Jigsaw Puzzles

Since I can remember I've always been a fan of jigsaw puzzles. At the house I grew up in, jigsaw puzzles often would begin in the kitchen or dining room. Which usually led it to be moved onto a fold out card table. The card table would be placed stragetically in the living room so people could work on it over time.

Over the recent break in PA, I brought a cheapie 550 piece jigsaw puzzle of the solar system. Which Jack joked that it looks like "the Solar System during rush hour" because of the placements of the planets, as well as their sizes, adding distortion of what the picture was. Basically instead of the typical paper print, it had the kind of hologram, with the lines. Kinda like on those cheap pins that look like margarita glasses that you get free from a bar or spring break event. The same kind of texture and effect was this puzzle surface. Sometimes it didnt help me because I couldn't see the colors effectively. But no matter, I worked on it for about 5 days here and there. Finished it on NYE. It was nice doing one.

So while I'm taking a break from researching possible thesis ideas, I decided to google "jigsaw puzzles' and what I came across was fascinating to me :)

Jigsaw invention is credited [from wikipedia] "to John Spilsbury, a London mapmaker and engraver, is credited with commercialising jigsaw puzzles around 1760[1]." It started out as wooden based and usually for children. Not until the Depression did jigsaw popularity sky rocketted. Check out "Who Does Jigsaws Puzzles?" from jigsaw-puzzle.org. I'm intriqued to learn more about the variety which I didn't know existed. For example a 2-D Globe Puzzle (from Wikipedia)- Another type of jigsaw puzzle, a kind of cross between 2-D and 3-D puzzles, is a globe puzzle. Like a 2-D puzzle, a globe puzzle is made of cardboard and forms a single layer. Like a 3-D puzzle, the final form is a three-dimensional shape. Most globe puzzles have designs representing spherical shapes such as the Earth, the Moon, and historical globes of the Earth.

I brought a 2nd puzzle as well before leaving PA. This puzzle is a picture of the famous "Leg Lamp" from the movie A Christmas Story. I didn't bring it with me. Thinking, best to wait till Jack & I move. Butttttt today at Barnes N Nobles I spotted one of the Family Guy. How could I resist?