Puzzle me this

Magnet #917 - Declaration of Independence

I've magnetblogged on our national papers several times by now, but I stumbled on this magnet that I got from either the National Constitution Center or the National Archives, and realized it was a good choice for today.

My sisters and I used to be huge into jigsaw puzzles. Like a puzzle done every Christmas - the harder the better, the more historical the better. Some very cool puzzles out there, given that jigsaw puzzles were created in 1760 London by a mapmaker to use as an educational tool.

Last week, I got sucked into my dad's doctor's waiting room jigsaw puzzle. It was a giant collage of about nine lighthouse images...and it took about four trips to that waiting room to get through the majority of it.

By then, of course, I ended up having to leave the hardest bits behind. Basically, nine different sections of sky. Just sky. In about a dozen shades of blue. Oops! So, good luck with that eye doctor patients!

So since that puzzle, I've been mentally doing puzzles in my head. It's ridiculous. I was in a Barnes & Noble ready to buy a puzzle, and I had to force myself to stop. I would look at various places along the I-95/85 corridor and think, hey, that'd be a great puzzle. I mean shoot. You can't tell me this Declaration wouldn't be a good puzzle to do, too!

When we got home, I was milling around my room, when what did I spy? A jigsaw puzzle! Woot! I mean, a hard one, and dudes, it hadn't even been opened yet!

I'll confess, that's what I've been doing in between the job search, eating my parents out of house and home, and running around visiting museums - a giant 24x36, 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

That mapmaker from long ago would be so proud, though. It's all about the history of America (through 1997), and it's this huge collage of historic faces and places and factoids, surrounded by several small history museums around the U.S. It also includes a giant section of the Declaration surrounded by the Founding Fathers.

I love it! So much fun! You'd be surprised by how much history you can learn, how much you already know, and whose faces you recognize...and whose faces they opted to include in the puzzle.

Also? I've found out, jigsaw puzzles are way easier to do when you're by yourself!

Sorry, sisters!