GC SF Sp WH BV YL BT CP SA CB CC Back to puzzle

Cascade Bay

Whirlwind

by Larry Hosken
Answer: HELICOPTER DROP

Overview

  1. 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.
  2. Triangle answers are palindromes. Take middle letter[s] of each to find out where to go.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.