The Sphinx's Lair

12:58 AM

to "tout" is to attempt to sell something, typically by pestering people in an aggressive or bold manner, i.e. to hawk (wares)
Henry is a unit of measure also written "H".
"U" is a common shorthand for university.
"CN" is the tld for China.
And finally, Piggy is U+NC + _OUT + H

Deusovi

@Rubio that's right!

Did you come up with that attempting to find a bad solution? (Or did you consider that one bad before I confirmed it?)

Rubio

I started making a bad solution and ... then realized I had it about halfway through :)

if I had found a genus of hawk that ended with a U i would have had a lovely BadC4Solution

Sphinx

1:14 AM

0

Q: How to obain the 6- and 12-gon with 6 rectangles?

Let say you have 6 equal business cards. Question. How to put them on a table to create the regular hexagon regular dodecagon?

geometry

Rubio

1:34 AM

CCCC: Piggy lost tail to half-clear muddled addled head, left line for movie (5 6)

sorry China, you get left out this time

msh210

6:04 AM

@Rubio ouch. I was so close.

Sphinx

6:22 AM

0

Q: Vowelburgers™ Chef’s Special #3

Inspired by Avi's Vowelburger™ Riddle. Hope you enjoyed our previous Chef’s Special: #1 and #2 Our chef went way ahead to prepare the biggest Vowelburger™ menu till date! There is a burger for every size. The chef’s choice of the day consists of a vowel patty, cheese, lettuce, and a special bun....

riddle word pattern letters

0

Q: Footmen And Friends #3: Eviction

Welcome to Episode 3, where we have a strange puzzle for today. Pawns aren't legally allowed on the first and eighth ranks, but today we make an exception for the sake of creating another long but fun puzzle. We shall return to our regularly scheduled orthodox problems next time on Footmen And Fr...

no-computers chess optimization

jafe

7:28 AM

how does "tails" mean the first letter there

or is tails = T a thing

msh210

7:54 AM

@jafe yes. H and T are standard abbreviations for heads and tails when discussing coin-flipping

Sphinx

0

Q: Fourth Wall Riddle #1

Sneaky, sneaky, cool guy How I wonder what you are? The correct answer is an image (it already exists, just link to it in your answer).

riddle enigmatic-puzzle

Sphinx

8:16 AM

1

Q: Up, down, left, right

Right 1. Stop behind fashionable content (6) 4. Wingspan is chosen to cover language for left clues (8) 10. Former students crossed feet and consumed metal compounds (9) 11. Six losses to start with? Getting to grips with the Yankees' home record (5) 12/17. I give out broken Segas to get fluid,...

knowledge language cryptic-crosswords

jafe

9:07 AM

@Rubio TO(-e)+T(-o)+ALREC*+A_+L+L

Rubio

9:23 AM

@jafe ✔️

jafe

CCCC: A piece by Mr. Shakespeare (4,4)

msh210

10:25 AM

@jafe KING JOHN, &lit

jafe

@msh210 that's correct

msh210

I did have to check to discover that John Shakespeare was a person.

CCCC: Make-out award (4)

Rubio

11:12 AM

@msh210 ESPY ddef. is an answer, possibly yours

msh210

@Rubio it is indeed mine

Rubio

CCCC: Wingless creature is a pain in my ... foot? (4)

jafe

heheh

Rubio

11:33 AM

@Sphinx @jafe goodness. This is really cool. :)

jafe

thanks! it was a lot of fun to make

inspired by athin's indonesian cryptic, naturally :)

msh210

@jafe holy moly

Gareth McCaughan

11:50 AM

It was fun to solve too.

glad to hear it

@Rubio aGOUTi?

@msh210 ✔️

Nice clue

Danke

11:54 AM

CCCC: Principia Mathematica section forms a subreddit (4)

Rubio

@msh210 _IAmA_

msh210

Yep! I was debating between that clue and: Principia Mathematica section a Roman loves (4) = AMAT. Whaddaya think?

Rubio

the latter would have been marginally harder. I like both

CCCC: A weapon lost in a Los Angeles beach (6)

hexomino

@Rubio Is this LAGUNA = L + A GUN + A

Rubio

Aye

Gareth McCaughan

12:06 PM

What's the "a" after "in" doing?

Rubio

Polluting the beach apparently

hexomino

I think if the "a" is dropped the clue still reads nicely

CCCC: Shakespeare play with breadth. (3,4)

Rubio

Yeh not sure why I put that in. Did that clue months ago hehe

Gareth McCaughan

@hexomino THE BARD.

(anag)

hexomino

@GarethMcCaughan yep

Gareth McCaughan

12:14 PM

ugh, I shouldn't have solved that; I ought to be working and I already spent an hour or so solving multilingual crossword clues, and now I have to make a new C4 myself :-).

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan no rush

hexomino

@GarethMcCaughan Yeah, we've just had four in a relatively short period of time so I think a little break will not be frowned upon.

Sphinx

12:44 PM

2

Q: What do you call this Twisty puzzle?

I've this Twisty puzzle: I opened it; then mixed it up and then threw away the box... I'm trying to find help online on how to solve it, but I have no idea how / where to start. Any help / links / tips will be appreciated.

twisty-puzzles

1

Q: The Old Man and the Police Officer

An old man walks into a Police Station. He asks for help. A Police Officer on duty asks a short question. The old man is scared and starts sweating. The officer grabs that old man from behind and puts him on the ground. Before long the officer starts beating him with his fist. Every...

riddle enigmatic-puzzle

Sphinx

2:19 PM

0

Q: Find the missing number in the series

Numbers in the series: 4,12,14,16, ?, 25 Please help me find the missing number in the series above. I have already tried with different sequences but unable to solve this. Thanks.

calculation-puzzle number-sequence

Sphinx

2:38 PM

1

Q: Squared, what is in the post-scriptum?

Just received an inventation from a fellow mathematicien for a party, the inventation is quite clear. Where I need to be at what time is clearly said in the inventation, but at the bottom of the inventation he posted a P.S. as follows: Word 1 (2 letters): $[3*3]+[1*1]+[2*2]+[2*2]$ Word 2 (5 let...

mathematics pattern calculation-puzzle geometry

1

Q: 7 clues that fit a squid

7 clues that fit an octopus, a monkey, the monkey's brother, the monkey's cousin and a Siamese centaur. 1) small adorned 2) place you can drink 3) after about 4) the kind I like to meet 5) be1oved teacher 6) one thousand imposter 7) "the kid" jacket

riddle enigmatic-puzzle

Sphinx

2:57 PM

0

Q: Aha! So elegant!

What does this image below represent?

cipher visual

Puzzling Meta

3:10 PM

0

Q: Riddles involving Stack Exchange: Off topic?

I recently created this riddle which requires users to look through Puzzling Stack Exchange for the correct answer. I realized that this kind of question is brittle and shaky, primarily because this kind of question is not timeless. It depends on how Stack Exchange was at one point in time. Thing...

discussion

Avi

3:53 PM

In response to this question, there are puzzles that relate to the status of Puzzling Stack Exchange at any given point in time that are also good puzzles. For example, the Deusovi Honeypot puzzle used Deusovi's renown as a puzzler (on PSE) as its premise. Although the puzzle took this premise, it was equally good as a stand-alone puzzle.

In conclusion, it is perfectly fine to create puzzles involving (Puzzling) Stack Exchange. However, you should ensure that the requisite background knowledge is present within the introduction (or linked), and that the puzzle mechanics stand solid alone. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting your question closed or downvoted into oblivion.

Now if only I weren't too lazy to make a meta account that I already have...

@jafe Loud dirge, perhaps about tree cut in half (6)

North

4:10 PM

@Avi I feel endangered

Avi

Rest in pieces

... and be S(TR(-ee))ONG

North

@Avi I think the main question to ask is, "Does this puzzle require me to have specific knowledge of the site that would be considered unfair?

Deusovi Honeypot didn't need knowledge of Deusovi for someone to solve it. It was inherently funnier and more interesting for Deusovi to be trapped in there, but as far as I'm concerned, the central premise of the puzzle was not about Deusovi, but rather a mathematical maze of a sort.

Replace Deusovi in that with anybody, and the puzzle still makes complete sense (albeit the story).

Avi

4:57 PM

@North Yup, I believe that captures the essence of it. Go ahead and answer, if you please.

North

@Avi already did lol

Avi

Oh, but Deusovi already has :O

North

Dw, I sited you

Avi

Oh, and so have you

xd

Alright, looks good - I'm out for a bit again

Sphinx

6:08 PM

-1

Q: You can solve this!

Can you solve this? 1=2 3=18 5=50 4=32 Then 6=?

riddle mathematics knowledge lateral-thinking number-sequence

1

Q: I am terrible at my new hobby

My new hobby is putting things in alphabetical order. To my shame, it turns out I'm terrible at it. The list below is all wrong, but I can't see where the error is. Can you help me out? How can I alphabetize this list correctly? ALDRICH · BLUES · DAY · ISRAEL · LIFTING · MALE · METAL · NEUTRINO ...

word-property

Avi

I see a question pop up on Sphinx

I click

Deusovi has answered it...

Need to finish sudok

jafe

6:42 PM

blink and you miss 'em

Sphinx

7:57 PM

0

Q: Novel integer sequence problem?

In the following sequence, what should be the next number? 1 1 1 2 5 1 1 2 2 4 5 8 17 50 11 ?

number-sequence

Rand al'Thor

9:07 PM

Couldn't believe the current CCCC had lasted 8 hours ... scroll up to check the transcript and indeed it didn't.

Sphinx

-2

Q: This is challenging but you can do it!

You can solve this! This is challenging but just try your best!! L+L+L+L=28 C+C+L=17 C+T=9 L+C+T-L=?? I know you can solve this!

arithmetic

jafe

well it did last 6 minutes, which is the longest out of the last three CCCCs :)

Gareth McCaughan

9:52 PM

ah, yes, I owe y'all a clue, don't I?

Gareth McCaughan

10:48 PM

CCCC: Friend embracing wealthy family member in the countryside (8)

Sphinx

11:06 PM

0

Q: Most moves by Most number of Pieces

Using one color of chessmen place as many pieces (K,Q,B,N,R,P or combinations) as you can on a chessboard so that when the number of pieces is multiplied by the number of the possible moves we get the greatest value S , where S = (no.of pieces) X (no. of moves). What materials and position should...

chess

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