Witches’ Hut
by Nina Hinrichs, Yar Woo, Chris Harris (poem), Shelly Manber (poem)
Answer: NEWTRITIOUS GRUB
How to Solve
The theme of the puzzle—a witch making a brew—and the first two lines of the poem both point towards the Macbeth scene with the witches adding ingredients to their cauldron ("eye of newt and toe of frog…"). In Macbeth, many of the ingredients are of the form "X of Y", where X is a body part. Each of the answers here is associated with a similar "X of Y" phrase.
The flavor text hint indicates the solutions (answers) should be placed in alphabetical order. The poem has the fifteen letters A-O, the same as the number of answers. We associate each answer with a letter A-O in alphabetical order.
Answer | Ingredient | Letter |
---|---|---|
ALABAMA | HEART OF DIXIE | A |
AMENDMENTS | BILL OF RIGHTS | B |
BUREAU | CHEST OF DRAWERS | C |
CHARACTER FLAW | FEET OF CLAY | D |
CORNUCOPIA | HORN OF PLENTY | E |
GRACE UNDER FIRE | NERVES OF STEEL | F |
HANGOVER REMEDY | HAIR OF THE DOG | G |
LAUGHINGSTOCK | BUTT OF THE JOKE | H |
LEGAL BALANCE | SCALES OF JUSTICE | I |
LOCALITY | NECK OF THE WOODS | J |
MONARCH | HEAD OF STATE | K |
RESCUE DEVICE | JAWS OF LIFE | L |
ROUGH CALCULATION | BACK OF THE ENVELOPE | M |
SKEINS | BALLS OF YARN | N |
THORNY ISSUE | BONE OF CONTENTION | O |
Each poem line has a letter (L.) and number for the amount. Index into the ingredient associated with the letter by the given amount. Read the extracted letters in poem order:
L. | # | Ingredient | Answer |
---|---|---|---|
E | 4 | HORN OF PLENTY | N |
J | 2 | NECK OF THE WOODS | E |
L | 3 | JAWS OF LIFE | W |
D | 4 | FEET OF CLAY | T |
N | 10 | BALLS OF YARN | R |
G | 3 | HAIR OF THE DOG | I |
K | 8 | HEAD OF STATE | T |
A | 9 | HEART OF DIXIE | I |
O | 8 | BONE OF CONTENTION | O |
I | 10 | SCALES OF JUSTICE | U |
C | 4 | CHEST OF DRAWERS | S |
B | 9 | BILL OF RIGHTS | G |
F | 3 | NERVES OF STEEL | R |
H | 2 | BUTT OF THE JOKE | U |
M | 1 | BACK OF THE ENVELOPE | B |
Answer: NEWTRITIOUS GRUB