plainglazed

well phaze - that certainly fits all the criteria and different than mine so certainly an acceptable alternative - good stuff there's the second half Thalia - nice works and guess could be an alternative but going for single word synonyms but maybe yet another perfectly good alternate answer and half the same as mine. "Just Say No!" now you've obviously cleared out the old cobwebs - well done, Wilson and another - such fun knowing you got it before opening up the spoilers - and without spoiling it - clever as always. Think that leaves only Pop Fuzz and perhaps alternatives for Group Dynamics and Date Date if there's any interest in those. Or any other alternative answers, of course.

hey MoMa - your first one matches mine but not your second one above. and phil - all of the clues follow a rule hinted at in the title and similar to some previous puzzles linked in the OP. you need to find synonyms for each word of the two word clues that make a common phrase with "in" interjected between.

i agree with your statement MoMa but to clarify, was thinking Victor had not intended to commence his mis en place but instead gathered the greens and sirloin knowing they would oxidize(?)/turn brown thereby indicating (maybe along with the carving) the culprit. long shot for sure but was trying to think "enigmatically" like That Woman. also am curious re the towel. why go to the kitchen for that? one does pat dry beef before browning (meant as searing in the juices this time) but i usually use something disposable. if Victor typically used towels for this purpose... another long shot. still pondering...

hey hey phaze and Wilson (welcome back again) - fraid your responses dont fit in with the theme. and Thalia - gonna say half right, nope and correct3.

Yeah, I have been kind of sporadically checking in, going to try and come on a bit more often though. I still love your puzzles, how have you been? that's it and thanks. am also trying to carve out a little more Den time. lost my job and have started my own business all in this last year which has kept me away more than i would like. especially from making new puzzles. hopefully over the hump now. And because I don't like to follow rules too closely I could also do with posting some more. For now, one that's not so tough as to scare away all but the seasoned veterans. right and right on. like your second one better than mine. wish i had been that clever. enjoying your latest. not it, my friend. all's well on this end, thanks. wishing the same for you and yours. if you care to, a quick email to Rookie will get your old account up and running but could get used to the @. sorry brainiac, not that - get the connection for you first word but would need some persuasion with the second. well how do MoMa - appropriate choice in a couple of ways. good to see you back.

hey hey you two. two for two, nice. - see, i thought you guys might be lurking there somewhere or at least cheking in now and again. wonder if there's not others, too. got this feeling if all signed in when they peeked things might pick up a bit here. new content, too. have certainly been guilty myself. and could be an easy resolution to keep, hmmn. maybe need to start a new thread or continue Aaryan's and add onto Slick's suggestions. but the premise of that thread is more than a little negative. oh well, just a post Hogmanay crapulous rant. thanks for the responses. keep 'em coming. and Happy New Year!

Take Heed Cut Gem Box Score Pop Fuzz Aid Worker Good Measure Remain Put Primo Coke Hollow Sole Group Dynamics Confederate Offence Maintain Pressure Descent Sex Fee Form Date Date Similar to Here's The Catch..., To Wit..., Or Else..., And Another Thing...

over, and, out - words that form other words with an initial L - it, chin, appearances, the good work - _____

hey t_l - so good to see you. not fully parsed ...yet but because it's been blocking further thoughts

Nice solve Prime and TimeSpaceLightForce. As i had mentioned, this is not wholly an original puzzle of mine. It was "reworked" from an Alexander Shapovalov question on the 2010 Euler Math Olympiad where one standard coin in 100 coins containing four light ones is asked to be found and then a subsequent discussion on the max number of standard coins that can be found out of those 100.

hello plasmid - great start. CaptainEd offered a solution isolating one standard coin before we seemed to have lost a day of posts earlier in the week. in responding to him, had mentioned i thought this was a good puzzle. not mine but reinterpretted another involving more coins. thought maybe twenty seven would provoke maths substantiating no solution possible since most all of the coin weighing puzzles i've witnessed on this site tend to work out with powers of three. why i thought it was good was a seemingly natural progression from dumbfounded, to one coin, three, and now onto four. can assure you no shenanigans required. good luck. and hello TimeSpaceLightForce - welcome to BrainDen! nice work in your above proposed solution. do think you omitted one possibility. if, after your first comparison balances, your second comparison could be 5* = 5 * 3 or 5 = 5 3**. hope you'll give it another go. cheers

There is a problem at Story's Chocolate Coins factory ...and at the busiest time of year ...and with their most popular product - the twenty seven piece gold coin purse. Apparently silver foiled coins are being misdirected to the gold foiling lines and being refoiled. Like the standard gold coins, these twice wrapped coins are perfectly identical to each other and visually identical to the standard gold coin in every way unless weighed; the second wrapping making them slightly heavier. Four such coins are some how finding their way into each twenty seven piece gold coin purse this season. Which just goes to show, not every Story's chocolate filled gold coin has a silver lining. All right, all right, the puzzle: using a balance scale twice, find four standard gold coins from one of this season's twenty seven piece gold coin purses.

have had this problem also for several days now. first happened after logging out. have to delete cookies to logout then afterwards it went to what almost looks like a different theme and is stuck there. am using Explorer. happened briefly with my iphone but all better now. pming Rookie a screen capture as i cant seem to get it to paste below. actually, cant upload an image either. think current mentioned a similar problem uploading an image in suprismatics latest puzzle thread. EDIT: at the bottom of the page, moused over "Change Theme" for three drop down links. could not quite make out the first link below as it was overwritten by another but clicked it anyway (IP.Board) and the problem was fixed. Still cannot upload the screen capture image tho.

Came back to this one once again with a couple of thoughts on how to eek out a little more info from the lay of the cards then again, hoping all that is in place and works. seemed like so many combinations were close but not quite. 39 might be tough…

sorry for the delayed response, EH. checked out your post briefly earlier and again just now tho have still not been able to study it in depth. an interesting approach. have highlighted my initial hangup in the quote below. am no doubt a little slow and will continue to ponder but for now am indeed having a hard time following the logic.

upph - and there you are EH. sorry but deleted that last post as i cant count and am rethinking. hopefully youve seen enough to get you going and can fix it for me. well - within the spirit of the forum, should not have deleted that WRONG post so here it is... kewl - tho getting pretty close to bonanova's "i can or i wont say" thread. had a different go at 37 somewhat similar to the below but yours got me to the following EDIT: which if i could add, would have known that this is also a solution for 37 getting pretty close to that 3/4s which, anecdotally anyway, does seem like a logical limit after playing with this problem for a bit. but who knows? maybe 40's next. hope y'all dont mind that i've pretty much joined in on the solve.

Had bumped this thread over a month ago after an extended period with a previous optimal answer. It's about to go off of the front page of the forum and even though there is at least one person following this topic (that you plasmid?), think it's about time to offer another solution. Besides, suspect this solution can be bested. Think that logic is sound. 37 anyone?

Yeah, had similar concerns. Finally just went with it assuming the two squares shared a dowel and acted as if hinged as per the op. so if they collapsed, they would need to remain congruent parallelagrams and the claws would not permit. Even if it were to qualify, strongly doubt it's optimal.

well, when i said i wasnt totally accurate. in my 36 card solution, i did use a principle used in the 35 card solutions; at least initially. after that the prior solutions methodologies are indeed different.