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The Birdcage?

Hi Kyria,

Congratulations on the translations! That's great news. Sounds like you had a very productive year.

2019 was somewhat of an "on on" year (as my English colleagues would say). Mainly just getting through my various duties as best as I can. My son started kindergarten, and I managed to move myself into the home stretch of a master's degree, so I guess those were the two big ones this year.

What are your goals for next year?

Spoiler

There are a handful of three letter words. I wonder if they have any connection to the solution:

SEW
AIM
CUE
YET

[close]

Lost in LA?

Yep - it's really good!

I'm a history nerd and a Swede, I pretty much had to link this:

In an era characterized by almost endless warfare, Gustavus Adolphus inherited three simultaneous and ongoing wars of his father at the age of sixteen. Two of these were border wars with Russia and Denmark, and a more personal war (at least for his father) with Gustavus' first cousin, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland.[7] Of these three wars that were passed onto his rule, the Danish war was the most acute one.[8]

During his reign, Sweden rose from the status of a Baltic Sea basin regional power to one of the great powers of Europe and a model of early modern era government. Gustavus Adolphus is famously known as the "father of modern warfare",[9] or the first great modern general. Under his tutelage, Sweden and the Protestant cause developed a number of excellent commanders, such as Lennart Torstensson, who would go on to defeat Sweden's enemies and expand the boundaries and the power of the empire long after Gustavus Adolphus's death in battle. Spoils meant he became a successful bookraider in Europe, targeting Jesuit collections.[10]

Called "The Golden King" and "The Lion of the North", he made Sweden one of the great powers of Europe, in part by reforming the administrative structure. For example, he began parish registration of the population, so that the central government could more efficiently tax and conscript the people.[11] Historian Christer Jorgensen argues that his achievement in the field of economic reform, trade, modernization, and the creation of the modern bureaucratic autocracy was as great as his exploits on the battlefields. His domestic reforms, which transformed a backward, almost medieval economy and society, were in fact not only the foundations for his victories in Germany, but also absolutely crucial for the creation and survival of the Swedish Empire.[12]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Adolphus_of_Sweden

Wow, that's quite the CV. I have to admit I know none of the main actors from the Swedish Empire, but I'll definitely read up more on this guy.

No

[T]

Spoiler

Working more on the previous idea:
ZTHDZOIEHMFRESEWSLT2ATWYAIMKPMLPCUENSVO_
QEWDREXGKVAC5WTEHNFNSNJRQMAOSUW3TQWBFNVNSJSGACAZVVHFROZENXMYET5WRSGDFQ

TIMESTAMPS

but for everything after the space I only get garbage. So maybe TIMESTAMPS is already the hint?
The original timestamp where this puzzle was posted was 02 Dec 2019, 16:42 forum time. December is too long, digits are not valid inputs for the puzzle.
But: when Mandle posted the puzzle, his timestamp showed "today at 16:42". So I'll just try

TODAY

Wow you've given us some great leads to go on. The problem with the post timestamp is that it displays in the viewer's local time, which varies. For example, my timestamp for Mandle's original post is 19:42.

I'm just going to guess that the word is 'reply', as it something consistent for all of us that appears in the timestamp. I'm very stumped with how 'FROZEN' fits into this though, so my guess is probably wrong.

[close]

Blade?

 

  that was great

A claymation Christmas:

Alright I'll start with the track that inspired the quote in the opening post:

["Christmas time is hereHappiness and cheerFun for all that children callTheir favourite time of the year."]

"Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer
Fun for all that children call
Their favourite time of the year."

It's that time of year again! This is an open chat for posting anything Christmas related - music, recipes, traditions, movie recommendations, photos of your Christmas tree, a drunken rant about your close-minded uncle Bob, Christmas sales on Steam we should all know about, what you got in your Christmas cracker, Christmas crafts, anything snow-related, and of course...selfies with Santa.

Christmas comes but once a year! Let's do this!

OK back to Christmas:

Ms Hunt's from another thread:

Anyway, I've also heard a handy tip for making babies sleep, white noise can be numbing to the brain (just look at all the people falling asleep on long car rides) and for some people, starting a vaccum cleaner in a baby's room have made them go to sleep faster. I'm not saying it works for everyone, but the noise can't be worse than a crying baby at any rate.

Those are two very different principles though! White noise works because white noise cancels out other frequencies, and thus generates a quieter environment that makes it easier to sleep. The monotonous rumble of a car ride (which is not white noise), however, makes you sleep simply because of its monotony, the same reason that podcasts with very "flat" narrators help me take a nap: it's relaxing. The end result might be the same (baby sleep good), but the reasons why they both work are quite different. This is why playing white noise in a quiet room would probably not help you sleep (it only works when there are other sounds to cancel out), but playing a droning rumble such as a Lustmord album would

Where do you find these guys? This is brilliant!