Whirlwind
by Larry Hosken
Answer: HELICOPTER DROP
Overview
- Assemble the triangles into a dish shape. To do this, match up the symbols on triangle-edges. As you tape triangles together, the resulting shape doesn't lay flat.
- Triangle answers are palindromes. Take middle letter[s] of each to find out where to go.
- First stop: go to the hallway near the Jonathan Allen room, 36-462. Look around for some historical photos. Find the photo of the guy installing a RADAR system in an airplane. The interpretive text for the photo will tell you the address to browse on your phone.
- Your phone should show you a map (with a whirly RADAR-sweep effect) and another photo to look for. A red + on the map tells you where to go. "DESCENT" suggests you won't stay on this floor.
- Go to the RADAR dish time capsule in Stata center. Look around for some historical photos. Find the photo of the guy installing a RADAR system in an airplane. The interpretive text for the photo will tell you the puzzle's solution.
Palindromes
G / Norse epics / saGas O / Much mucus 'n' such / tons o' snot T / Ficus as present / gifT fig O / Feline-obsessed parking lot attendant's question / was it a car Or a cat i saw H / Chinese bear slept / panda Had nap A / RBI and XBH for example / stAts LL / What a hoe can do to soil / tiLL it B / How to address a harbor marker / you Buoy Y / Peeper / eYe J / Why use a pencil / to Jot O / Vile martini garnish / evil Olive N / 1/60th of a dram / miNim A / Indefinite father / a pApa T / Off / noT on H / Pasta condemns sausage / i'm a lasagna, Hang a salami A / Muscle with a cuff? / rotAtor N / Samoan “pennies” / seNes A / Iranian rulers / shAhs LL / Arm exercise / puLL up E / Lack of a cowboy hat / no stEtson N / Anxiety medication / xaNax R / Hangover warning / red rum, siR, is murder OO / Ship area with funny name / pOOp M / Latin "We are" / suMus
At the described hallway-spot, teams find the photo. Next to that photo is interpretive text:
Using the puzzle page's blanks with this text, teams can extract PINGER.
The map view shows a red cross at the west end of Stata Center: a time capsule under a RADAR dish. There, teams find a picture and use the numbered blanks to extract a message from the interpretive text:
The final message to extract from the other interpretive text is HELICOPTER DROP
Background
Some years back, I read about the development of RADAR: Tuxedo Park (by Conant) was a pretty good read; The Invention that Changed the World filled in the gaps. I remembered that MIT played an important part. Thus, when I had an excuse to make a mini-runaround that looked at old RADAR-y things, I gleefully did so.