Talk:Witch's Brew

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Current revision as of 12:14, 16 November 2007

[edit] Witches' vs. Witch's

In the show and Arcade Game it's spelt "witch's". Why is it "witches'" here? --Paliosun 20:32, 13 Nov 2004 (MST)

It's a matter of grammer.--Hysterical Woman 22:20, 13 Nov 2004 (MST)

"Witches'" is only correct if we know the brew belongs to more than one witch. To my knowledge, we don't. --Paliosun 11:56, 15 Nov 2004 (MST)

It probably just varies, then. Keep in mind the Brue spelling, then WCHS BRU in a weekly fanstuff. -Superdotman

It's usually only spoken, rather than written. Twice it's written as "witch's", but only once as "witches" (with no apostrophe - the online auction id). Everything else on the wiki is spelled the same as the site, grammatical or not, why is this different? And couldn't the non-grammatical-ness of "witch's" (which is stretching it anyway) be taken as part of the running joke? --phlip 06:14, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Why do people think that "witch's brew" is ungrammatical? "Witch's brew" == brew which belongs to only one witch. Aurora the Homestar Coder 06:19, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

"A witch's brew", "The witch's brew" and "Witches' brew" all are grammatical. "Witch's brew" with no article is nitpickingly ungrammatical. Especially nitpicking when compared to, say, "Witch's brüe" --phlip 07:10, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Errrr... the inclusion of the word 'spelled' (a non-existant word) invalidates this whole page.

You're kidding, right? Merriam-Webster entry Homestar Coder 14:51, 8 Aug 2005 (UTC)

This is a British/American spelling thing. "Spelled" is spelt "spelt" in British English.

• Err, I don't really see the point in getting into edit conflicts over American/British spellings of words. Personaly, I tend to alternate between them myself. The thing is, "spelled" is considered perfectly acceptable in American usage. I'm not horribly familiar with the British usage, though. --Blu Aardvark (talk) (edits) 16:56, 3 Oct 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Where it's from.....

Just out of curiousity, has anyone noticed 'Witch's Brew' anywhere else? Is this just a Homestar running gag, or does it harken to something else, like so many other references. I ask this because I've been playing Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls for the Gameboy Advance. An upgraded version of FFI and II of sorts, the item Montoya gives you to cure any sickness is called "Witch's Brew." Also, if you take the time to go through, the newly added dungeon, Whisperwind Cove, you eventually come to a floor where you need the brew to exchange for another item. Just wondering if anybody else knows more.... -- akaiLV

The FF:DoS thing was based on Homestar, not the other way around (note that there is also a sign in the game that says that "Trespassers will be burninated.") And it isn't even the first time a commercial video game has referred to Homestar Runner; see Sightings. --Jay (Talk) 20:02, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

But don't take that to mean Homestar coined the phrase. It has been in existence for a long time. Username-talk 20:05, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Maybe it's a reference to Miles Davis's B**ches Brew? Yes, there's language in the album title. Go away.—S*R 03:25, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm thinking the album title is a spinoff of the original phrase, witches' brew. Username-talk 03:30, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Oddly enough, the album was recorded from August 19–August 21, 1969 and came out in April 1970.—S*R 00:51, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

"Witches Brew" is a very, very common term. It was used in friggin' Shakespeare, for god's sake!!! It is what witches make in their cauldrons, does no-one here read books? - BHB

In which work of Shakespeare did he write "witch's brew", "witches' brew" or any of the other variants? Even in Macbeth, the phrase isn't uttered! If you wish to make a point, please do so rather than berate your opinion of our intelligence, please. - Qermaq - (^T/C)  22:10, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] It's in the dictionary?

Well, it turns out witches' brew is in the dictionary:

• m-w.com
• dictionary.reference.com

I'm not sure where or when the phrase originated, but I have a feeling it predates HSR and B**ches Brew by quite a while. (I guess Some HSR themed username was right.)—S*R 02:32, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Not-coction

I removed the links between this and Concoctions on the basis of that page's logic. To be a concoction, it must be a strange mixture of ingredients. As we do not know the ingredients, it's speculation whether it is a concoction. - Qermaq - (^T/C)  21:25, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

On the other hand, the definition of a witches' brew is "a powerful or terrifying concoction".

[edit] Written Brew

Um, as far as I can see, HomestarRunner.com has always used it in the singular. The two exceptions are:

• 1. "Brue", which is obviously a nonentity as it doesn't argue for either singular or plural.
• 2. "witchesbrew82", which would have stood out as "witch'sbrew82" -- the classic stereotype of internet ids is to be limited to letters and numbers (which Strong Bad points out in technology). An apostrophe would have looked out of place, so Homestar/TBC did the best they could.

As far as I can see, this article should be retitled to use the singular "Witch's Brew". I know you're all used to it and all, but it doesn't seem to have any support on H*R.com. 86.136.82.105 15:06, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

We should spell it as it's spelled on the site, which is witch's brew. Vote to Move. - Qermaq - (^T/C)  15:45, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

In response to the public notification of this long-dead topic on Talk:Main Page, I also agree to move. — Lapper (talk) 21:40, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Agree with the move. —BazookaJoe 22:02, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

I dun like how it looks, but I agree with th' move anyways. --DorianGray

I'm neutral on the page move, but it should be noted (both here and in the article) that a witches' brew is a real thing (I did not know this until today). References to "witch's brew" in various dictionaries redirect to "witches' brew", and Wikipedia has a redirect for the latter (to "potions"), but not the former. — It's dot com 00:22, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Move. Homestar's Some Type of Online Auction screen name is the only appearance of "witches." Every other time it has been "witch's."—S*R 12:46, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bottles of Brue bought/sold.

This may sound stupid and trivial but the page here says that he must have bought 200 bottles because he paid $2000 and sold them at $10 each. That would mean he sells them at zero profit and it is very rare for a retailer to do that. I'm not suggesting a better number of likely bottles bought, i'm just saying, the comment that he must have bought 200 bottles should be removed. Wylie 12:14, 16 November 2007 (UTC)