Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 3, 1992 TAG: 9203030201
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TONY GERMANOTTA
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"That's it," Steve Richardson says gleefully. "Keep them down, keep them in their place - begging for more."
There's almost no trick too dastardly for him to pull.
When a couple each secretly ordered the same puzzle for the other as a present, the Marquis de Stave had a demonic inspiration.
He made two of the pumpkin puzzles, already among the trickiest of his designs. After the two puzzles were cut, he mixed them together, then randomly divided the pieces into the two gift boxes.
"I sent them each their puzzle," he recalled giddily, "and they gave them to each other on Valentine's Day, and they sat there, each working on their own pumpkin puzzle not being able to get anywhere with it."
It took the couple months to realize they had to share to finish.
But they had their revenge. They sent Richardson a letter of complaint - in code. "I had to unpuzzle the letter to figure out the bad things they were saying about me."
There is a limit to the nastiness his customers will accept. And "Five Easy Pieces" broke that limit.
It simply could not be done.
Meant as an April Fools' joke, the puzzle had only five pieces. Each fit perfectly with its neighbor, but one was cut a little oversize so the parts of the simple ring could not be squeezed together.
Richardson expected his customers to be savvy enough to figure out the trick in a few seconds, minutes at most. Instead, some labored for days and weeks.
Richardson wound up buying back the puzzles, and he got this message loud and clear:
"Do with us what you want," their whimpers said, "we're true masochists, but we have to at least know that the darn thing can be done."
by CNB