Hello all, After my first post tested the waters with trepidation, I figured I'd leave a little space between me and the outbox for a while. I've been spending my time over the last few days slowly piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. On the box is this lovely picture of a Swiss lake, and when I actually took the lid off and examined some pieces at random, I found that they were infact just varying shades of grey, with a little hue of this and a hint of that thrown in. For instance, the grass is green-grey, the sky is blue-grey, the roofs are red-grey and the mountains are the colour that you get when you mix every colour from a children's paint set together. Admittedly the box does show the picture a little bit smaller, and thus in focus, but nowhere on the box was there a warning saying "Warning: All colours are infact just varying shades of grey". All this pondering of placement of pieces within said puzzle got me a'pondering on matters more peripheral. Actually, I was just thinking about the human fascination with jigsaw puzzles. Why do people (including myself) feel the need to complete something that nobody in their right mind would bother with, when the picture that they're trying to create is on the lid of the box for their instant perusal? Is it like colouring by numbers? Do they think that once they've slotted that final piece in the sky, they can frame it and claim it as their own masterpiece? More likely it's one of two things 1) People who are too boring to leave the comfort of their own home to experience the unadulterated excitement and reckless abandon of watching paint dry on fence posts. 2) People who are so amazingly self-obsessed that they would neglect their own basic need for food, water and shelter if it meant they could finish that 10,000 piece circular puzzle of a blizzard in Alaska before any of their "friends". Luckily I fit into the first category. I'm only doing the puzzle because I'm unemployed, and plus The Lucksmiths told me to. It was one of those moments that occur from time to time when you draw inspiration from a song that happens to be playing, and decide to carry out some of its contained suggestions. Now I'm starting to regret ever pulling the damn thing out of the pile of board games, I should have been content with watching the fence post. Oh lord! If only I'd chosen the fence post! Well, all of the foreground (focussed parts) has been done, and now I'm working on the mountains and sky. For some unknown reason, the going has been getting gradually tougher as the hues accompanying the grey are steadily vanishing from the pieces. Soon all that will be left is an assortment of different shapes of grey to fill sky, mountain, lake, tree and perhaps a little field or town here and there. Hopefully I'll get a job before I start the next one. It's a Phantom of the Opera puzzle and it's 80% black. Jeremy +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+