We have been on a roller coaster with winter weather this season. For the past few weeks, it seems like we have some level of accumulated snow every three days. Temperatures also fluctuate somewhere between freezing and 40 degrees. 

In the morning, I turn on the television and watch Spectrum news to get a weather report. Note to programmers and executives at Spectrum, could you please provide the Hudson Valley weather forecast more frequently? 

To get updated reports when harsh weather is coming our way, I have to sit in front of the television and read the tiny red crawler, also known as a zipper, slide across the bottom of the screen. There I can find out which local counties are under a winter advisory or a winter warning.

Whether the weather report is a winter advisory or a warning, I usually decide to stay home and hunker down by playing assorted games on my Wi-Fi devices. I start by satisfying my addiction to Wordle. Then I stay on that app and play puzzles like Connections, The Mini and Spelling Bee. 

Recently, I have reverted to a type of puzzle that in my youth would take me hours if not days to conquer. I have gone “old school” and test my skills with jigsaw puzzles.

In 1760 a cartographer named John Spilsbury created the first commercial jigsaw puzzle. He wanted to teach students about geography and how to read maps. He used one of his maps of Europe and glued it to a piece of hardwood. He then used a saw to cut out along the borders of the European countries. His students then had to figure out how to put the puzzle together. The puzzles were then known as “dissected maps.”

His creation became so popular that he went into business creating cut up pieces of areas of the world including Asia, Europe, Africa, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and even America. 

To attract a wealthier clientele, Spilsbury transferred higher quality maps to hardwood surfaces. Competitors jumped into the puzzle business and adhered their maps onto plywood. The plywood was less expensive and easier to cut into pieces. They also used a foot powered treadle saw that allowed them to create more intricate pieces of the puzzles.

When the Great Depression hit America in 1929, puzzles became very popular as a way to entertain families. They began being glued to cardboard, making them less expensive to buy.

Soon companies began making jigsaw puzzles as a way to advertise their products. Joining in on the craze, other puzzle makers used images of ships, gardens and landscapes moving away from the maps of yesteryear.

Eventually the use of a saw to cut the pieces gave way to a stamping process. The whole image was fed into a stamping machine that pressed down and in one action created all the interlocking pieces. Modern technology now allows for computerized lasers to produce the puzzle. 

A favored design for a jigsaw puzzle is one that is called a 1000-piece puzzle. However, it actually consists of 1,026 pieces with a layout on the edges of 38 pieces across and 27 down.

There are jigsaw puzzle competitions all over the world. As far as world records for puzzle size, according to the Guinness World Records, Asia has that all “pieced” together. The puzzle with the greatest number of pieces, 551,232, was assembled at an indoor stadium in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

I wonder how long it took them to find the four corner pieces that most puzzlers use to begin.

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.