PUZZLES, PUZZLES, PUZZLES

Comes a time when it rains 29 days out of 31 in a month, a body needs to lose it's mind in something thoughtless to avoid going stir crazy. Comes a time, after six weeks without seeing the sun when even I will do jigsaw puzzles. Really!!

We have friends - Lois and Nancy - who are huge puzzle fans. Ordinarily they employ rigorous methods of efficiency and discipline to solve even the most difficult kinds of puzzle problems. My method, however, is in great contrast to theirs, for I like to study an individual puzzle piece, look closely at the illustration, determine exactly the orientation and precise location of that unique portion , and place it as closely as possible to where it belongs in the overall scene. Then I do it again and again until the solution is reached. That system is way too tedious for these sisters and much too inefficient for their tastes.

So, when they ran into this gem illustrated above, and their preferred approach didn't function very well, the puzzle and all of its pieces was promptly forwarded on to Betty and me for our systematic attack, and, indeed, it was an intriguing challenge. First of all there are an enormous number of little visual gimmick and "jokes" in the picture, and secondly, there are several diabolical color and pattern combinations that almost made the whole task impossible. The cut of the pieces is non-standard (although the whole thing could be picked up intact by any edge once it was completely assembled).

Nevertheless, bit by bit, chunk by chunk, the individual pieces were diligently compared to the fairly faithful rendering on the box lid and eventually the job was completed. Each specific piece yielded sufficient clues to reveal its eventual placement, excepting perhaps a dozen or two which were placed by mere blunt trauma, i.e. repeated trial and error until a fit was found. It made us realize what a seemingly impossible task Noah had to not only build the ark* but gather the critters to populate it sufficiently.

By-the-way, the really dreadful poem on the bottom of the box, in its own bizarre brand of Biblical parody attempted to answer such odd questions as to why, for example, the dinosaurs which are in the picture were denied passage once the craft was "launched". [ Answer: "They didn't bring a date to the party". No kidding!]

This one was actually fun. Thanks, girls! We appreciated the challenge.

* = "What's an Ark? - Bill Cosby