Psychic Bonds

by Craig Kasper

ANSWER: KANE

 

The four sheets include instructions to assemble sheets A, B, C, and D in clockwise order. There are four separate ways to this with all text oriented horizontally, with A in a different position among the four sheets in each.

For each of the four different orientations, if the page arrangement is done with the edges of each page touching each other, some of the dots along the page edges line up. These aligned dots often form compound phrases when the words beside the aligned dots are taken together. (So in the sheet-A-in-the-top-left arrangement position, MAIN on sheet A aligns with STREET on sheet D.) Due to the the uniqueness of the edge-to-edge joins among the four clockwise arrangements, each of these compound phrases only appear in one of the four arrangements.

In each of the four specified arrangements, specific "tribonds", or groups of three words/phrases with a common characteristic, can be found. (All of these tribonds contain at least one compound phrase created by neighboring page edges, and so the tri-bonds for each page arrangement are unique.)

For each page arrangement, if the triangles corresponding to each set of tribond points found in that arrangement are shaded, the unshaded space left over forms the outline of a letter. Those four letters, in clockwise order of page orientations - that is, with Sheet A in the upper left, upper right, lower right, and lower left positions respectively - spell the answer KANE.

Tribonds in this arrangement are:

  • Babbitt, Main Street, and Arrowsmith (Sinclair Lewis Novels)
  • Main Street, terminates, and misentreat (Anagrams of one another)
  • Williamsburg, Green Monster, the triangle (Identifiable parts of Fenway park)


Tribonds in this arrangement are:

  • Well-loved, grass skirt, Free Enterprise (Consecutive triple letters)
  • Free Enterprise, Osmosis Jones, Miss Congeniality (Movies with William Shatner in the cast)
  • Prairie Dawn, Guy Smiley, Cookie Monster (Sesame Street Muppets)
  • Broadway, JFK, King Arthur (Things associated with Camelot)
  • Broadway, King Arthur, Divorce (Terms for specific poker holdings)
  • Divorce, Racquetball, King Arthur (Things associated with courts)


Tribonds in this arrangement are:

  • Alice, Dormouse, Mad Hatter (Characters at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party)
  • True Lies, Commando, Eraser (Arnold Schwarzenegger movies)


Tribonds in this arrangement are:

  • Captain America, Wolverine, Daredevil (Comic Book Heroes)
  • Mouse Trap, Operation, Trouble (Classic family games)