The Sphinx's Lair

Prince North Læraðr

1:47 AM

@oAlt well, when there are only two letters involved, is there a difference in reversal versus an anagram?

:P

Sciborg

Did somebody solve the C4? I missed it

bobble

PUNCTUATION, with def ", perhaps"

Sciborg

WHAT

that's hilarious

Bravo

Sphinx

2:35 AM

0

Q: What do These Names Have in Common?

What verb do these four names have in common? Copenhagen Danny Roger Tina Hints:

word

Prince North Læraðr

^What the heck is with the hints

Sciborg

That is... definitely an unusual amount of hints

merrybot

six hints in 30 minutes??

sheesh

oAlt

3:38 AM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr you're not wrong :P

@Sciborg well except for the fact that i missed a whole word in making the clue :'(

athin

8:22 AM

@bobble eh, well, yes?

Sphinx

-4

Q: mmm mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm mmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm mmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

cipher english computer-puzzle

oAlt

dang

oAlt

8:50 AM

The concept of the cipher in the above puzzle is interesting to me, but it is undoubtedly too simple. Unfortunately as well, the puzzle is tedious in the wrong way

John Dvorak

Are you sure those aren't just song lyrics?

Deusovi

"a=1, b=2, ..." is like the most common encoding in puzzles

oAlt

Nah. Deus got the checkmark already @JohnDvorak

And yeah it's just a common cipher in a different form

John Dvorak

sixthing the downvotes then

jafe

CCCC: Located by the edge of taiga, a city in Siberia (5)

oAlt

8:54 AM

eyy it jafe

Is this an &lit, T+OMSK?

@jafe

jafe

yep!

oAlt

Here's a throwaway one, in honor of HTM's

CCCC: In the end, In end end, In the end, Volkswagen Touareg's motor (6)

athin

10:40 AM

Another entry for FTC#44 is incoming... ><

I supposedly published it yesterday but I thought it's better to be playtested first by its co-inventor....

Turns out I made this too hard as an entree, so I'm sorry before haha

oAlt

Hahahah

jafe

Jun 13 at 18:11, by msh210

CCCC: "People in the end, in the end, in the end, in…." It continues endlessly. Give up your sanity at the outset. (4,4)

Sphinx

10:58 AM

1

Q: Greener Grasses: Around the Trees

This is an entry for Fortnightly Topic Challenge #44: Introduce a new grid deduction genre to the community. Greener Grasses is apparently a new genre of grid puzzle. Pitched by Joseph Howard and executed by a friend of mine, Ivan Koswara a.k.a chaotic_iak. This was first appeared in 24-Hour Puz...

logical-deduction grid-deduction

oAlt

11:16 AM

@oAlt test

Hot dang

Oh I saw msh210's before, wonder why it didn't come to mind when I made the clue

@oAlt and msh210's :D

Sphinx

1:29 PM

0

Q: Seems to be sudoku-based, but numbers are identical. Is for a project that is to be submitted at the earliest

Help needed urgently! Thanking in advance

riddle mathematics wordplay enigmatic-puzzle cipher

0

Q: What type of puzzles do I like?

Zeur Tdconpziies Stevia rebaudiana (17) Predictable (4) Kirby (6) Tetromino minesweeper (3) Such as, fort to is "Word

cipher cryptic-clues

Omega Krypton

3:16 PM

@jafe gg on the C4!

Jeremy Dover

@jafe: I think the CCCC is an &lit for TOMSK = T (edge of taiga) + OMSK (city in Siberia). Nice one!

GAH! Did not see oAlt's. Dang starboard :-)

oAlt

Same it needs to be cleaned up hehe (edited to add: oh never mind, it seems it's cleaned up now, thanks :D )

Omega Krypton

bruh in the end in the end in the end

wait in end end

lol

oAlt

Lol

(but then again, nothing beats HTM's)

and smh it's not "in the end in the end in the end", it's "in the end in end end in the end" >:((

John Dvorak

3:42 PM

NGL, ", perhaps" for punctuation is evil:P

oAlt

truly. however, what's more evil (and which i still have not gotten over yet) is that the answer does not accurately match the definition ;_; :'( ughH

Avi

mmm mmm mmm m mmm mmmmmmmmm

(help! I've been gagged)

that's exactly what that puzzle read like to me lol

John Dvorak

3:58 PM

I was thinking of this:

Crash Test Dummies - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm (Official Video)

►

oAlt

Hahahah

Sphinx

4:26 PM

3

Q: Fighting Fish: An Aquarium-Star Battle Hybrid

This is an entry for Fortnightly Topic Challenge #44: Introduce a new grid deduction genre to the community. This puzzle is a hybrid of two grid deduction puzzles that rely on the partition of a grid into shapes. Aquarium recently appeared on PSE in Stiv's post. The goal of Aquarium is to shade ("...

logical-deduction grid-deduction

matt

@Avi oh no

bobble

@Sphinx running into a contradiction with the 2 here - not sure how to give the right-side shapes at least some water while obeying Aquarium rules

Jeremy Dover

5:18 PM

@bobble Having an issue? Is there something I missed?

ARRGGH, I see the problem. The two on the top is the number of fish, not a column indicator for Aquarium.

bobble

oh, it lined up with a column so I assumed it was a number

Mithical

@matt sorry, I stole your meta question

Jeremy Dover

That one is on me bobble...I should have seen that might be confusing.

bobble

I was running into all sorts of contradictions trying to satisfy that 2... much smoother sailing now

Jeremy Dover

No doubt. It was surprising to me how few Aquarium clues were actually needed. The Star Battle does a pretty good job of forcing most everything.

msh210

5:29 PM

@oAlt still nice

bobble

I'm not entirely sure why I'm attempting your puzzle - never tried, let alone solved, any Aquarium or Star Battle puzzles

jafe

i think the c4 is (-th)E + (-volkswage)N + (-touare)G + IN + E(-nd)

that would mean "end end" is the first letter of "end", but i think it makes sense since you can say "both ends" to mean first and last

bobble

6:03 PM

@JeremyDover I'm done... only took 21 (!) pictures along the way :D Starting my writeup now

Sphinx

6:34 PM

0

Q: How many roads in a Tak square?

The board game Tak is played on a chess-like board of variable size (most commonly, 5x5 and 6x6). Players place and move pieces on the board with the goal of creating a "road", which is a string of pieces that connects two opposite ends of the board. The pieces connect to each other vertically or...

checkerboard

Jeremy Dover

6:50 PM

Yay bobble! I hope you enjoyed it :-)

bobble

I didn't kid about the length of the answer

Jeremy Dover

That's not a ringing endorsement for enjoyment :-|

bobble

I did enjoy it!

Jeremy Dover

:-)

bobble

I liked how sometimes the logic required thinking ahead for "hmm, how do I fit fish in here?"

Jeremy Dover

6:52 PM

That's the downside of these hybrids...there's only so much you can handwave with "standard blah blah logic".

bobble

I don't really ever handwave logic, my [grid-deduction] answers are always waaaaaaaay too long

Jeremy Dover

Understood. I'll stop bugging you so you don't get sniped!

bobble

.. it's posted

As for difficulty: I never got stuck for longer than a few seconds of "hmm, where to go next?" Sometimes it took me a little bit to justify a deduction to myself. My only real problem was when I goofed and accidentally made green propagate downwards, but I figured it out quick.

Most of the time was spent taking pictures, and also figuring out when to take pictures. Then the write-up took a while because I had taken so many pictures

Jeremy Dover

7:10 PM

Yeah, like a lot of global configuration puzzles, some of the cool deductions you put in at the beginning get obviated by needing to drive a unique solution later.

Most 2-star star battles are usually 9x9 or 10x10, so I figured I needed 12x12 to make this idea work out. If I did another I'd probably go even bigger to make the Aquarium deduction more significant, but I didn't want a first one to be so large it put people off.

jafe

@msh210 Thanks for the bounty!

i think star battle has a massive difficulty gap between 1-star and 2-star puzzles

bobble

7:42 PM

I just bookmarked The Great Hot Chocolate Debate

Sphinx

2

Q: Less than 6 Sudoku

In the below sudoku, the numbers on the outside indicate the first number less than 6 seen in that row/column. So for example, the 4 at the bottom means that the first number less than 6 seen from the bottom of column 8 is a 4. This is a link to the sudoku in Google Sheets. Enjoy!

logical-deduction grid-deduction sudoku

msh210

8:01 PM

@jafe well-deserved

Prince North Læraðr

8:46 PM

I wish you can give bounties to questions

Jafe's finale for the puzzle chain... holy crap that was AMAZING

Sphinx

9:34 PM

0

Q: Horse race between Slowpoke and Doubles

I created this dice and paper game for my kids years ago, and at the same time gave myself an interesting puzzle. This game is a horse race between two horses: Slowpoke and Doubles. With a sheet of lined writing paper, draw vertical lines to make six columns down the paper. The first five columns...

mathematics probability game dice

msh210

10:24 PM

The bounty notice will disappear once I award the bounty, so I'll copy it here: "Awarding jafe a bounty not for this answer (though it's good) but for his stupendous puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/105330/93 (because it's impossible to bounty a question)." — msh210 4 hours ago

Prince North Læraðr

11:02 PM

Ah, I see

That was a rather generous bounty. Fully deserved it though

I mean, I'll say it again: @jafe that was an AMAZING puzzle

But you know, it doesn't get HNQ'd because that's not how the system wants to work

Puzzling Meta

0

Q: What can I do in this pressuring situation?

I posted a well-received puzzle the other day where users needed to find out what word goes into the blank spaces in a few sentences, and the first user to post an answer got it right. I didn't want to accept it immediately, because I like the suspense. There's nothing wrong not immediately acce...

discussion support comments

bobble

11:18 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I have some time to work on cryptics

in Chain Puzzles, 2 days ago, by Prince North Læraðr

@bobble Can you help me with the remainder of my clues?

Prince North Læraðr

@Deusovi A bunch of comment flags raised, might want to take a look at it.

Deusovi

will take a look, thanks

Prince North Læraðr

@bobble Okay. I'm working on the board first, and then will send you some of the clues I need help with

bobble

My parents are freaking out because they think a new stay-at-home order (or the like) is coming soon, so they bought $300 worth of groceries on today's Costco run.

Prince North Læraðr

@Deusovi Should I comment something back to the users involved? I don't want to escalate the situation, but what they're saying is just straight up wrong.

merrybot

11:22 PM

@bobble sheesh

Prince North Læraðr

I'll just respond to the meta above

I am very, very very tempted to tear the user apart right now, because reading those comments make me very annoyed

bobble

Want me to look over the final product for excess angry attacks?

Prince North Læraðr

I'm not sure it's wise to post the comment

I'm weighting my odds

Clearly the user (not ention, btw. Ention is fine. The one that's attacking ention) is a bit unreasonable themselves

I think I will comment something

It's just isn't right

And yeah, if you can look over the final product

oAlt

@msh210 :o

@jafe gah, knew there would be an alternative parsing >_<

you got the answer right, but not the intended parsing

Deusovi

11:40 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr they don't seem to be too unreasonable to me; please don't post comments attempting to "tear someone apart"

Prince North Læraðr

Ditto on the latter part, disagree with the first part

oAlt

@bobble panic buying o_O

Prince North Læraðr

Ugh, I read "good grammar" and I just cringe. What even is "good grammar"? What qualifies as such to begin with?

bobble

"grammar that is understandable to me" is generally people's definition of "good grammar"

Prince North Læraðr

Say "good grammar" in front of Eddie Kal and ooh boy it'll be a fun time

bobble

11:44 PM

ooh, should I try that?

Deusovi

not just understandability, but there's an intuitive sense of what's correct -- even if something fits the syntax of english, it can still be "wrong" according to native speakers

for instance, "i went in the train station", "i went to the train station", and "i went at the train station" are all syntactically correct, and all seem similar, but they're definitely not interchangeable

merrybot

@bobble yes, go right ahead

Deusovi

the first means you went crossed the boundary of the physical building (even if the trains were not working, or you did not take one); the second means that the train station was your destination (though you may have just waited outside); the third either doesn't make sense, or lets people know where you recently used the bathroom

Prince North Læraðr

They're not really arguing over grammar as much as they're arguing over usage

The usage would be "my mom is giving me pressure", not "my mom is giving pressure to me", but it's... okay, I guess

Deusovi

similarly, "in the sky" is grammatically correct [in pretty much all commonly-spoken english dialects] but "at the sky" is not. it's not syntactically wrong in a broad sense, but the semantics don't quite line up. they seem to be arguing that "give someone pressure" (rather than "put pressure on someone" or "pressure someone") is analogous to the latter case, which i think is a reasonable claim

bobble

11:52 PM

"at the sky" could work in some situations - "yelled at the sky", for example. Though not in the same context or with the same meaning as "in the sky"

Deusovi

right, of course

Prince North Læraðr

ah, I missed the comment at the beginning where ention says it must fit perfectly

Wait

No she just says the tense has to be the same for every word

The question is a bit broad, IMO. "Use pressure" is a bit sketchy for me, but "give pressure to someone"- I'm not sure that's incorrect by any means

Deusovi

they say the word should be the exact same each time, and should fit perfectly each time; there's also a now-deleted comment where they say "intestines" wouldn't work because you don't "feel" intestines

Prince North Læraðr

"Fit perfectly each time" is a bit misleading

Though I think the ranting is unwarranted, which is why I flagged it as "unkind"

bobble

I haven't voted on the riddle itself but I downvoted answers I felt were being too stretchy

Deusovi

11:56 PM

the latter comment i mentioned makes me think that they do care about those kinds of semantic distinctions? and in any case, to me it's the reverse -- "use pressure" is fine ("he used pressure [on the suspects] to get them to talk"), but "give someone pressure" sounds weird

Prince North Læraðr

Personally, I don't think it's a great puzzle, but I'm not gonna vote on it

@Deusovi "My mom is giving me pressure"?

Deusovi

yeah that doesn't sound right to me

Prince North Læraðr

Really? Sounds fine to me

Deusovi

"my mom is pressuring me to finish my homework", sure. "my mom is giving me pressure to finish my homework" sounds wrong, in the same way that "the bird is at the sky" sounds wrong

Prince North Læraðr

"My mom is giving me pressure to not buy the new PS5"

bobble

11:57 PM

I will agree with with Deus here

Prince North Læraðr

Huh. I digress

Deusovi

not as wrong, but still wrong to my ears. it's certainly not a clear-cut case, and i think that phrasing could be perfectly fine to some people

but it's not a completely unreasonable argument for the commenter to make, at least

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