Puzzles are In

Fabiola, a student I have been working with for the last four years and pictured in the background of this blog, has given me a gift each holiday season.  Last March she and her Model UN teammates discovered my coffee addiciton when we visited San Francisco for the UC Berkeley MUN conference.  I needed my coffee before I could function each day. The students quickly learned to love to tease me about this. Accordingly, Fabiola gave me a coffee mug this winter.

It wasn't just a mug, though.  It was a mug and jigsaw puzzle set.  The picture on the mug was a guide to the puzzle that was to be created.  I had never been into jigsaw puzzles, but given the weather, I decided to start working on the puzzle one afternoon between Christmas and New Years.  Within a  a day or two, the snowman that appeared on my coffee mug became the center piece of my dining room table.

Fast forward one month: I'm hooked on jigsaw puzzles.  Since then, with the help of friends, I have completed a Charles Fazzino "pop art" puzzle of New York City, and am now working on a M.C. Escher Print.  Maybe this makes me lame.  In fact, when my brother observed the puzzling taking place, he gently reminded me that I once had a "cool and exciting" life.  I blame the weather, though.  I have thought a lot about jigsaw puzzles in the last month, and I've decided that they are an excellent form of entertainment on days that the weather is terrible.  In fact, I would argue that they are even better than board games:

This is the puzzle that me, Erik, Amy, Drew, Becky and Megan completed around the holidays

Six Reasons Jigsaw Puzzles are better than Board Games 

1) Jigsaw puzzles are great to do with friends. Unlike board games, they are not competitive.  This keeps ego battles out of the way.  Nothing ruins a party more than a sore loser or a cocky winner.

2) Anyone can join or leave in at any time when puzzling.  During boardgames, there is always a clear start and finish, so it makes it hard for people to join easily. 

3)  There is no "number of players" requirement for jigsaw puzzles.  One person can work on it, or 10 people can work on it.

4) For multi-taskers, puzzling can be done simultaneously with other activities. I spent the last three mornings puzzling while watching the Al Jazeera English coverage on my computer.

5) When you've finished a jigsaw puzzle, you can hang it.  Or , if you're like me, you can use them to decorate tables. As an added bonus,-puzzles are less expensive than most art prints.

6) Your ability to hang puzzles and display them makes them a very tangible reward upon their completion.  You can't display your latest Monopoly or Scrabble win.  The physical manifestation of your accomplishment will remind you of the fun you had with friends while you were doing it.

This is the puzzle Erik and I are currently working on.

Puzzle Paraphernalia

There are several "puzzle paraphernalia" items you can use to do this. The first tool you can use is puzzle glue.  Make sure to use a lot of newspaper under the puzzle.  This glue reportedly works very well, and makes pieces stick together firmly.  I bought this glue a couple of days ago at Borders ($7) and am looking forward to using it on the puzzles I've completed.

The second thing you might want to use if you start puzzling is a roll up puzzle mat.  As I mentioned, puzzles are the type of thing you can leave and come back to.  If you live in a small apartment, it might be useful to be able to put your puzzle away once you're done working on it for the day.  These role up puzzle mats allow you to role up your progress (even with loose pieces!) and unroll it again when you're ready to start working again.

Now--go buy a puzzle! You won't regret it.