By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JAN. 7, 2020 | One of the joys of Christmas is the surprise that often comes with gifts. I was surprised—and pleased—that one of my daughters gave me a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle this year. Such puzzles are an old-time custom that blossomed years ago, and has been a delight for people who like puzzles for ages.
Spilsbury puzzle
It all started in 1767 when John Spilsbury, a British engraver and mapmaker, invented the first jigsaw puzzle. He called them “Dissected Maps.” European mapmakers would paste maps onto wood and cut them into small pieces. Eventually cardboard replaced wood, and made the puzzles less costly. Later interlocking pieces made the puzzles more difficult. With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, puzzles for adults enjoyed a resurgence of popularity as a relatively cheap family entertainment, peaking in early 1933 when sales reached an astounding 10 million per week.
While I like occasionally to tackle a puzzle, I usually have the television on, listening more than watching a football game or movie. That makes it, for me, time not entirely wasted. At least I can follow the television, even if I’m having a hard time with the puzzle.
It’s been a few years since I had attempted a jigsaw puzzle. After all, they can be frustrating. Last time—about three years ago—I was frantic to complete the most difficult one I had ever attempted. The problem was that almost all the pieces were only black-and-white, with the jigsaw puzzle being a New York Times crossword puzzle. It was a puzzle within a puzzle. It took me nearly six weeks to complete. Afterward, I boxed it up and sent to a friend who likes to do puzzles. I bet it frustrated her, too.
This year my gift of the jigsaw puzzle was a colorful map of the state of Georgia….depicting over the green background some 71 different aspects of our state printed in color on the 18×24 inch puzzle.
It came with three fact sheets which gave a simple sentence about each of those 71 tidbits about Georgia, many which I did not know. So, it is educational, too! For instance, I didn’t know that Georgia’s shrimping fleet is the largest on the East Coast. Or that the Big Peanut monument in Ashburn symbolizes the world’s largest peanut processing plant.
With a puzzle, first job is to spread (and turn printed side up) those 500 pieces, which took up nearly all the space of a regulation card table….and so the task began.
As with most puzzles, I aimed to get the borders completed first. From this came an omen: at least one border piece was missing, I soon realized. That spelled at least one problem, if not more.
The puzzle was produced by www.truesouthpuzzle.com, based in Nashville, Tenn. Besides several state puzzles, the site also offers other themed puzzles, including states, cities, national parks and others. Each cost $26.95.
Give me at least this: finishing this puzzle didn’t take as long as the black-and-white New York Times puzzle. But putting in a couple hours each day, it was more than a week after Christmas that I finally eyeballed the fourth-to-last piece in place. After scouring the floor, I found three of the pieces, including that last border piece. But the 500th piece? Not to be found. You might detect in the photo the missing piece on the cardboard table in that empty spot shining through in the upper right side of the complete puzzle below the flag.
That’s enough jigsaw puzzle assembly for a while. It was a great gift!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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