County Public Defender Ray Smith, a US resident of Marietta, Ohio, has completed a massive puzzle with over 40,000 pieces, according to a non-satirical news source. “When Smith was working on the 32,000-piece puzzle, Judge Janet Dyar Welch asked if he’d be interested in displaying it in the municipal building. He told her that he would be working on a larger puzzle, as well, and she invited him to show it at the courthouse. Smith enjoys working on puzzles as a way to relieve stress. ‘I have a very stressful job. And I’ve got a very analytical and mathematical mind, so it’s relaxing. I play music in the background,’ he said.”
“Puzzles, or dissected maps, were invented in Georgian-era England, probably by a mapmaker named John Spilsbury in the early 1760s,” according to JSTOR Daily. “At the beginning of the pandemic, puzzle makers saw sales go up by 300 to 400%, and, due to the pandemic-related pause in production, quickly sold out of popular items.” Ravensburger North America’s sales nearly quintupled during the first few months of the lockdowns, according to the Wall Street Journal, which asked CEO Filip Francke if people will still want to do puzzles after the pandemic in an article behind a paywall, so I can’t read it either. Puzzle giant Ravensburger has been making jigsaw puzzles in Germany since 1883. It makes other games as well but the focus here is on jigsaw puzzles.
Why jigsaw puzzles? “Jigsaw puzzles are great because they exercise both the left and right sides of your brain at once. Puzzles require both logic, intuition, and creativity, and it’s easy to get lost for hours working on them,” claims one unknown wordsmith at Healthline. Putting together puzzles may help reduce anxiety and stress. Some say assembling a puzzle makes us feel in control and accomplished. A monthly puzzle subscription service is available from woman-owned JIGGY, which claims that every puzzle features work by “an emerging female artist from around the world.”