Edgewise

It seems to me as I read through people's blogs (and in some cases websit postings) that we only see great applause for those puzzles we CAN solve.  Never for those we CAN'T solve.  Therefore, I've decided to switch things up a bit!  Aside from the very obvious puzzle of the opposite gender, I'm going to talk about one really great puzzle that I just can't seem to get my brain around. 

EDGEWISE.  This was Pavel Curtis' exchange puzzle at IPP 31.  At first glance, it is not much more than a 25 piece jigsaw puzzle.  Easy enough right?  Well no, wrong.  This is a very clever little jigsaw.  Those 25 pieces aren't like your ordinary jigsaw.  They connect with each other in a miriad of different ways.  I brought this one along for my inbetweencandidates boredom reliever and had a great devil of a time just getting them to fit. I dumped the pieces out on the table in front of me and had around an hour and a half of piecing the bits together before I got that ah ha.  When you first dump them out you can see there are little phrases on them.  One says "commence here..." deceptive thing! Another has a box with 25 dots in a 5x5 grid.  So starting with that premise, I began to look for ways to assemble this thing.  Let me tell you, I came up with a number of funny shapes this morning, and none of them was that grid.  Right after I came back with my lunch I attempted it one more time.  I was about to give up on it yet again, when I got a bit of an idea.  A small one, but an idea all the same.  Yep! That did it! I got my grid!

So "commence here..." yeah right.  Those pieces may fit together, but the letters sure don't. They don't even point in the same direction.  They are turned evey which way, but I have a feeling having done a few of Pavel's other puzzles that direction is of no importance.  So now what? Well, on the box it says "All of the most interesting stuff happens at the edges". Hm.  Ok, so looking to the edges I start to notice that some of the pieces can be swapped around. After a few of those moves, I realize I've gone no where yet again.  So it's back to the beginning.

Mind, it is now 5:30 in the afternoon and my last candidate is about to walk in.  Where am I? still stuck with a grid! Guess what puzzle I'm bringing along yet again NEXT weekend, and the weekend after that and the weekend after that.....

Even though I have yet to solve this one, having solved two of Pavel's previous puzzles I look forward to a day when I have the time to sit down and really give this one a good think.

You can find this one and many more at www.pavelspuzzles.com

Only go below the line if you want to see the 25 pieces in one of the many configurations I found today.  Warning!  This might lead to a solution, but I highly doubt it.