The Sphinx's Lair - 2022-08-23

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2:58 AM

0

Q: Forest for the Threes

Transcription of the clues: Two-part examples: 6 21 Arthurian villain 13 4 Authors 11 25 Backer 0 4 Lunatics 23 24 Walked on again 2 25 Woman warden "_ de Replay" Dude Sun. follower New York baseballer Snitch Encountered "Cool!" Cat or dog British isle Angular m...

word enigmatic-puzzle visual

3:19 AM

CCCC hint: the first letter is S

0

Q: Block fill in date puzzle

I have been trying this puzzle for HOURS!!! I don't have a way to share the link sorry. The goal is the fit all the pieces but not cover Aug or 1. You can rotate the pieces.

3:48 AM

0

Q: Find this EASY Mate in 1

This position was from one of my online games on Chess.com. I had the white pieces and was very close to victory. However, I couldn't find the mate in 1 checkmate as stockfish did. Where on earth was the mate in 1?

4:29 AM

"Sable" is a word meaning black. (Yeah, I think I'll retire my working theory that "black" is the def. and work on something else.)

Oh, it's S(h)aft*!

@Jafe

that it is!

Never heard of him. Nice clue.

thanks

Hadn't heard of him, either, but the anagram fodder was right there all along. Nice.

4:44 AM

thought that would be solved in like 5min, i may have assumed he was a bigger cultural figure than he is...

and yeah carl in my earlier comment referred to carl lewis from the earlier clue

5:42 AM

CCCC: "Nixon's an a-hole!" —Shaft, P.I. (4)

hahah

quadrupe def for DICK

(explanation?) - why is Nixon = Dick?

Dick = Richard.

...is that a common nickname? Sorry, I had no idea, lol

(also, why is P.I. = dick?)

Dick can mean detective and P.I. is "private investigator".

6:15 AM

@Jafe yep

@Sid iinm it was Nixon's

(and, yes, it's a common one, or was)

6:38 AM

@Jafe Ah, I should have got that... My problem was I forgot 'H' is a drug...

7:01 AM

CCCC: West of Morocco, a place on Gran Canaria (not large), hugging ocean's shore (10)

@Jafe &lit for MASPALOMAS = M(-orocco) + (-l)ASPAL(O_)MAS

@Jafe That's MASPALOMAS: M(orocco) + O(cean) in (l)AS PAL.MAS

Timestamp battle!

Canarian shootout. You win!

(blows smoke off pistol)

7:08 AM

(Not only by timestamp, but by stating "&lit" and having a link to the answer.)

I can only suspect my employers have tampered with my Colt.

right and right!

@Jafe the answer and the tampering

7:30 AM

if my employees started bringing their colts to work i'd probably take some measures as well

...if i had employees

What if you owned a stud farm?

You'd probably be better off with a lasso.

CCCC: Teachers exclude contrary boy insulting school leaders (6)

@Stiv RABBIS = RAB (BAR contrary) + B (boy) + I S (insulting school leaders)

I won't be able to make a clue for a while though, a bit busy

alternatively BIS for "boy insulting school" leaders

7:50 AM

@oAlt Correct answer, although for wordplay I was aiming for B_ I_ S_ as Jafe suggests.

8:15 AM

ah right

1 hour later…

9:19 AM

0

Q: Another Strange Crossword

Solve the strangely-shaped crossword. Then find the answer word describing how PSE treats new users. Sorry- no text version of the crossword image. It is difficult for me to fit all that info into text. Maybe someone else better than me can work some magic. Across 1 R. Kelly believes he can. 2...

word enigmatic-puzzle crosswords humor

1 hour later…

10:37 AM

CCCC: Make a mistake in Other Revenue (3)

An easy one, for the reason I mentioned above

And yes, it's not a Puzzling question, but I want to include variety lol

@oAlt ERR = _ER R_ (def=make a mistake)

@Stiv correct!

CCCC: Further vaccination raised in secret, so objectionable (7)

10:56 AM

@Stiv _bo os ter_ <

@msh210 That's the one :)

And that brings to an end my latest construction challenge...

I thought someone might out me on the theme as it went on but I clearly got lucky. Anybody see it now?

(Or see it along the way and hold their tongue, either strategically or out of kindness?!)

11:15 AM

My PSE-sharpened pattern matcher finds some odd things, but nothing conclusive.

(That means, no, I'm not polite. Only thick.)

There was initially a second running theme that was intended as a distraction, but I abandoned it partway through and didn't use it at all for the last few clues.

chinese zodiac with one letter changed!

rooster/booster, rabbis/rabbit, aragon/dragon...

@Jafe Correct! :)

Oohhh nice spot

Oh. I thought: You can take the D from Donkey to the beginning of Aragon and the R from Rabbit to the beginning of Booster ... Nah, that doesn't work.

11:25 AM

The full list is: OK (OX), PIN (PIG), BOG (DOG), OAT (RAT), BOAT (GOAT), WORSE (HORSE), TIMER (TIGER), SHAKE (SNAKE), DONKEY (MONKEY), ARAGON (DRAGON), RABBIS (RABBIT), BOOSTER (ROOSTER)

ok/ox, pin/pig, bog/dog, oat/rat, worse/horse, timer/tiger, donkey/monkey

right

^ exactly

oh i missed shake/snake... oh well

nicely done

Thanks :)

shoulda known something was up when an answer was "ok" but it's pretty hard to guess it from the first few ones

11:28 AM

And I took "Acceptable in Tokyo" to be a quick "I'm busy now" clue.

^ same, including some of the other ones

I got a little paranoid towards the end that 'ARAGON' and 'RABBIS' might be giveaways, but thankfully not it turned out... When you know the secret you always think others will spot it immediately, so I'm pleased I got all 12 out before that happened.

It's that tricky thing of needing to clue a short word, but not to over-complicate it

And the distraction was to set them in order of increasing word length?

all the first ones were hidden clues too i believe

@MOehm No, I was including world cities/countries/demonyms to try and distract with geography. But it was one constraint too many for me really.

@Jafe True. But I realised shortly after beginning that it was being perceived as lazy cluemanship, and wasn't giving me much satisfaction either, so I ditched that too.

So two constraints too many, really

Increasing clue length was to try and get as many 'easy' ones out of the way as possible first without the series being cracked just yet!

11:33 AM

Yeah. Few people will think: Ah, OK, that's OX with one letter changed.

Exactly. Plenty of other options at that point.

Whereas it turns out people were actually thinking, "Gosh, Stiv, you're not even trying now!" ;-)

2

That's always a risk: You'll get thrown out of the group before anyone has the chance to realise how brilliant you are. :)

2

12:27 PM

cryptic dropping soon, unless i find something egregious in the final run-through...

@Stiv nice!

1:08 PM

1

Q: Once in a lifetime – A letter from Richard

This geography-themed standalone crossword has five thematic answers, which are places, sights or landmarks in or around a certain location (a city). Each thematic answer is notable enough to have its own article in the English Wikipedia, although not necessarily under the same name that is used...

knowledge geography cryptic-crosswords

1:19 PM

@Stiv well done!

@Jafe the only reason I've heard of john shaft is that he was mentioned in a recent epic rap battle of history lmao

hah

my favourite is MLK vs gandhi

yeah that's a really good one

personally I'm partial to blackbeard vs capone

AncientSwordRage

the old ones are the best

1:35 PM

true, but some of their newer ones have been really good too

AncientSwordRage

2:15 PM

I'm mainly saying that as I've not seen the new oens ...

2:29 PM

well I'd definitely encourage you to check them out

3:11 PM

CCCC: Perhaps Chinese New Year supplied Stiv a notion to apply invidious negligence (7)

(um… no offense, @Stiv )

Ha! None taken :)

@msh210 I think this is FE(STIV)E (def: perhaps chinese new year) but I'm not sure how or why FEE is "a notion to apply invidious negligence"

alternatively it could be FE(STIV)AL which fits the definition better but the enumeration worse

3:27 PM

It is, in fact, neither.

good to know

@Sphinx @Jafe Another great crossword, thank you :) Why Richard?

hehe thanks! just didn't want to narrow gladys down to the particular group of people that that destination is restricted to

nice job as well, i thought that would take longer considering none of the themed entries are all that straightforward

3:47 PM

It was hard - and I really should have been getting on with work - but it was far more enticing than what I had to do today...

Spotting that the '2' in most of the places would be 'AL' was a help though.

The second mountain was probably the hardest to work out - its Wiki page is about two lines!

And I get it now - you can't put Gladys in a box!

AncientSwordRage

4:14 PM

@juicifer Estival is a word (often spelled Aestival) but that pertain to summer not spring

@AncientSwordRage isn't Chinese New Year usually in Jan/Feb?

AncientSwordRage

@msh210 yes

I guess I forgot that February is technically winter

well, it's summer in some places! (not China, though)

@Jafe not as restricted any more, it seems

6 hours later…

10:51 PM

@msh210 interesting

0

Q: A primarily 'very special' puzzle

I just found an old riddle that was sent to me years ago. I wasn't able to solve it then and haven't been able to solve it now either. Can you help me out? This is what he wrote: "I made this riddle a while back in the 00s (I'll give you this one ;)) when I was in the military, but sending it to...

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Aug '2223

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