National Treasure Puzzler
During a break in my contracts class the other week I told the students about a strange dream I had. Here’s what I said:
I don’t know whether it’s because we just read a case about the War of 1812, but I dreamed a kind of screenplay that begins with a tight close up with two identical faces of Andrew Jackson. As the camera pulls back, we see that the Jacksons are struggling to break free from being inside a cramped triangle. To make matters worse, we see that their bodies are jerking about because they are holding between them an electrified neon equation blinking “2+3=5”. The equation is encased in some kind of phosphorescent circle.
They aren’t willing to drop the circle, because on closer inspection one can make out a miniature Andrew Jackson who is trapped inside the circle. To make matters worse, out of nowhere an airplane swoops in and hooks the top of the triangle so that the Jacksons and the rest of the triangle’s contents are suddenly dangling in midair behind the aircraft.