The Sphinx's Lair

@Randal'Thor I think the 7 things are:
0. king, castle, no crown
1. change 1 letter -> assemble people
2. change middle letter -> soft
3. add "je" -> soar?
4. start with "r" -> distance
5. change 1st letter -> alternate choices
6. left/right -> frenzy
7. last letter? -> sun worshipper

Rand al'Thor

@ffao Even this chap doesn't have 100 degrees.

@MikeQ Yeah, I've now noticed the wordplay tag and realised it must be something along those lines :-)

"assemble people" = RALLY?

humn

Good morning!

My last name is Phutney-Screetch.

Mike Q

@Rand Unsure what the other word would be

Rubio

9:19 AM

I have a few ideas. :)

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio Do share!

Rubio

I think not.

Mike Q

Oh right, I didn't include the Latin. I think it's "God gave us the day. Seize the day", or it's a joke about deusovi

Rubio

waits to see who runs with the straight line-

ffao

~~run~~ there, run with a straight line

Mike Q

9:22 AM

You can only run if it's 180 degrees

I would suggest drinking water to keep cool, but...

At that point I would merely be blowing steam

Rand al'Thor

Your nose can run even in the cold.

Rubio

If your feet smell and your nose runs, you're built upside down.

Rand al'Thor

Beat me to it!

humn

I thought it was butter.

A crossword clue I've been dying to share:

Rand al'Thor

@humn No, that's a goat.

Rubio

9:24 AM

Hmmm

humn

"No it'____ (4 letters)

Sp3000

(I am tempted to say E(COLO)G+Y for C4 but I have no idea how that would fit the def)

Rand al'Thor

@humn Solve Rubio's and you can set it as a CCCC!

Mike Q

The confounding bit here is the "I am." in the first line

Rubio

He'd have to come up with wordplay for it but yeah :)

Mike Q

9:26 AM

There is also the noticeable indent before "but if I then"

humn

"My" feral outdoor cat's name is "butter"

and "head"

Doesn't come to either though, just like planets.

but the dinger headbutts until it hurts

Rubio

My feral cat's name is "Fido". I love saying "here Fido!" And a cat comes over.

humn

roll over rover!

Rubio

Not a word of that is true but it makes me laugh to think of it.

humn

Fido means faithful

Rand al'Thor

9:28 AM

Fidelity.

humn

sounds much funnier

Rubio

The dog I don't have is similarly named "kitty-kitty-kitty"

humn

I used to have a pet rat.

Now I'm all that.

Rubio

There's a cat in my house that has a pet human.

humn

...lucky!

Rand al'Thor

9:31 AM

@Rubio I thought your dog was called Rubio and liked Diet Coke.

Rubio

Don't forget the Lime.

Sp3000

@Rubio T[he] + RAGED + Y = TRAGEDY

(I'm sort of amazed how well ECOLOGY almost fit)

Rubio

Ooohhh. That was fast. Nice job.

humn

!

Sp3000

CCCC: Extremely formal clothing is a driving nuisance (4, 4)

Rubio

9:33 AM

This is why you're MY nemesis.

humn

zoot suit

Mike Q

@Rubio @Rand I think the word is mate, but I only have a half answer

ffao

I didn't know you could do X within A B to mean A X B

Mithrandir

@Sp3000 ~~extremely~~ ~~driving~~

Mike Q

0. Mate, 1. Meet?, 2. Mute, 3. ?, 4. Rate, 5. Fate, 6. Rage?, 7. ?

humn

9:37 AM

All of the above!

Rand al'Thor

When I meet a mate, I mute my rage and rate his fate.

Rubio

I shall put you out of your misery. None of those any of the words.

Mike Q

@Rubio Alright, thanks mate

Rubio

:)

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio You inspirational sod, you:

0

Q: I am ... not a political riddle

I am. With the left wing, I seek to ban suffragettes. With the same right wing, I'm for a third party. Remove that wing from me, and I'll be leaving. Make one of me Dutch, and I'll join the army. Who or what am I?

humn

9:39 AM

Dutch treat?

Rand al'Thor

A Dutch treat for an orange dog?

Mike Q

Or an orange treat for a Dutch dog?

Or a dog treat for a Dutch orange?

humn

Wouf wouf! Oranssi koira.

Mithrandir

A dog for orange an or treat Dutch?

(scrambles)

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Save that for your eggs.

humn

9:43 AM

By the way, which one's Pink?

Rand al'Thor

O damn, now I've been randomly reminded of a book I once read and can't fully recall.

(Random and remind are almost anagrams. Someone should do something about that.)

@Sp3000 FL+ATTIRE

Nice!

Yup

Except that it's FLAT TYRE, you bloody heathens :-P

Sp3000

9:45 AM

Shhh as much as I use TYRE it doesn't crossword well :P

Rubio

CCCC: Walking hazard left around after endless climb. (7)

Moar seven.

You get this in 5 minutes again and I'm gonna be quite put out, @Sp3000 :)

I liked this one a lot

ffao

this looks hard, but then again so did the other one

Rubio

So - would "Helen, et. al., ..." have been fair for the previous of mine?

Or even "among others"?

Rand al'Thor

This looks easier than the Helen one, IMO.

A word for "hazard", backwards, stick a CLI on the front, "walking" as def - that's my guess.

Mike Q

Perhaps it's CLIPCLO, the sound of a tailless horse walking

Rubio

9:51 AM

Poor horse.

Sphinx

1

Q: I am ... not a political riddle

I am. With the left wing, I seek to ban suffragettes. With the same right wing, I'm for a third party. Remove that wing from me, and I'll be leaving. Make one of me Dutch, and I'll join the army. Who or what am I?

riddle word

Mike Q

Question for not rubio: For the "find the N things you get when you change some letters", does it mean changing the original word, or changing the previously clued word?

Rand al'Thor

Depends on the puzzle.

Some people do it one way, some the other. Some are unclear :-/

Mike Q

10:08 AM

Can it be both/either?

Sphinx

10:28 AM

2

Q: Plea to a demon

I riddle you this: Gone! You're absent Really I miss you, you made me see the inferno Everyone liked you before Even after your descent to hell Now come back, lets have a party!

riddle word

humn

10:49 AM

Thomas Dolby - I scare myself (lyrics on clip)

►

(sometimes I post just to see how others react)

(usually I just scare myself, need that be typed)

Mithrandir

12:40 PM

Hmm, which mod to ping, which...

@Gareth spammer puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/37689/…

Sid

1:32 PM

@Techidiot Looks like we are going to .lose tonight

Deusovi

1:52 PM

Famous playboy Hugh Hefner noticed one day that a group of monks had set up a flower shop down the street from his mansion. Because of zoning laws, they had to get shut down, but they wouldn't listen to anyone - not the police, not the mayor...

Hugh walked over there and they instantly shut down. When asked why, they said: "If it was anyone else, we wouldn't have done it. But only Hugh can prevent florist friars."

Jan Dvorak

2:44 PM

Who's up for a game?

Mithrandir

3:09 PM

@JanDvorak Sure.

Rubio

3:19 PM

@Deusovi awful. I love it.

Rubio

3:49 PM

Should be about Hugh Meyers in this room though :)

Sid

I am sure I am gonna kick myself when this CCCC is solved

Jan Dvorak

You're not a room owner here

Sid

I am not an RO anywhere for that matter. No, I mean literally.

Jan Dvorak

That seems impossible to do effectively.

Sid

@Tech We lost. It was so obvious after that 1st innings.

Jan Dvorak

4:01 PM

Actually, you can strike one shin with the other.

Mithrandir

@Sid I can do it if you want.

Sid

@Mithrandir Great idea. DO it when the CC is solved

Jan Dvorak

Actually, set up an automated trigger

Mithrandir

I wonder what happens if I actually press that button.

...nothing.

Rubio

4:33 PM

Hm. I may have broken my CCCC so going to update a word.

Sorry and fixed.

Sphinx

5:03 PM

0

Q: The first attempt at a riddle

I've been browsing this place for a couple days off/on for a while -- couldn't particularly solve anything because I just don't really have the experience (plus I don't really know any of the cipher stuff), but I decided to try my hand at making a riddle anyway! Apologies for messing up the forma...

riddle

Beastly Gerbil

nice wordplay in that one ^

Sid

Skittle?

You mean bowling pins?

Beastly Gerbil

I call em skittles

May just be an english thing

Jan Dvorak

Recheck: who's up for a game?

Beastly Gerbil

in what?

Oh apparently skittles is a different thing

Jan Dvorak

5:15 PM

Contact or codenames, preferably. I'm on mobile.

Beastly Gerbil

i'm in for either

Sid

I'm in for neither.

Beastly Gerbil

I doubt there will be many others because a) its the weekend and b) its fathers day

Sid

What exactly happens in Father's day?

Mithrandir

Nothing. Everyone forgets to do anything ^_^

Beastly Gerbil

5:18 PM

most people just go out

but because its so hot I know a lot are having bbqs

n_palum

@BeastlyGerbil Not unless you're over 5 hours away so you just call to talk to them

Beastly Gerbil

Amrica maybe, but there aren't many places in england which are 5 hours away from another place in england :P

Sid

If you drive for 5 hours in Europe, you probably would be in another country

n_palum

Or in the water

Beastly Gerbil

lol

Sid

5:21 PM

Ah, yes. That too. :P

Beastly Gerbil

Hey the atlantic would be refreshing in this heat :P

Sid

@Beastly How hot? Touching 40 degrees Celsius?

Jan Dvorak

You could drive in circles :-D

Beastly Gerbil

30 celcius

Sid

30? Heh, it's cold there..

Beastly Gerbil

5:24 PM

ANd before you say thats nothing thats hot for here - Hottest day so far of 2017

(Off for dinner - be back 30 mins)

Sid

We have 30 degrees during early winters..

Jan Dvorak

How?

Techidiot

@Sid Complete respect for the opposition for that kind of cricket. They played really well.

Jan Dvorak

Unless you're ignoring the fact that most of the world uses Celsius, that is :-D

Techidiot

Meanwhile India won against them 7-1 in hockey :)

Sid

5:34 PM

@Jan yeah. 30 degrees Celsius in early October. Then, in peak winter, it comes down to 15-20.

@Techidiot yep. The moment I saw Rohit get out, that was game over. You can't handle Pakistan if they are bowling that well.

Though, I am speaking only about my region. It varies tremendously across the country.

Jan Dvorak

@Sid Australia? I thought you had flipped the nomenclature so that it would make sense.

Sid

...no. Go North and East.

n_palum

You mean Weast

Sid

Yes, sorry. West.

Clearly I suck in Geography.

Jan Dvorak

... Southeast Asia?

Sid

5:44 PM

Go further east.

Weast...

Arrgh. West.

Egypt?

North.

Go to the tropic of Cancer

See which country it passes through

Jan Dvorak

Greece? Mobile, sorry

Sid

5:47 PM

Tropic of Cancer passes through Greece?

Jan Dvorak

VOV

Google maps would ruin my mobile data

Sid

From Greece go west till you reach South Asia

Arrgh, East

Jan Dvorak

Israel or its neighborhood?

Sid

you know, just go to my profile.

That would be easier

Mike Q

It says "India", which must be a clue for some other place.

Jan Dvorak

5:52 PM

I guess... :-D

Pretty sure India isn't north of Egypt...

Sid

It's not?

I can bet it was.

Jan Dvorak

A couple million years ago, it was South I think :-D

Egypt is at the northeast tip of Africa

Sid

Just South.

I had the wrong notion that Egypt was in Central Africa

Jan Dvorak

There isn't much stuff due South of India

Including none of Africa

Sid

Whole of South America.

The whole of southern Hemisphere

Jan Dvorak

5:57 PM

due South

Sid

In any case, you probably get why early winters is 30 degrees

Jan Dvorak

Going South from India gives you a whole lot of ocean, and then Antarctica

Sid

True.

However, that might not always be true. Northern India has very cold winters.

Okay, I need to go sleep early today. Got a train to catch tomorrow morning. Have a nice day all.

Beastly Gerbil

6:30 PM

Pakistan did play very well

tobiasvl

Hey, I'm very new and just answered my first puzzle. Earlier today I posted an answer with a partial solution, but now I edited it to become a full solution... That's all right?

I was also a bit unsure as to what I should spoiler tag, but I guess there are some meta discussions on that somewhere

Beastly Gerbil

absolutely fine

I can take a look for you if you post a link

tobiasvl

2

A: Where is my blond friend going?

Your blond friend, who is from Scandinavia, is going to There are three extra letters at the end of the alphabets used in Scandinavian countries. In Norway and Denmark, the three extra letters are Ææ, Øø and Åå. In Sweden, they are Ää, Öö and Åå. They are often transliterated like this in char...

well, that answer preview was a nice test to see how much is spoiled...

Beastly Gerbil

oh congratulations on solvig that... had been trying to solve that for a while

You'll get the bounty for that too :)

tobiasvl

@BeastlyGerbil thanks :)

Beastly Gerbil

6:34 PM

It looks fine... You've got spoilers inn the right place and its nicely layed out

tobiasvl

@BeastlyGerbil All right, great. I was a bit unsure about how much to spoiler tag, but I landed on the stuff I tagged, otherwise basically the whole answer would have to be hidden

thanks for looking at it

Beastly Gerbil

you are very welcome, and welcome to puzzling! :)

tobiasvl

thanks!

Avantgarde

6:53 PM

ded?

Deusovi

Chat's quieter on the weekends.

Mike Q

AHHH LOUD NOISES AHHH!

Sphinx

0

Q: Mathemetic series 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45,__?

Please help me to solve this series. I currently looking what will be the next value to 45. Is there any specific equation available?

mathematics formation-of-numbers

0

Q: Theoretical Question

I have a very basic question on Rubix Cubes. Take any completely solved cube or skewb. Now pick out (with hand) any two similar pieces and swap their positions, without changing positions/orientation of any other pieces in the cube/skewb. This new cube/skewb is also completely solved except for...

mathematics rubiks-cube

Mithrandir

7:25 PM

@tobiasvl hey! Nice to see you over here!

Jan Dvorak

Thoughts - is the first one downworthy?

ffao

If you're Brazilian, then you just wait to call your father on the second Sunday of August, otherwise he would be very confused

But the world can't even agree on a day for something so simple :(

Mike Q

@Jan Unsure. I can imagine someone saying that it doesn't seem well-researched (i.e., it's so easy that the person probably didn't think about it before posting). But on the other hand, perhaps the poster tried to solve it and didn't see the pattern. I don't know if you could prove either way.

Jan Dvorak

got it, thanks

Mike Q

7:57 PM

@Jan The key is that they ask for help to solve the series. It's entirely possible that they were unable to solve it themselves. Otherwise, if it was presented as a challenge for others, then yes I would assume that it was a lazily constructed puzzle.

Gareth McCaughan

8:13 PM

@Rubio New principle: Whenever Rubio posts a puzzle, check whether today is a day with a particular name and see whether it's thematic :-).

@Sid What happens is that Rubio posts a puzzle whose answer is FATHER.

Mithrandir

You forgot the spoiler markup! :O

Gareth McCaughan

what, here? I tend to assume that anyone here is happy to be spoiled for anything on the site.

It's not uncommon for puzzles to be solved collaboratively here, e.g.

Mithrandir

I was kidding, don't worry

n_palum

@GarethMcCaughan Add je to it somehow?

Gareth McCaughan

or LEA or JUMB or something

but none of them seems to work

I suppose we can get FEATHER

after removing both ends of JET

but feathers don't exactly "soar"

n_palum

8:20 PM

Makes sense

No but they do float

Is Rubio becoming a Father? Or is this for Father's Day? Or both?

Also Happy Father's Day to our resident fathers

Gareth McCaughan

I assume it's for Father's Day. You may remember he did one for Memorial Day recently too.

(hence my remark above about checking for date-thematic puzzles every time Rubio posts something)

Rubio

Nice job @GarethMcCaughan :) and yeah I've been being moderately thematic for a decent number of special days thus far.

Gareth McCaughan

Incidentally, your comment to Tobias was a huge hint.

There was basically only one word anywhere in his answer that could be one of yours, and once I had GATHER the rest was pretty straightforward :-).

(I'd been thinking MUSTER for that one, which is near enough in spirit that I'd probably have got there eventually...)

Rubio

Well I wanted to see it solved before the day was up - for reasons fairly obvious. I didn't mind giving that up at this point :)

Mike Q

Ah, I did not realize that "endless" could mean both ends.

Rubio

8:32 PM

By the way if you didn't figure it out: "change of heart beginning".

Gareth McCaughan

D'oh! No, I hadn't figured that out.

tobiasvl

@Mithrandir Hey! You too! I saw Rand in a comment too

Mithrandir

@tobiasvl Rand is the user with the most rep on Puzzling...

ffao

I wasn't even aware today was Father's Day until Mith's comment an hour ago, so I'm happier about not having checked for that

Sphinx

0

Q: Help me find my girlfriend!

All right... I admit it, I'm not great at puzzles. Someone kidnapped my girlfriend, but they left me a ransom message. I obviously don't have a million dollars, and I'm scared.. You seem to know what you're doing, though... can you folks help? Please... I need your help. (The note is the only ...

steganography

tobiasvl

9:04 PM

the problem with finding this stack is that you immediately start thinking up lots of bad riddles

Mithrandir

Yes. We had a problem with bad riddles for a while.

Sp3000

@Rubio {PORT}<- after [s]CAL[e] = ... CALTROP?

(here I was thinking TROP is the end of no word ever but apparently not)

Deusovi

ooh, nice

yeah, that's gotta be it

Sp3000

CCCC: One gram of water found in exterior of logged acacia (9)

Mithrandir

@Deus puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/37694/game-of-thrones

Deusovi

9:13 PM

Got it.

Sphinx

0

Q: The old tinkerer's safe

A client of mine died last Sunday - just as he was born on a Sunday. He was already at rather ripe age, and I had the pleasure to present his last will to his loving and caring family. As far as I know, they haven't seen him in years, but they for sure knew one thing: He'd made a lot of invent...

visual cryptography

n_palum

You don't wanna watch GoT?

Mithrandir

@n_palum I'd rather nuke the spammers :)

ffao

Wow, nice Sp3k

No pressure, but I think whoever solves Sp3000's gets to set #500

Rubio

9:49 PM

@Sp3000 curse you, Nemesis. CALTROP was of course correct.

Sp3000

The edit made it easier because 1) it couldn't be a synonym any more and 2) "Why would Rubio think 'behind' was not as good... must be a reversal" :P

Gareth McCaughan

@Sp3000 CCCC solution is LIGHTWOOD

exterior of logged = LD, containing IGHTWOO = 1g H2O

Rubio

Yeah. Sorta blew it there. But realized belatedly that behind isn't actually a good reversal indicator.

Sp3000

According to ffao, looks like Gareth gets 500 :P

Gareth McCaughan

(I was distracted for a while by trying to find something with ML or IML in it)

nice, btw; it took me a nonzero time to convince myself to consider that IGHTWOO might be something clueable, if you see what I mean.

Rubio

9:57 PM

Wow. IGHTWOO that's pretty amazing.

Deusovi

Yeah, that's good.

ffao

10:15 PM

took me a while to get that :o

Sphinx

0

Q: Move 2 or 3 spaces in this 5 by 5 grid

You have a 5 by 5 Board as shown. You start from the S (Center) position. You can: 1 Move TWO or THREE spaces only 2 You can move Vertically or Horizontally or Diagonally but only in a straight line ( No moves like the Knight in Chess) 3 You must visit all the squares but only ONCE 4 Yo...

strategy grid-deduction

Deusovi

10:31 PM

@Sphinx Pretty sure that's a dupe. Can't find it though.

n_palum

@Deusovi Deepak made a larger one of those before, this is a different version iirc

12

Q: Move the coin in the color grid

You need to move the Coin from the S(tart) cell to the END cell. Rules: From S you can move to cells 2,7 or 8. From BLUE cells you can only move ONE space diagonally. From YELLOW cells you can only move ONE space horizontally or vertically. From RED cells you can move in any direction BUT y...

grid-deduction

Deusovi

No, not that one.

The rules were "move 3 spaces orthogonally or 2 spaces diagonally".

n_palum

Ah then I'm not sure

Gareth McCaughan

CCCC: Carry on -- untie knots restraining dress (8)

ffao

but the "don't jump through S" condition would make it a different puzzle and not a dupe

unless the solution for that one doesn't jump through S anyway

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