19.789 Color Theory Solution

Note that the letters are printed in three significantly different sizes, and some letters are highlighted with a patch of red, green, or blue.

Note also that there are 9 things listed. There are three red things, three green things, and three blue things. Within each color, the items are of notably different sizes. (The small ones can fit in a shoebox, the medium ones are person or truck sized, and the large ones are at least as large as a large building.)

• Building 54: large, green (the Green Building at MIT)
• Christmas tree: medium, green
• Communist China: large, red
• Elvis's shoes: small, blue ("Blue Suede Shoes")
• Firetruck: medium, red
• Pacific Ocean: large, blue
• Sprig of sage: small, green
• Strawberries: small, red
• The Tick: medium, blue

Also notice that the items are given in alphabetical order, so this given order is irrelevant.

For each color and each size, anagram all the letters that are in items of that color/size and which are printed in that color/size in the puzzle.

• Red: HUB
• Green: ORIGIN
• Blue: STOP
• Small: AVERAGE
• Medium: START
• Large: ENDING

These words can be paired up as synonyms of beginning/middle/end.

• Take the first letters of START and ORIGIN (SO)
• Take the middle letters of AVERAGE and HUB (RU)
• Take the last letters of STOP and ENDING (PG)

And anagram again to get the answer GROUPS.