Jews reading this have to never clear their screens or something

I doubt that

10. 2 colorblind people, combined

@mdc32 perhaps 10 is TETRACHROMAT?

yes it is

@MikeQ for the avoidance of doubt, I wasn't being serious about Orthodox Jews, though I know that e.g. bits of paper with anything that could be called a name of God written on them need special treatment.

@GarethMcCaughan Is @Mithrandir orthodox?

@Randal'Thor I don't think so.

But I'm not at all certain.

I can't think of clues that aren't obscure chemical compounds

17: spinning parachutists

@GarethMcCaughan The way I understand it, the special treatment applies when the name is "permanently" written. Modern technology really threw a wrench into Rabbinic law.

That seems about right.

(btw, I like that the rules post has 38 stars and the clue just below on the star-board is #38)

Though some older technology has done likewise -- e.g., there's a law against kindling a fire on the sabbath and the sparks that can be made when an electrical switch is switched were deemed to count as fires, which means IIUC that on the sabbath Orthodox Jews are supposed to either not turn on and off electrical apparatus, or use special switches designed so that they can't produce sparks.

Yes, that one is true, and as a result they often become skilled at board games.

@Randal'Thor 17 isn't a poetic description of TETRIS, is it?

I'd rather switch religions than have to live without electrical apparatus for a day

@GarethMcCaughan Yes indeed.

I was trying to go for obscure cluing rather than obscure things being clued.

44. Widespread, (ex/before -> 4)

You can still use computers if you turn them on before sabbath begins

1: Formaldehyde

@JanDvorak Use them for what? Powering them on during sabbath is not allowed in their practice.

You power them on before sabbath, then use them during it

@ffao well, formaldehyde is an organic compound, featuring TETRAVALENT carbon, but I doubt that's your 1

@JanDvorak That is generally frowned upon in the Orthodox community

no, it's not

@ffao I forget its formula but perhaps it's TETRATOMIC (I vaguely think it has more than 4 atoms, though)

IIRC it's CH2O

and yes, tetratomic

aha

(I knew it wasn't many more than 4)

I admit that 38 is a poorly worded clue but I'm surprised it has no contacts

I'm feeling very stupid for not getting it

39. Four triangles

@MikeQ is 39 another TETRAHEDRON?

44 (rewrite): Widespread (change "before" prefix -> 4)

39 Yes and apparently I cannot search chat history properly

@Sp3000 ah, thanks; 44 is TETRAVALENT

Yup :)

I still don't get it even after rewrite

prevalent -> tetravalent

aah

@MikeQ I don't suppose 38 is somehow TETROMINO or TETROMINOES? I'm just thinking of possible connections with DOMIN- words and the fact that many schools call their teachers or their heads "master" or something derived from that. E.g., in some Scottish schools the teadteacher is called the Dominie. This doesn't really make much sense; just throwing it out in case :-)

I... think I'm out of words for TETR hmm

I can think of a few more :-)

Well I only have one in mind really but I'm not even sure if it's a word

38 is not any of those words @Gareth

2: contains food

@Randal'Thor Perhaps TETRAPAK though I think it's more often drink. I guess sometimes it's soup.

@MikeQ dammit, in the last game I was doing so well at guessing your clues :-)

(or maybe it was another earlier one. One of the ones today, anyway.)

@GarethMcCaughan Yep.

Are we allowed to clue invented words?

15. Quadrilateral (not sure if word)

you're allowed to clue anything

I seem to remember that being done in another game.

@Sp3000 contact

@Sp3000 perhaps 15 is TETRAGON?

Is the intention, yeah (extrapolating from the others)

Pretty sure that is a word, though no one ever uses it

40. Possible reason why Japanese elevators go from floors 3 to 5

@MikeQ contact

7: x^x^x^x^x^x

Contact 40?

@MikeQ that really does sound made up: TETRAPHOBIA?

1: I heard they make many promises

@Randal'Thor 7 sounds a bit like TETRATION which as it happens was mentioned earlier

40 is indeed TETRAPHOBIA and it should be a word

@GarethMcCaughan Yep.

@MikeQ It's no worse than TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA, after all

@MikeQ I thought it was Chinese though?

I feel like there should be a word for 40 but I don't know if it's actually tetraphobia (seems logical though)

triskaidekaphobia is a neat word

I also thought mostly Chinese, though I have the feeling it's fairly widespread in SE Asia

@Randal'Thor Applies to both

(but that may be entirely wrong)

@Rand IIRC it's a widespread taboo

supposedly something to do with the Chinese character for death, and I think a bunch of other nearby cultures borrowed some Chinese characters

but again I know nothing

See also: "plunderer" in Gnommish.

And more generally the protagonist's tetraphobia in that particular book.

at least in Japanese, not so much about the character as about how it sounds

ah yes, maybe that's it

Gareth I believe that to be it, but it's more that both 4 and death are pronounced "shi"

41. ?Cl4

2: Traditional English writer loses foot

@MikeQ sounds like a TETRACHLORIDE.

41 yep

@ffao are you perhaps thinking TETRAMETER because e.g. Shakespeare wrote so much iambic pentameter?

yes

should I drop a hint?

42. Creature that consumes four things

@MikeQ That might perhaps be a TETRAPHAGE or (though purists would cringe) a TETRAVORE.

42 The former, and I am running out of words

(cringing because greek+latin; probably quadrivore)

@ffao Oh, do you speak Japanese?

@GarethMcCaughan Television is Greek+Latin too.

47. Four-panelled artwork (?)

@Randal'Thor I know

And some other words for bad things in life.

contact 47

Gonna start putting question marks on because I have no idea if these are words

@Sp3000 Something like TETRYPTICH, I assume/

@Randal'Thor I wish I could, but four and death is about how far my knowledge of that goes

Hint: Very, very early in the game I was worried that it might end super-quickly because one of the clues was in rather nearby territory.

I was going to guess TETRAPTYCH if that's even correct, but anyhow you got it

actually -A- is much more likely than -Y-

so I like your guess better than mine

I just subbed out TRI :P

and somehow that Y migrated out of its proper place near the end

so I was being totally illiterate there, sorry

the clues early in the game were all over the place

does anyone see anything interesting there?

I see the Bee Movie script. That's kind of interesting.

I promise that I know nothing whatever about the Bee Movie.

@ffao Darn - I was going to promote Literature's next topic challenge to you.

41. e.g. human-powered car (???)

@Sp3000 perhaps TETRACYCLE?

(there are tetracyclic compounds in chemistry, and I think you could call them tetracycles, though of course that's not the meaning you had in mind)

Yeah that's the "word" in mind at least :P (but would be amusing if it was actually a word for the wrong reason)

It may be one of those really long-named chemicals

Although I feel like quadcycle is a word

for the avoidance of doubt, my word is not a super-long-name chemical.

@Sp3000 yes, there are quadcycles / quad-bikes but I think those are motorized.

By any chance, is it related to Medieval chamber music?

It is not related to mediaeval chamber music, nor even to baroque chamber music.

Further hintiness: the clue that worried me was one of the first four

Time, Tiberias, Teotihuacan, Trees

44: energy over work = Time but Gareth was unsure about it