Solution: Haunted House
Answer: IRRATIONAL FEAR
Written by aki
This puzzle involves a series of minipuzzles. The obvious thing to do is to start by solving each of the minipuzzles, which are relatively straightforward given the enumerations given. The other thing to note is that each puzzle has a specific theme as well.
| Answers | Extraction | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| SMOKE DETECTOR CARBON DATING NUCLEAR POWER CHEMOTHERAPY |
DORA | Radioactivity |
| BINARY PROBABILITY STANFORD PARSE DECISION |
NODED | Trees |
| GOLF ALPHA MIKE MIKE ALPHA |
GAMMA | (NATO) Alphabet |
| 18 (R) 15 (O) 2 (B) |
ROB | Gravity |
| BUBBLE WRAP HONEYCOMB SHOWER HEAD LOTUS SEED HEAD |
PYRO | Irregular holes |
| ROUND HOOK FLAT EARTH THREAD TAPE SILK MEAL |
NOTHHELM | Worms |
| CAR CRAWL SPACE TUNNEL DRESSING ROOM ELEVATOR CAVE CELLAR |
CRUSTAL | Small spaces |
| COLLIE SHEEPDOG HUSKY |
COY | Dogs |
| AIRPLANE HOT AIR BALLOON HELICOPTER |
ROE | Flying |
| ANGKOR WAT AZZAM BLUE WHALE GREENLAND PACIFIC |
OMEGA | Large objects |
| HAIL ICEBERG SNOWMAN BLIZZARD |
IGOR | Cold |
| BROMPTON ROOKWOOD HIGHGATE OHLSDORF BONAVENTURE OKUNOIN CALVARY |
MOTORIC | Cemeteries |
| SQUALL HURRICANE STORM BREEZE CYCLONE |
ACORN | Winds |
| VIBRIO ESCHERICHIA SALMONELLA BACILLUS CLOSTRIDIUM CHLAMYDIA STAPHYLOCCOCUS |
ICEBOAT | Bacteria |
After identifying the theme and the extracted words, we can notice that the flavor text says there are many “scary things” in the house. This means that all of the answers, and by extension their theme, might be found to be scary. This clues us to find out who is scared of each of these things. In particular, we want to find the name for each of these fears, a word with suffix -phobia.
| Answer | Theme | Name (-phobia) | Extracted letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| DORA | Radioactivity | RADIO | I |
| NODED | Trees | DENDRO | R |
| GAMMA | (NATO) Alphabet | GRAMMA | R |
| ROB | Gravity | BARO | A |
| PYRO | Irregular holes | TRYPO | T |
| NOTHHELM | Worms | HELMINTHO | I |
| CRUSTAL | Small spaces | CLAUSTRO | O |
| COY | Dogs | CYNO | N |
| ROE | Flying | AERO | A |
| OMEGA | Large objects | MEGALO | L |
| IGOR | Cold | FRIGO | F |
| MOTORIC | Cemeteries | COIMETRO | E |
| ACORN | Winds | ANCRAO | A |
| ICEBOAT | Bacteria | BACTERIO | R |
We then notice that every answer is an anagram of the name of the associated phobia, except missing a letter. Extracting the missing letters, we obtain the answer IRRATIONAL FEAR.