The Sphinx's Lair

Avi

2:48 AM

is "without boots" a valid subtraction indicator for the last character?

and is "without a hat" a valid subtraction indicator for the first character?

I'm freezing without end in a city in New Mexico, missing two boots, and nearly dead without a hat (2, 4)

SO COLD = SOCO(-rro) + (-o)LD

Deusovi

3:37 AM

I'd say no to both of those (plus, your clue has an extra "in" between indicator and fodder, which doesn't get used)

(maybe "without a hat" is okay, but that seems questionable -- "without boots", definitely not)

Sphinx

6:33 AM

0

Q: At The Square Brackets

The sky is so clear As if I am in emptiness. "Insert coin here" Says the arcade just emplaced. I will bring my eraser If my paper is swapped with a scrap. Nothing to extract from the scrap Since they'll merge together anyway. I count and find The supremum and the infimum. A...

Sphinx

12:44 PM

0

Q: In the top five, I'm odd

When I am done, I'm served. When you are me, be proud. In the top five, I'm odd. I'm one of the unlucky ones, or royally envied. What am I?

riddle word wordplay poetry

hexomino

5:08 PM

@msh210 CCCC: I think it's NENE where "Sandwich's fowl" is the definition and NE (né) is synonymous with originally which is both on top and on the right side.

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

is that a bird?

apparently it is

it's a goose with a word like sandwich in its latin name

hexomino

Yes, native to The Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands)

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

just saw that

never hird of it

heard

I would've joined that contact game earlier but I was at work

8:00 on thursday, I wasn't registered

the one earlier this week i mean

but that has to be it

Avi

6:30 PM

@Deusovi :( tragic

PiIsNot3

@Avi you got some time? We’re trying to start a Codenames game

Avi

uhhh, I'm currently giving feedback on my puzzle

there are a lot of possible answers so I have to deconfirm/confirm as quickly as possible

otherwise people will lose interest

Avi

6:45 PM

and now lunch :x

Deusovi

6:58 PM

yeah, you're defining three words with two, so you're going to have at least one word "uncovered" most of the time

msh210

@hexomino Close enough. It's NENE (Sandwich [Islands] fowl) = né + NE (northeastern = on top and on the right side)

Avi

8:45 PM

Alrighty

I'm up for whatever game

John Dvorak

Codenames being busy, about to start another game

Avi

nice timing :D

msh210

For some reason it doesn't show on my room list. Can you link to it, please?

@JohnDvorak or @Avi

user58

Codenames

For playing the game Codenames. New players, see puzzling.meta...

msh210

@user58 Or you. :-) Thanks!

user58

8:48 PM

:)

hexomino

9:19 PM

@msh210 Ah yes, okay, I thought it was a little strange the way I interpreted it.

CCCC: Dinosaur's head and tail both included in hybrid mix-up. (6)

Deusovi

MU(D_+_D)LE

Gareth McCaughan

59 seconds.

hexomino

@Deusovi Wow, too fast!

Avi

whattt

hexomino

I really thought that would throw people off.

Deusovi

9:25 PM

It threw me off a bit at first

but then I realized that "dinosaur's head and tail both included in hybrid" wouldn't work as a definition

there were no deletions I could see, so the natural assumption was that "mix-up" couldn't be an anagram indicator - it must be the definition

Avi

dinosaur's head and tail = ?

Deusovi

and then "dinosaur's head and tail" had only two possible parsings: D_R or D_+_D

PiIsNot3

@Avi "Dinosaur's head" = D_; "and tail" = _D

Avi

oooh, sneaky!

hexomino

@Deusovi Very good.

Deusovi

9:29 PM

very nice clue!

Seems like it's my turn then - the only clue I have immediately available is an incredibly gimmicky one

anyone in the mood for a game of "the answer's obvious but how does the parsing work"?

Avi

sure

PiIsNot3

@Deusovi I live for the gimmicks :)

Deusovi

CCCC: Bone near the ear canal's start, essentially to be taken in by (maybe) all humans (7 or 5 or 6)

Gareth McCaughan

the answer is indeed obvious

and if you've really managed to get all the "obvious" things as answers then that's impressive indeed

Deusovi

(I apologize for any questionable bits - I've tried to make it as un-questionable (non-questionable?) as possible, but there are certainly some less-than-elegant parts)

Gareth McCaughan

9:39 PM

so perhaps the parsing for the 7 is that "essentially to be taken in by X Y" means "Y inside the outermost letters of X", which with X=maybe and Y=all yields MALLE, plus US ("humans") for MALLEUS

Deusovi

that wasn't the intended parsing - I wouldn't use that without a comma

Gareth McCaughan

I don't like it either :-).

Avi

what's the "obvious" answer?

Gareth McCaughan

ANVIL, STAPES, MALLEUS

three bones in the inner ear; the def for any of them could be "bone", "bone near the ear", "bone near the ear canal" or "bone near the ear canal's start"

Avi

Isn't it Incus Stapes Malleus

Gareth McCaughan

9:42 PM

oh, could well be INCUS instead of ANVIL

which has the advantage of having a C in it

so perhaps that one's C (canal's start) inside (essentially to be taken) [IN (in) + (by) US (maybe all humans)]

Avi

7 or 5 or 6 probably sets the order, so would it be MALLEUSINCUSSTAPES or MALLEUSORINCUSORSTAPES

oh, what?

Gareth McCaughan

no, I think this is a clue with multiple parsings

Avi

does it clue all of them?

Gareth McCaughan

each of which yields one of those bones

Avi

ohhhh, interesting

Your parsing for INCUS seems right

Deusovi

9:45 PM

close enough - "essentially to be taken in" is the insertion indicator, "by" is IN (as in a deadline -- e.g. "I want this done [by/in] three hours from now")

Gareth McCaughan

ah, and presumably STAPES is ST + APES where APES is "maybe all humans" or something of the sort, though the ST isn't very clear to me yet

maybe it's S(-tar)T with "essentially to be taken in" meaning to remove the insides

Avi

M= Maybe, + ALL=ALL + US=humans, to be taken in by = indicator for container, start, essentially = E

Gareth McCaughan

I don't think M=maybe is possible

Deusovi

@GarethMcCaughan once again, close enough: "essentially to be taken" means "with middle letters removed", and "in by" means "near" (it's a regional usage, but it's one I've seen occasionally)

Gareth McCaughan

eww

Deusovi

9:48 PM

and Avi's parsing for the last is correct ("maybe" = M is something I've definitely seen)

Gareth McCaughan

(please don't take any disapproving noises too seriously; getting anything even remotely like satisfactory wordplay yielding all three of those is astonishing)

but, still, eww squared for M=maybe

Avi

yey

If i think of a clever CC in the next 5 minutes I'll tell you

Deusovi

I could've used "men (all humans)" there, but I thought "maybe" worked better? I didn't realize there was a problem with "maybe = M"

Gareth McCaughan

I suggest that Avi, having got the last (hence presumably most difficult) component, should set the next CCCC.

Maybe there's no problem with maybe->M. But I don't remember ever seeing it before and it seems pretty arbitrary to me.

Deusovi

I was going to suggest that you do it (because I thought the ST might be more difficult), but either is fine by me.

(I've seen it in the same context as "yes/no" -> Y/N, which is relatively common AFAIK.)