The Sphinx's Lair

Jafe

00:10

rewrote an already-finished puzzle for my big project from scratch and it ended up being so much better

i have 15 puzzles and 3-4 pages of preambles done, it's really looking like the first part will be posted within a month or so

also noticing that the current topic challenge is right up my alley and i haven't even looked at it yet... yikes

oAlt

00:21

Exciting :0

CCCC: Condiment, almost a necessity, kept in jar (accomplished outside) (5,7)

Quite happy at how this one worked out

Sphinx

2

Q: Tentai Show: Unlikely travels

My friend loves telling me her increasingly outlandish travel stories but I think this time she's gone a little too far and I'm not buying it. Can you tell which faraway land she wants me to think she visited this time? Divide the grid into "rooms" among grid lines so that each room is 180° rotat...

juicifer

00:42

@oAlt DID around JAR around ON(-e) MUST -> DIJON MUSTARD

very nicely put together

oAlt

@juicifer Correct! And thanks :D

Stevo

00:57

Oh god I still haven't started finishing my sudoku - too busy doing school work

juicifer

01:28

CCCC: Charlotte's new nickname for NBA franchise after "'Cats" let go (7)

Sphinx

02:41

0

Q: Coconut Spelling

I found this question online: (a) Two monkeys are typing capital letters (A-Z) randomly. The first stops typing when the word COCONUT appears as seven successive letters. The second stops typing when TUNOCOC appears; TUNOCOC is simply COCONUT spelt backwards. Which monkey is expected to type more...

mathematics probability

Stevo

@Sphinx duplicate?

oAlt

03:06

Perhaps Coconut Spelling of "rottin' fuse" altered (5,5)

juicifer

stone fruit* :P

Stevo

stone fruit*

oh wait

I got sniped

oAlt

Jinx hahah

juicifer

lol

why do I keep doing this lmao

at least this one really didn't matter

Stevo

lmao its like its starting to become a trend lol

@juicifer ye lol

juicifer

03:12

I swear I'm not doing this on purpose

oAlt

Wahahah

Stevo

@juicifer that's quite believable cause I sent my message after you

Jafe

04:32

hmm... hornets is the current nba team based in charlotte, previously bobcats, and nets is the name of another nba franchise, but i don't see how all that stuff on both sides would make HOR for the &lit

no wait, charlotte's minus the letters from "cats let" leaves HOR!

so it's (-catslet)HOR* + NETS &lit!

Stevo

04:44

nice solve!

oAlt

Oh my gosh, I never would have guessed that was an &lit lol

juicifer

@Jafe it absolutely is!

Jafe

nice clue, it reads pretty naturally

juicifer

thanks!

Jafe

CCCC: NYC team (one from MLB, not from NBA) (4)

let it be known that i love TLAs (no i don't)

juicifer

04:53

haha this is M (-n)ETS &lit isn't it

Jafe

yep! back to you

juicifer

2

CCCC: Man "a-hole", "jerk" in court document (10)

oAlt

05:08

@juicifer MANUSCRIPT (document) = M (man, male) ANUS (a-hole) + RIP (jerk, I think in the verb sense?) in CT (court)

Nvm I think it's also true in the noun sense

juicifer

@oAlt yes indeed

Jafe

argh rip for jerk, i kept focusing on tic

oAlt

CCCC: Mathematician heard Elon unclearly, breaking rule (8,5)

Jafe

leonhard euler*

Stevo

... damn it

oAlt

05:18

@Jafe Correct!

Jafe

hehehe

oAlt

@Stevo Lol

Stevo

panic attack:

Jafe

CCCC: Fellow associated with university in British India; excellent mathematician, ultimately (9)

Stevo

Why do I get the feeling that this looks like an &lit but isn't

oAlt

05:25

I feel like it's an &lit but I can't figure out the "fellow ... India" part

Jafe

three words solved so far, then :)

oAlt

Ah I know what this is

Stevo

ahhh...

Jafe

man either i'm rusty in making gimmick clues or past jafe has made some terrible word choices when making grids... possibly all of the above

oAlt

@Jafe RAMANUJAN &lit, wordplay is MAN (fellow) associated with U (university) in RAJ (British India is apparently also called the British Raj) + A (excellent) + N (mathematician ultimately) = RA(MAN U)J A N

Jafe

05:30

that's right!

oAlt

(Referring to Srinivasa Ramanujan)

Stevo

@oAlt N = mathematician ultimately?

Jafe

last letter of "mathematician"

Stevo

OH

oAlt

Yeah

Stevo

05:31

I was thinking Ramanujan but didn't get the wordplay to work

cause I believe Ramanujan is the only good british indian mathematician

Jafe

also Raj is apparently sometimes used on its own

oAlt

CCCC: Kanye's messing about in country (5)

Jafe

kenya*

oAlt

Yep

@Jafe I see

Jafe

i was thinking of making a similar clue after the recent kanye mention hehe

oAlt

05:34

Haha

Jafe

CCCC: Entire planet supports Kanye's "Dark Fantasy" (9)

Stevo

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/3981/… what does TMBMP stand for?

and anyone alive since 2015 could fill me in on what happened...

Jafe

answer's here on meta

Stevo

05:49

Found it... thanks

Jafe

i guess it doesn't actually answer what it stands for, though...

Stevo

Found the correct one sorry

Jafe

06:38

argh wait the c4's broken, sorry

because westworld is scifi, not fantasy... *headdesk*

replacement coming up

Stevo

...

West world being entire planet = world, Kanye West

Jafe

here it comes

CCCC: African child's pinched Obama (8)

@Stevo yeah

Stevo

why would the african child pinch obama

Jafe

07:03

to see how the secret service people would react

i wonder if they'd have like a code word for it... "code alabaster, i repeat: code alabaster, Renegade has been lightly pinched"

Stiv

07:23

@Jafe SOMALIAN (African) = SO(MALIA)N

Stevo

Nice!

Jafe

@Stiv that's right

Stiv

07:38

More than one Obama!

Stevo

Just realised that when searching through Barack Obama's wikipedia page...

Stiv

CCCC: This'll let you sleep around (instead of booze brewed in casks) (6,6)

Stevo

I wouldn't be drinking booze in casks before bed

Jafe

btw it's crazy that obama's oldest child is only 24 whereas trump's oldest is in her 40s and biden's would be over 50 if was alive

the guy was elected 8 years before trump and 12 before biden

Stevo

@Jafe wtf that's cracked from Obama

Sphinx

07:51

0

Q: 5×5 sudoku with special properties

Complete the network with numbers from 1 to 5 so that the same number is not occurs in no line, column, specially marked figure and on both diagonals. I tried to start with a number that I know for sure goes to that place, but I couldn't find one. The only thing I've tried is guessing the number...

logical-deduction grid-deduction sudoku

Stevo

@Sphinx Want to answer it but no attribution

Jafe

could't find a number that for sure goes to one place? maybe just look again...

Stevo

I was about to answer that sentence as a comment

C3R4 is a 1 lol

Jafe

naked single!

also 5 in the mid left box

Stiv

And R3C4 has to be a 2 with a straightforward deduction from the 2 being in R2C2.

Jafe

08:05

i wonder if sudoku enthusiasts get targeted spam advertising naked singles in your area

5

Stiv

There's so many ways to get this one started

Stevo

08:34

I agree with that...

oAlt

08:56

@Stiv SNOOZE BUTTON (this'll let you sleep) = toward the opposite direction (around) NOT (instead of; e.g. bread instead of rice = bread, not rice) + BEZOO* (booze brewed) in TUNS (casks, specifically casks used to store wine) = (NOT TU(BEZOO*)NS)< = SN(OOZEB)UT TON

Stiv

@oAlt Correct :)

And with that, another clue construction challenge is complete! Can you spot the sequence that links my last xx clues? ('xx' is a two-digit number)

oAlt

I freaking knew it! :P after the "cartwheel" clue I completely had no idea what the theme was gonna be, and I don't even know if that was a themed one or a regular one lolll

Stiv

Haha, let's say I haven't done a 'regular one' in well over a year...

oAlt

LOL

I do notice that there still seems to be something "alphabetical" going on in the past four clues (Worcestershire sauce, siX of the best, maYakovskY, and snooZe button) but of course I don't see what the theme is yet

But I guess I'm not abandoning the alphabetical theory I had a while back it seems

Aug 31 at 4:36, by oAlt

Currently it seems that Stiv's C4's seem to follow the alphabet (Antarctica, Barcelona, simon Cowell, Double Dribble) but I'm not seeing a bigger pattern yet. I initially thought the pattern would be answers in alphabetical order + having "arc" in the middle + ending in A, so I was half-expecting the third clue to be "carcinoma" or "carcinomata" or some sort.

The clues themselves may also be important but idk

Stiv

Just the answers for this one

(Let me help you avoid an unnecessary detour into all the clue text...)

oAlt

09:08

Ahh thx for the confirmation

ANTARCTICA, BARCELONA, SIMON COWELL, DOUBLE DRIBBLE, CARTWHEEL, UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN/KING, BUCHAREST, BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN, HOMER JAY SIMPSON, KIRKCUDBRIGHT, SIMPLE MACHINE, CHEMOTHERAPY

NEWTON'S LAWS OF MOTION, RHODODENDRONS, CHIROPRACTOR, QUETZALCOATL, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FALSE ALARM, EUSTACHIAN TUBES, ALPHANUMERIC, MALEVOLENT, WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE, SIX OF THE BEST, MAYAKOVSKY, and SNOOZE BUTTON

(I'll be surprised if the last clues of the previous theme are also part of this theme; for now I'll assume that that's not the case)

There's probably a reason why some of the clue answers contain more than one instance of their corresponding letter but I'm not yet seeing why

Jafe

09:39

i see zebu and yak as hiddens in the last ones

also moth, vole, quetzal, seal...

oAlt

Good eye :D I didn't see those (in fact I've only heard zebu and quetzal for the first time lol) except seal. But I also considered that theory; back then I saw ant in Antarctica, cow in Simon Cowell, eel in Cartwheel but didn't pursue that theory further

but now I see that there's also Fly, Hare, Jay, and Newt. (I also see "Reed" but that's a plant, not an animal; I wonder if that's even relevant)

And I forgot that I'm supposed to be the next person to continue the CCCC. LOL

Ahh, I see part of the theme but I don't know how to explain it yet

(Ant)arctica, simon (Cow)ell, cartwh(Eel), unidentified (Fly)ing object, Buc(Hare)st, Homer (Jay) Simpson, che(Moth)erapy, (Newt)on's laws of motion, (Quetzal)coatl, fal(Seal)arm, male(Vole)nt, ma(Yak)ovsky, and snoo(Zebu)tton all have animals which start with the corresponding letter of the alphabet.

But (barC)elona, double (driB)ble, (goD) save the Queen/King, b(igroC)andy mountain, kir(kcuD)bright, simp(lemaC)hine, rh(odoD)endrons, chiro(praC)tor, f(reeD)om of speech, Eus(taC)hian tubes, alphan(umE)ric, (worC)estershire sauce, and si(xoF) the best all have animals reversed, which end with the corresponding letter of the alphabet

I don't know why some of them are reversed though or if there is even any reason for that

CCCC: Composer's score perhaps breaks record (5)

Here's a leftover, unused in the Composer-themed clues. I suspect I did something a bit unfair so I'll let you all decide whether or not that's true

Stiv

11:15

@oAlt You got it :) In every answer there is a substring which spells the name of an animal forwards or backwards (split exactly in half - 13 of each). In each case the first letter of thd substring in question follows an alphabetical sequence.

I had to do it this way because X was going to prove tricky!

Jafe

i assume there weren't any options for x as the starting letter

jinxed again

nice sequence, managed to fool us till the end even though some people were suspicious early on

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe xenomorph, obvs.

Jafe

hidden inside "unxenomorphlike"

maybe something like xeme in "axemen"

i've started defaulting to PDL instead of UKACD when using qat in puzzle making... which is much smaller but doesn't contain as much unusable stuff

Parcly Taxel

For the record I am hosting images on my personal Discord server now

Jafe

like if a word is in PDL i can pretty much safely use it, whereas if it's in UKACD i first have to check it isn't some genus of fungus nobody's ever heard about

AncientSwordRage

11:32

@Jafe that's how they normally hide

Jafe

life imitates art

AncientSwordRage

@Jafe that doesn't give mushroom for mistakes ...

@Jafe brb, going to throw some soup at flowers

Stiv

It was YOU!

Jafe

busted!

Stiv

@Jafe That was the other reason. If I'd used BEAR or BAT straight after ANTarctica I thought it would be spotted immediately. Especially as my previous challenge was also animal-related (Chinese Zodiac).

Jafe

11:39

ah, good point

oAlt

@Stiv nicely done and hidden :D

(to anyone named Stic who got a random tag, I apologize)

Jafe

got the wrong end of the stic there

3

oAlt

Oh my gosh

Jafe

btw i ran into "getting wrong end of stick" as an indicator for changing s<>k, i thought that was pretty clever

in one of the independent cryptics this week

oAlt

Ooh agreed

~~Pretend I didn't lose interest in solving Independent cryptics~~

Jafe

11:51

:P

Stiv

13:37

Thanks :) I'm actually going to take a break from the CCCC for a while as it always sucks me in and I end up making clues when I really should be tending to other projects/children...! I'll still be around, I'm just going to avoid answering clues until they get to the point of hints being released, as a way to pace myself :)

Sphinx

13:54

0

Q: Masyu puzzle tips

Could I have tips for Masyu puzzles? I'm doing the "easy" types (5x5) on this website, but I can't solve a single one. I keep on running into problems with the white circles. Can anyone share tips? PS the website is https://www.kakuro-online.com/masyu/

masyu

oAlt

14:17

@Stiv completely understandable. :D

Also, I'm about to get busy again for the next week so I'll try to squeeze in a puzzle by today or in eight hours

Sphinx

0

Q: Sudoku pairs diagonal corners

Is it correct to deduct that the [4,8] (blue) pairs in diagonal corners, project [4,8] on the oppsite (green) corners, such that the other values (1 and 6) could be eliminated? (*) I'm not sure if this is XY, something else, or if I just invented something because I find it convenient. Thanks.

sudoku algorithm

B Hos

14:59

@Sphinx Start by drawing the lines through the circles that you know have to be the case. For example, on the edge of the board, the white's only have one direction that they can be. Some of the black circles may have a similar constraint. Are there any angles that will prevent you from going straight through the next square? After you draw out the moves you know must occur the remaining constraints should make it easier to connect the ends of the lines.

Sphinx

15:11

0

Q: A classic rhyming riddle

I give fives, but sometimes twos, If you've got two and seven, you'll probably lose. If you bring me nothing, you won't be allowed in, you'll leave with nothing if you don't win. You want to get them all in a line, or all matching houses, that'd be divine. I'm out of clues, so you'll have to try,...

riddle rhyme

oAlt

15:35

9/10 of the way done with the puzzle

oAlt

16:28

Oh my frick. That was meant to be in the search bar...

Sphinx

16:54

0

Q: Prisoners, apples & oranges

You are in a group of sixty prisoners, and the warden has a game to play with you. In a room there are sixty boxes. Each box can contain either two apples, two oranges or one of each, but you don't know which contains how many. When the game starts, each prisoner can go in the room and pick one ...

mathematics logical-deduction strategy probability

msh210

17:16

@oAlt Lis(z)t

Sphinx

18:11

0

Q: What is a 5 letter word that you can remove the first or second letter and all 3 words sound the same

I don’t know the answer so I don’t have any information other than the question

word

juicifer

21:00

@Stiv man, I had this figured out all the way back at simple machine and of course this all goes down at 5 am on the east coast lmao

a very well done theme though!

AncientSwordRage

I've started making a crossword!

Stiv

21:29

@juicifer Thanks :) And thanks for not saying anything sooner! Did wonder if it might get spotted at some point...

juicifer

21:41

@Stiv yeah no problem :P didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but it definitely helped to know you were on, say, q, v, or x lol

oAlt

23:15

@msh210 Yup!

@juicifer hahah good eye though

@AncientSwordRage nice :000

Sphinx

0

Q: Make the numbers 1-100 using 1,7,3,4

This is my first question i have asked ever, So i hope you enjoy it! I am also new, so don´t make fun of me if this is bad! As the title says, You must make the numbers 1 to 100 using only 1,7,3,4. The allowed operators are below: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Divison. Square roots an...

mathematics calculation-puzzle

Stevo

23:39

@Sphinx user is enthusiastic enough... could turn out to be a very good puzzler

oAlt

@oAlt back to 8/10... I wasn't satisfied with some of the stuff I made

Stevo

@Sphinx ye how do I reply to this?

@Stevo I will actually try to solve some of these to help others out! — one23456789 54 secs ago

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