The Sphinx's Lair

ASCII-only

2:25 AM

@Wen1now uh ? Used to be qo (quaestio) and ! Used to be io

Sphinx

0

Q: No fear for nuclear explosion

On one day,billions of people sees lights from real nuclear explosion, but they don't escape and even have no fear for that, just continue their life as usual, why?

situation

boboquack

@as4s4hetic in Auslan?

as4s4hetic

4:04 AM

nope, ASL :P

Sphinx

4:40 AM

0

Q: See if you can figure this code out

eMj6L8twk5koxk629gXRN6gEhoDNWPMr+gtRZaTxUPmfsPBW739l11YzhVuW6gH3w ap4jn9uPbDkfzfGLBAOMbzZAeE37r7gmSwmDAfN0fAOyTOJyAPmCHg50Qmaamc20V TmdpSmQbJbeaQAnqEzKkcaJL80gK9w5RppXThN24KxYBaMlHOghxeWLRF+163LvMr zvXp+9LRKTJ/p29eTxrdcNWnCjIq6gl0KsSzEG8u5Dk9+ebnToYJUABGwuhVTbJsr /6Klz7ja76w+dAK5DvpKK5FXTzjEUgE/r...

cipher

Rubio

^ See if you can learn how (not) to set a puzzle.

John Dvorak

Hmm... atob + gunzip?

Rubio

I didn't waste my time

Alconja

6:06 AM

Ok, I'm feeling a bit concerned about the fairness of my CC, so here's a clue:

CCCC hint: There's a three letter key to understanding the most difficult leap required...

Ankoganit

8:35 AM

@Alconja Done.

ASCII-only

8:51 AM

looks at CCCC

:/ oh no time to learn from the archive i guess

ffao

9:52 AM

that last comment makes me want to say "misunderstanding" means to anagram "understanding", but that has too many letters :(

Sp3000

My thought was regarding USE-less, but not sure

ASCII-only

Hmm what does "cry from" mean

Sp3000

Cry could be def? shrugs

ffao

That was my second thought but I don't know what use-less could mean other than "remove use"

Sp3000

Yeah, remove the letters USE, or a synonym, or something was my thought too

ASCII-only

10:02 AM

So def could be CRY or USELESS, key could be CRY, MIS or USE?

~~I wonder what the difficult leap is~~ I wonder which one(s) can be considered a difficult leap

Wen1now

Hi guys

REDUNDANT

SING from UNDERSTANDING anagrammed

Ankoganit

Oh

Sounds like that's it

ASCII-only

Oh >_> didn't think to remove SING lol

Ankoganit

Although X from Y doesn't seem to mean remove X from Y imo

Unless "useless" is doing double duty

Wen1now

from (def 7 from google): "indicating separation or removal."

Ankoganit

10:15 AM

Hm

Guess it works then

as4s4hetic

@ffao you know your sleep cycle is screwed up when you're up at the same time as a bunch of australians :P

ASCII-only

@as4s4hetic :| Not exactly true

It's 7:17am over there in ffao-land

as4s4hetic

oh you're right

Wen1now

ffao-land. I like it

Sp3000

It's like dream-land, but you don't sleep so there's no dreaming

ASCII-only

10:25 AM

I think it's also known as "Disboard"

Sp3000

Hah.

ffao

According to the official time it's actually 3:30am

Wen1now

official time?

ffao

Unless you mean the land I'm from and not the land I'm in

Well, official time, since I like to say that I live in a different timezone :P

If that solution is correct, I'm not particularly fond of cry=sing and redundant=useless

ASCII-only

10:40 AM

@ffao Then your sleep cycle is ~~screwed up~~ perfectly fine

ffao

I might go to bed early today, the sooner I arrive at work tomorrow, the sooner my weekend starts

Sp3000

I think fairness-wise, the combination of MIS- as an anagrind + needing to remove an indirect SING that's not contiguous before anagramming makes it a tad unfair. If the SING was contiguous it wouldn't be as tricky (although at least the letters are in order)

ASCII-only

5 hours ago, by Alconja

Ok, I'm feeling a bit concerned about the fairness of my CC, so here's a clue:

Wen1now

11:51 AM

@alconja
https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/39483423#39483423

Alconja

@Wen1now Nicely done. Redundant it is.

Beastly Gerbil

nice

Alconja

@Sp3000 Pretty much exactly my sentiment, hence the early hint. Didn't think it was outright breaking rules, but at the same time if it stood for a week people might have been (rightfully) peeved.

@Ankoganit Awesome. Thanks.

Ankoganit

:)

ffao

12:23 PM

now we need a new C4 Wen

Beastly Gerbil

Wen you are ready, we'll have 1 now ;)

Wen1now

12:44 PM

Ooh, my first clue

ffao

Yep, I was checking it in the archive just now :)

Sid

How is cry "sing" though?

Apep

A bird crying would be singing, perhaps.

Beastly Gerbil

cry and sing are synonyms

ffao

eh... very loosely

Apep

12:59 PM

Ah, to shout (out).

Rubio

1:19 PM

Heh. Not at all a fan of MIS- as anagrind there

ffao

after the hint it was quite obvious, but before the hint it never occurred to me

Rubio

I probably missed the hint

Wen1now

This is probably terrible

ASCII-only

7 hours ago, by Alconja

CCCC hint: There's a three letter key to understanding the most difficult leap required...

Rubio

s/difficult/nonstandard/ ;)

Beastly Gerbil

1:25 PM

@wen1now go for it!

Rubio

I was looking at useless as subtraction indicator for USE, and seeing that hint wouldn't have dissuaded me from that

ffao

It didn't dissuade me, especially since all letters of USE are also in UNDERSTANDING

But that gives one letter too many

ASCII-only

For some reason I always thought it useless was the def, I guess I just think "is" separates the def better than "from" does?

Wen1now

CCCC: Even advised, I can't design a clue (8)

Rubio

I did, but didn't get anywhere with the rest of the wordplay, so started widening my search

Beastly Gerbil

1:27 PM

lol

Sp3000

([a]D[v]I[s]E[d] + ICANT)* = INDICATE

ffao

from as a linker is quite good imo

Wen1now

@Sp3000 Okay, you're up

ASCII-only

Maybe I'm just too used to programming :P

Wen1now

Going to bed now, cya

Rubio

1:29 PM

that "a" is spurious, otherwise that was a good CC

Wen1now

I wanted it to be 'clues' but couldn't squeeze an extra s in to make indicates

ffao

Design is an anagrind?

Rubio

"Even advised, I can't design clue (8)" would have been fine

Alconja

@Rubio hey, "mis-" as a prefix literally means "wrongly", which is a standard anagram indicator.

Rubio

and yes, design is an anagrind

ffao

1:30 PM

That's much worse than mis- as anagram indicator

Rubio

@Alconja oh, I get it. I just don't like it. hehe

http://bestforpuzzles.com/cryptic-crossword-dictionary/anagram-indicators.html
is one of the better anagrind lists, and it's there

Alconja

:) don't worry, I didn't like it either. Hence the hints.

ffao

I'm not debating it's standard, I just think it's bad. :P

Rubio

fair enough :)

Alconja

some of those are way worse than mis. :P

Rubio

1:33 PM

nah. if you want to see legitimately *bad* anagrinds, try this dreck: highlightpress.com.au/1001-anagram-indicators.html

ASCII-only

> amuse EDIT: Oh god there are so many

Alconja

(quietly bookmarks, ready for the next janky cc)

Rubio

yah NO, don't use that page ever. :)

@ASCII-only Don't bother listing the awful ones. That page should be titled "A couple hundred anagrinds, maybe, and a lot of filler crap that someone thought was anagrindy for some reason, so we could hit 1,001"

ASCII-only

@Rubio That's why I stopped after one :P

Sp3000

2:01 PM

(Guess who depleted their clue bank)

CCCC: Ruin display (outside retail complex) for confection (11)

ASCII-only

@Sp3000 IDK, can't possibly be you because you have a clue :P

Sp3000

Eh, not a very good one though, but it'll do :P

ASCII-only

I think I have it but IDK if ~~cheating is~~ offsite resources are allowed for this @Sp3000

Sp3000

Eh, shrugs, do as you wish

(It's not like there's official rules for C4s or anything)

ASCII-only

MAR + SH(MALL)OW

Sp3000

2:13 PM

Yup

ASCII-only

Had to use onelook because ~~I was too lazy~~ I don't usually eat those, also thesaurus.com because I'm not american

Rubio

(~~offsite~~ reference resources are fine, though most of us usually prefer to solve without them until some decent amount of time has elapsed without progress)

Beastly Gerbil

I thought ruin was an anagram indicator :)

Rubio

That's because sp3000 is cruel and clever.

Sp3000

(I may or may not have picked "display" due to it being 7 letters)

Sid

2:20 PM

Gah, I got roasted now by seniors on an interview..

Beastly Gerbil

I was looking for display+shop/mall anagrams :P

ASCII-only

Sp's metapuzzle makes me want to do one, but I'm sure I need to figure out how to actually write a cryptic clue first lol

Sid

Sp made a meta puzzle without any of us even suspecting it because he is Sp3000.

Rubio

(And because nobody had done it before)

ASCII-only

The spreadsheet appears to be a bit outdated

Rubio

2:38 PM

Yeah, that happens. Eventually someone catches it up

Sid

Yeah, Deus or plum will come around to update that. :P

Sp3000

(It may or may not have been more up-to-date recently due to a certain someone volunteering for updates to make it harder for the other updaters to notice - I'll update in a bit if it's not done by then though)

ASCII-only

Hmm, what are the restrictions on CCCC solutions (if any)

Rubio

I'll probably catch it up this afternoon

solutions are notionally something you'd find in a crossword - a single word or a meaningful phrase

But if you look through the archive you'll see there are absurdly long solutions that obviously don't fit in any crossword, and likewise a solution of zero length, so

here the rules are a bit more liberal :)

Sp3000

Basically, just think how you would feel if you were solving and whether you'd enjoy it. You could clue "alphabet chunk after DEF" as the def for GHIJK if you really wanted, but it's pretty arbitrary

ASCII-only

2:54 PM

steals Sp's clue

Sp3000

(That clue's actually from the New York Times, but was somewhat forced due to the grid's theme)

Beastly Gerbil

3:07 PM

new c4?

ASCII-only

Um :| sorry can't think of one ~~is it possible to raincheck~~ someone else can do it if it's allowed

Beastly Gerbil

sure

Rubio

but I don't thinky̅ou quiṫe̔ unde̷rs͢tand wha̶̹͇̪̣̪̤t you asḱ...the ch͐͌̈͑a̾̽̇̈̈́in mͣ̄̏̚uͭͦͭ͋͒ͬs͆ͭt noť̵͎ͧͣ̋̀̚ b̼̭̯̜̘̓ͤ͂ͫe͇̦͉̼͈̯̪̝ͪ̒ͪ̔ͮ ḇ̹̘͇̼̅ͦ͛ͩ̅͆̄ͥr̞̙͍̫̠̖̲ͣo̮̮̼̱̭͇̦͑̎̆̆͂k̞͖̹̗͖͔͖͑̐͒ẽ̬̘̦̻̪͓̙̤̐ͣn̫̤̻͖͌ͦ̇̈̈́͛ͮ̍ — l̳̹͈̖ͭ͒e͔̠͇̱̹̾̒̌͛̿ͣ̅͂s̫̱̰͈̳̒̾ͅt͎ͥ͌ ͔̭̦͙̮͓̟̲̓̾͛͛̎t̺̘͔̦̜̱͚̀̈ͮͬͭh̰̗̗̣̟̺̹̪̓̀̍̌͊͗̄͑̚ė̮͗ͦ̆̒̅̚ eldŕ̫͕̩͎̳̭̝̳̂̀̔͂͑͂̍î̪͎͇ͤͦͭ̒̒tc͈̱̦̟̏̊̂͗̽͊̎͌ḣ̟̜̬̰̬̬̳̽̅͊ ̖̯͎̣͊̈̃͂̈͑͑̅ä̫̹̠́͑b͚̝̘̿̓o̰̲̱̭͉̭̐̂ͪm̫̟͇̰̼̖͍ͩ̉ͣ͆inȃ͇͔̆͊̒͒ͤṫ̻̙͕͔͎̙̠ͬ̓͌̎ͥ̿͛ͫi̔͆́ͤͯ‌͔̘̺̤͚̫̇͑͒̈ͅo̠̮͍͍̳̱̿̓̑ͅn͚̩̰̖̩̠̆ͪ̍͑ͮͅs c͌̈́͒̍͛o̐ͭ̽̍̆m̿̎̈͌̄ͦ̈́e͌

Beastly Gerbil

:P

ASCII-only

If people don't mind waiting a day or so for the next clue then okay

ASCII-only

4:06 PM

looks up ddef

> Dilbert/Dogbert Empathy Factor

then i realized what it meant

Sid

@ASCII-only Go through Deus's guide

ASCII-only

@Sid I don't think it says what ddef is short for though

Sid

Not only for ddefs. You can look through others and get some idea

ASCII-only

4:40 PM

Forgive me for the ~~bad~~ nonsense/unintelligible CCCC coming soon (and pls point to relevant sections of the guide I probably didn't read properly)

CCCC: Bad grade subsequently is fine in third year, says comedian (5)

Apep

e after ok, in JR = J(ok+e)r

Sid

How JR?

Apep

junior

freshman -> sophomore -> junior -> senior

Sid

Isn't 3rd year, senior? Or am I simply wrong?

ASCII-only

@Apep yes that was quick lol

@Sid I think you're wrong, I double checked with Google before posting

Sid

4:45 PM

@Apep Hmm, I had the impression that Senior was used to refer to both 3rd year and final year students

ASCII-only

Depends on where you live I guess

Apep

CCCC: Crossing a waterway without a bird call. (4)

ASCII-only

Want to try this but it's time to sleep for me and I don't want to have to do another one today :P

Sid

@Apep Does that require knowledge of places or is it completely solvable to an alien who knows English but doesn't know about the Earth?

Apep

It does not use any proper nouns.

Sid

4:58 PM

Is that *doesn't or "does"?

Apep

oops, doesn't

I have a similar &lit that does, though.

Sphinx

0

Q: Which poem is this?

A friend sent me this poem recently and wanted me to take a guess about what it says and where it came from. The first word tricked me at first until after it became clear there was a misspelling error. Some of the words look familiar and seem to come from other languages, but most have no clear ...

poetry

Sphinx

5:15 PM

0

Q: What's the missing pattern? 3x3 grid, dot pattern

What is the missing piece to this pattern? Got it as a quiz at work - no one here knows what it is!

logical-deduction pattern visual geometry no-computers

Sconibulus

6:10 PM

Is the CCCC maybe Ford (crossing) a Fjord (waterway) without a j (Bird->Jay, Call for homophone?)

Apep

@Sconibulus yes

Sconibulus

CCCC: Dormancy is part of Western crop rotation (6)

stacksfiller

TORPOR is cROPROTation<

Sconibulus

yep

Beastly Gerbil

nice

M Oehm

6:22 PM

Nice surface.

stacksfiller

CCCC: Mixed race: Asian and Roman (9)

Beastly Gerbil

mixed race looks like RACE*

dunno about the rest

M Oehm

Or (RACE ASIAN)* even.

Beastly Gerbil

oh

Sid

(CAESARIAN)

(Race Asian)* - Roman=Def. Mixed=Anagrind

Beastly Gerbil

6:24 PM

damnit I was so close there!

I had 'caesar' :P

Nice surface there too

stacksfiller

Yup

Ye I'm happy with that surface, albeit the "and" is unused

Sid

@BeastlyGerbil Do you have a C4 ready?

Beastly Gerbil

er no

Partly because I have only ever solved 1 :P

Sid

Does anyone have a C4 ready?

@stacksfiller You could argue that "and" is a connector.

I don't know about its validity, of course

Beastly Gerbil

I've got one if you want?

Sid

6:30 PM

Yeah, go for it.

Beastly Gerbil

Give me two minutes to work on surface...

Mike Q

Time's up!

Beastly Gerbil

And I am ready :P

CCCC: Factory with charged particles is expensive (7)

Pretty rubbish but best I could think of in a couple of minutes

Apep

mill+ion

Sid

MILLION

Beastly Gerbil

6:38 PM

yah

Sid

Dang. I was so close...

Beastly Gerbil

apep had it first :)

Sid

Let me hide behind lag. :P

Apep

CCCC: The Sphinx creator's crazy direction (5)

Mike Q

6:52 PM

Do hieroglyphics count as letters?

Apep

𓀣𓃔𓆓

Sid

(It's empty boxes for me...)

(Heh, I just thought of a nice C4)

Apep

It's just random letters from the ancient Egyptian unicode block. There's no meaning to them.

Mike Q

So could I say that "Hawk, Foot, Ankh, Wiggly lines, Circle" is a possible 5-letter solution to the CCCC?

Beastly Gerbil

I'm going to go ahead and say 'no'

Sid

7:05 PM

Hm.. crazy probably isn't an anagrind since that would be indirect anagram(I think) and we are in a consensus that they are unfair

Mike Q

WILDE

Beastly Gerbil

eh?

Mike Q

Refers to The Sphinx, a poem by Oscar Wilde. Wordplay is WILD + E (east).

Sid

Ah

Apep

yup

Mike Q

7:08 PM

I require more than 2 minutes to prepare something

Beastly Gerbil

Thats fine

Mike Q

7:21 PM

CCCC: Enjoyment of Apple icon forgets precursor language. (8)

Sid

7:47 PM

Did chat just die?

I was redirected to Area51 site for some reason

John Dvorak

Nah, we're just not saying anything

Mike Q

Perhaps you were abducted by UFOs

Sid

I am guessing it's a bug

John Dvorak

Did they kinda look like Jamie Farr?

Transcript for