« first day (3673 days earlier)      last day (257 days later) » 

02:18
0
Q: Semme a Cardiff you go there!

Jafe Solve on Penpa+ Across 1. Compelling bishop to inhabit obscure valley (10) 6. Common pets with friendly personality and large muscles (4) 9. A little out of Cardiff, a namesake place of a famous cheese that has been visited by Queen Elizabeth (10) 10. Place to enjoy some Joe Cocker initially mis...

 
1 hour later…
03:24
"rectrices" is another term for a bird's tail feathers, and is also a word meaning "female rectors" (plural of "rectrix")
but i don't see a connection to "fix"
 
1 hour later…
04:28
C4 hint: The answer has a much higher frequency of being used in this Lair than in most other contexts.
well that rules rectrices out, doesn't it
@Jafe Dunno. I mean, it was just said twice here. :-)
(Yes, it rules it out.)
that is more often than in most lairs
officially started on the meta for the gladys series... 15 regular puzzles still to go
oh, it's SOLUTIONS ddef!
Oh wow nice find
@Jafe yep!
04:42
yeah that was more straightforward than we were making it hehe
CCCC: Kay repeatedly breaks up adolescent play-fighting (6)
04:58
@Jafe te(K K)en
05:30
yessir
05:55
CCCC: State last name with Irish origin (8)
06:18
this must be O'Klahoma
ddef
06:29
@oAlt SUR(I_)NAME
@Stiv yup!
@Sphinx Wow this is hard
I'm trying to use as little internet help as possible and it's nearly failing
^^ Also a bit "cheesy".
06:47
CCCC: Doctor, edifying, orders a magical act (9,3,3)
07:22
@Sphinx dangit stiv, i was literally working on a crossword containing that answer!
which is a pretty crazy coindicence
really like the gimmick in yours btw
my grid for reference
@Jafe ditto (assuming you were talking to @Stiv)
yeah
"Amsterdam viruses deserve nostalgia."
heheh
Amsterdam rocks, but Volgograd rolls.
07:28
@Jafe Ha, oh no, sorry! It's funny, I've had this one on the backburner for ages, and then after providing this answer to a recent question I thought to myself it was finally time to see it through. Talk about a timing clash!
hahahah
would have been funny if i didn't see yours and just posted separately
people would have been like "wait, is there a topic challenge i don't know about?"
(i was not close to finishing, think i had one clue done and it wasn't very good)
Oh, so you separate the steps: Fill the grid first, then write all the clues?
@Stiv siegfried and roy *
(I didn't actually check that it's an anagram of edifying orders a, but it looks like it should be.)
(… yeah it is.)
07:46
@MOehm generally yeah
making the grid is the fun part :P
Interesting. I've tried to make one a few times but I never get far. Perhaps the fun comes with experience.
08:47
@msh210 Yessirree
@MOehm This is my process too when it comes to crosswords, particularly if I want to hide a message in the grid.
Occasionally I will change the words I chose initially to others that fit if I can't come up with a good enough clue, so it's kind of a dynamic process too.
09:00
CCCC: Vito Corleone made many a man such a thing! (5)
09:21
aha i think this might be the elusive double &lit
vito corleone made many a man an OFFER (perhaps one they couldn't refuse), and also turned many into an OFFER (someone who offs people)
@Jafe precisely so
that's a nice clue
thanks
0
Q: What's next in this sequence 4, 6, 2, 8, 3, 9,?

Tom JonesWhat is next in this sequence - 4, 6, 2, 8, 3, 9

The Godfathers of Cryptics at work, I see.
09:23
🤌
@Stiv Well, if I think about it, that makes sense. And of course you can't clue until you know what the clue is for. So that initial observation of mine was perhaps a bit silly.
tbf i do sometimes have a list of clues i wanna use which i then put into the grid first... but personally it's more common to have grids ready waiting for clues rather than clues ready waiting for a grid
nowadays whenever i come up with a c4 that might be too dirty i remember juicifer's camembert clue and realise i'm probably good
3
CCCC: Godfather of cryptics inviting me and dudes to sex from behind (7)
09:39
@Jafe 😭
tears of joy, clearly
@Jafe Ximenes (invite I and MEN to XES<)
yup!
(Re: cryptic crossword creation, I make clues that I want to appear in the crossword first, then add new words and try to make clues for them, and if I can't then I might replace them with other words until it works. So the filling of the grid is slow and it is simultaneously done with clue creation)
And yeah that means the grid shape comes after as well
10:08
CCCC: Godfather of puzzles removed lobster heart from sous-vide goulash (7)
@MOehm Not at all - many ways to skin a cat! Interesting to see oAlt's approach above is a hybrid of the two extremes...
@msh210 DEUSOVI = (-_s_)OUSVIDE*
@Stiv aye
10:36
Yes, I've now also read oAlt's perspective. Thanks for that, too.
 
1 hour later…
11:37
wrong press
@MOehm np
By the way, how's your solving of Jafe's crossie going?
12:36
@MOehm Unfortunately I kinda gave up haha. Ultimately it was going to distract me from doing the more important stuff
And I searched rot13(gra npebff naq V qba'g guvax V jnf tbvat gb trg vg jvgubhg vagrearg uryc nalgvzr fbba)
@Jafe lmaooo
you're welcome, I guess?
Well, in my case, the more important stuff was just work, so I set my priorities accordingly. I had to look a lot of stuff up, too. (Euro? That was a new one. But I knew 9ac from British crosswords. I'm not otherwise a cheese connoisseur.)
12:59
Oh yeah that one, that was new to me too
 
3 hours later…
15:29
CCCC: You and I get Home Alone actor drunk (he hits me), touring clubs as the clock strikes twelve - the two of us used to stay out so late! (2,4,5,3,6,2,8)
@Stiv we (you and I) have (get) heard (home alone actor) the(c)himes* (drunk "he hits me", touring clubs) at midnight (as the clock strikes twelve) - def
16:26
@juicifer Wow, that was so quick!
0
Q: Help me unlock an old laptop

uggupuggu My nerdy roommate has some really important notes for an upcoming exam and he won't give them to me! So I stole his laptop and now I need to find the password, which is why I'm here. I think you'll find everything you need here. Maybe what I did was unethical, but I NEED THOSE FILES. The story i...

16:59
@Stiv heh, tbf the enumeration made it pretty easy to break down (e.g. "as the clock strikes twelve" was almost certainly gonna be "at midnight" to fill in the 2 and 8 at the end of the clue) so it was really just a matter of finding the right home alone actor lol
CCCC: At the outset, Paul Brown possibly introduced his second wife to a group of children? (7 6)
 
1 hour later…
18:27
@juicifer That's PRIMARY SCHOOL (a group of children) = P(aul) + MARY (née Rightsell, his second wife) in RI SCHOOL (Brown University in Providence, RI).
I guess this one needed a [knowledge] tag.
@MOehm spot on! wanted to put a twist on a recent clue I liked
but yeah, well done finding it; I thought this clue would definitely last longer than an hour and a half
Oh, I liked it. But I was lucky that Wikipedia picked the correct Paul Brown for me.
CCCC: Godfather of Boredom not often killing time where long faces are seen (4, 3)
@MOehm I also got rather lucky in that he married a mary
18:44
Hehe, true.
@juicifer I got rather merry that he married a Mary
19:10
May we marry a merry Mary? Mais oui!
as long as we do it in maui
preferably in the month of may
@MOehm Ra (god) pa (father) of ennui (boredom) - of(-t)en = Rapa Nui, an island where the long-faced moais are seen
After hitting dead ends (especially finding godfathers) I then thought "what if the long faces were this..." then I looked at the enumeration and it hit me
19:26
@oAlt That's correct, of course.
It was perhaps a bit unfair to have "godfather" clue two words, but I thought that the "nui" in "ennui" might be a way in, but you found another one.
Yeah got there in the end at least
@Jafe as Jafe mentioned this clue I figured I may as well take inspiration from it. (And no, that doesn't mean I also made a dirty surface!)
CCCC: Cheese clued by juicifer – beginning in Monday – but having returned with risqué surface? Yikes! (8 4)
instead you made a dirty surface about a dirty surface
Lol
Will the surface be more or less dirty with each level of indirection?
(Apparently the day that was released, May 22 2023, was indeed Monday, which was convenient)
19:39
@oAlt Mon. te(r_e)y< (j_) Ack!
ah, nice
@msh210 exactly!
CCCC: Resorts have an effect on locals (12)

« first day (3673 days earlier)      last day (257 days later) »