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12:33 AM
@oAlt Is the CCCC SHORTAGE? Suddenly = SHORT right before an era = AGE. D > S event is "when demand exceeds supply".
 
1:23 AM
@JeremyDover correct!
 
 
5 hours later…
6:35 AM
0
Q: Size of a square in a square

Joshua TaylorGiven a unit square (blue in the picture), pick a point on one edge and label it A. Label the distance from the nearest corner to A as x. Pick one of the corners opposite A and label it B. Call the remaining edge C. There is a unique square with one corner at A, one corner on edge C and with the ...

 
 
4 hours later…
10:58 AM
oh boy I just thought of some neat c4 material
Ok that's all LOL ttfn
 
11:20 AM
come on, sphinx, where's the bounty notice? fine, i'll post it myself
36
Q: With Apologies to Robert Frost

Rand al'ThorI heard this from an elderly German gentleman with a strong accent. At first I thought he was reciting a Robert Frost poem, but then the last line confused me. Some see de earth vill end times four, Some see de t'rice. From vot I've tasted of de four times, I and zose who know for whom ...

500 rep for cracking this two-year-old nut
 
11:47 AM
lololol
Looked at the answers and I'm still not convinced that "earth vill" can mean "equal"
 
i'm not sure whether to get more creative or less
 
I don't even know where the equations start and end
"From vot I've tasted of de four times, I and zose who know for whom it vas." Equals sign, numbers, and other variables, if you're there don't be afraid to come out... :)
 
12:49 PM
I have to say my impression of that one at present is "VTC too broad". I'm very willing to have my opinion changed, but it looks as if Rand overestimated how uniquely-decodable his phonetic rough transcription would be. I am willing to eat my virtual hat if it turns out e.g. that there's a plausible way to interpret all of Rand's text as transcribing some equations, without irrelevant filler or mere metaphor. But I can't get anything out of "from vot I've tasted of".
And, y'know, you can take "for whom it vos" to be something like "4 u e twice" but this feels waaaaay too forced to me.
 
Can one read this as "from what I've tested, D four times I answers..."? Admit I lose it after "and zose".
 
I also wondered about "answers" for "and zose".
 
Could "who know" be "uno"? That feels stretchy...
 
1:12 PM
I wondered about that too! But I don't think it makes sense to have someone who's apparently German (or Austrian or something) saying "uno" in place of "one" or at least "eins".
 
@jafe Oh damn, time to see if I can remember exactly the solution of that one :-P
I'm sure I have it written down in a text file ... somewhere ...
 
hahah
 
June 2018 ... blimey.
Don't even know which machine that'd be on.
OH! frost puzzle.txt - that seems promising.
 
This gives a different meaning to finding the solution :P
 
Gotta apologize in advance for this one. Can't get it out of my head to let something better to percolate up.
 
1:21 PM
It's also tricky because there's an existing answer which is on the right lines and is CW to encourage community improvement.
 
CCCC: Audible result of donkey bathing with reef fish (7,6)
 
If someone gets it in a new answer, they can get the bounty and poor Philipp's CW goes unrewarded. If someone edits the CW answer as Philipp intended, they get no reward for their efforts.
(If a bounty is awarded to a CW answer, I think the original poster of that answer gets the bounty rep.)
@cryptic-crossword-gurus: are indirect homophones equally frowned upon as indirect anagrams? e.g. could "Audible result" refer to a word which sounds like a synonym of "result"?
 
indirect homophones are fair game afaik
 
If so, I'm glad to retract, but I seem to remember this being OK. I try to double check for indirect anagrams, since I slip up on that sometimes.
Related question: what other indirects are generally considered fair game?
I feel like there's a gray area with extracting parts of words.
Head of X, Y heart seem to require the actual word.
But what about "Z dropping fourth"?
As a specific example, I used "cancel form's last" in a recent puzzle, where I was trying to use "form" to clue "body", dropping y to get BOD. When I wrote it, it looked OK...but when I went back later it definitely felt dirty.
 
i think it comes down to how many options there are that fit the clue
if you put "animal's heart" it can probably mean any 1-2 letter combo if you allow for indirects, which is not very useful
whereas if it's a long word and you remove the fourth letter there's not very much chance of coming up with the wrong word accidentally
 
1:34 PM
Oof, this latest user removal just hit me for 120 - now I can try and hit the 40k milestone again!
 
oh boy
@JeremyDover same to you and Gareth, but I have to agree it's stretchy LOL
 
oof, good luck finding a stiv post i haven't upvoted already...
 
@Stiv You'll get mad rep when you get that Fano plane :-)
 
@JeremyDover Ha! I do need to go back to that one... I had 6 categories that fitted and couldn't find a seventh. Worth another look...
 
2:02 PM
@jafe Oh, please don't you ever go getting removed then! ;-)
 
@Randal'Thor AFAIK, the usual rule is that anagrams, letter extractions, and hidden words must be direct; indirection on everything else is generally fair game
(this is a "rule" I've picked up by experience, and it probably isn't formalized anywhere - I'm sure it's based off of what jafe mentioned, how many options there are for the solver)
 
2:56 PM
Are technically-unnecessary adjectives legal in definitions? E.g. book -> run, quickly book -> run?
(not the best example, but you get the idea)
 
discouraged but allowed
 
I'm pretty much OK with it as long as it's not gratuitous. Usually those devices make a better surface, or help obscure the wordplay/definition boundary, and I regard both as legitimate uses.
 
Nothing wrong with them, though you probably shouldn't use them to excess
 
3:45 PM
yeet (lurks)
 
0
Q: Arrange ten pawns into ten lines of three

Florian FThis is not a chess problem! In the following position you can see six pawns that have been arranged into lines of three. Each pawn stands at the intersection of exactly two lines and each line contains exactly three pawns. Can you arrange ten pawns in such a way that each pawn is at the inters...

 
 
3 hours later…
6:58 PM
1
Q: Who can guess this five letter word the fastest?

CrozierPride comes before fall, but I come before these words. Can you solve each of these clues to reveal me? A five letter word will precede the word(s) in the following clues: A race title. (_ _ _ _) A popular vacation spot for those who like to explore. (_ _ _ _ _ _) Just add one letter an...

 
 
1 hour later…
8:15 PM
@JeremyDover After MUCH to-ing and fro-ing I believe I have an answer for you at last. (You're welcome!) :)
 
8:36 PM
Knew you'd get it! I hope it didn't take too much time away from your family :-) Adding a quick comment now.
 
And back up to 40k, @Stiv!
 
 
1 hour later…
9:46 PM
0
Q: Help solving a geocache

FredrickI'm trying to do my first geocache and I'm having some trouble. I would appreciate if someone could provide some more hints for me (please put the answer in spoilers). The geocache is a puzzle that is based on the following story taken from the geocache page: The coordinates will be found after ...

 
10:10 PM
0
Q: Geometric logos

RobPrattWhich famous company logos have the following geometric descriptions (listed alphabetically by company)? Four congruent circles with six points of intersection Regular pentagon containing five congruent triangles Concave kite atop isosceles triangle Hexagon partitioned into six congruent right t...

 
@JeremyDover Nah, don't worry - kids were watching Home Alone. Must be some kind of irony in that...
@Randal'Thor By the skin of my teeth!
 

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