Meet Artist Linda Picken

Hi Puzzlers,

We would like you to meet artist Linda Picken. Linda joined our puzzle family earlier this year and we are proud to present to you four great new puzzles.

Linda Picken lives in America's Ozarks where she revels in the country life surrounded by a menagerie of dogs, cats, horses, ducks, Canada Geese, and an assortment of other birds and wildlife. Her love of animals is evident in her paintings of dogs, horses, and wildlife, which reveal the joy, humor and majesty of the animal kingdom.

Linda has been painting professionally for over 30 years and travels to art shows around the country to license her paintings on a wide variety of products including collector plate series for Hamilton, Lenox, and 52 plates with Bradford Exchange.

Linda studied at the Des Moines Art Center, majoring in Art at Drake University, and then very ably developed her own style of wildlife and animal portraiture. She is an award-winning artist, named an Honorary Trustee of Ducks Unlimited and recipient of its first Silver Palette and Chisel award.

Her paintings have graced dozens of magazine and catalog covers such as Cabela's, Nite Lite, Quail Unlimited and Fur Fish and Game. Many of her paintings have been selected by US Air Force Association, Ducks Unlimited and Quail Unlimited to be used as limited edition prints to raise money for those conservation organizations.

Welcome to the family Linda!

Happy Puzzling!

Lose Your Marbles

Hi Puzzlers,

We just released a new puzzle by Carole Gordon titled Lose Your Marbles and I just love it! It gives me yet another reason to take a stroll down memory lane, not to mention, I use marbles in as many decorative elements as I can, so it is a winner in my book!

Marbles have been traced as far back as prehistoric times. Can’t you just picture cave people lounging around the cave playing with marbles made of natural clay. Too funny! Ancient marbles made from clay and china have been found in ancient Aztec pyramids, Egyptian tombs--even King Tut’s, and on Native American burial grounds. But, alas, kids who played marble games were thought to be delinquents, and playing with marbles became a frowned upon activity much like bowling in its day. Just think famous marble players; George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and even Abraham Lincoln would have been considered delinquents.

In the 1600s,Germany began using water-powered stone mills to produce polished marbles made from limestone, agate and brass. These mills could produce 800 marbles an hour, which was, quite a feat for the time, hence Germany became the capital of marble manufacturing for several centuries.

A German glass factory employee invented the marble scissor in 1848 and revolutionized the glass marble industry. By 1890 Germany had invented the first marble-making machine, which the USA would put into use later that same year. Today marbles are made from all sorts of materials, but the glass ones are still the most popular.

Marble playing could be very intense for kids. Just one look at the famous painting “Marbles Champ” by Norman Rockwell says it all. Just look at the expression on the boy’s face as the determined girl takes her turn on the marble game called “keeps”.

The greatest marble moment happened in 1960 when astronaut Neil Armstrong described what the Earth looked like from his space window; he said it looked like a big blue marble.

Happy Puzzling!

Plastics and Paper

Hi Puzzlers,

Today I would like to share with you what I just learned concerning plastics. My lesson on plastics began last week when I went out to buy a few groceries. As I made my way to the checkout counter the clerk asked if I wanted paper or plastic? Wouldn’t you know it I left my reusable bags in the car. I quickly said, “plastic”. (Yes, I always recycle. I’m the nutty person you see on the beach chasing after the plastic bag that’s flying all over the place.) Once home I started to unpack my groceries with the help of my sister-in-law, Mary Beth. MB as we call her, is an environmental activist who stays up-to-date on all news regarding the environment.

She asked me why I hadn’t used my own bags. I said, I had forgotten them in the car…again. She makes her best MB disapproval face and says, “I bet you didn’t know plastics can only be recycled a few times and then they go to the landfills or float out to the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, paper is a better choice.” No, I didn’t know that I said and what is a Great Pacific Garbage Patch? She runs out to her car and gets me some information on plastics and the great patch. (Now I know why I fit so well into my husband’s family, we all keep everything in the car.)

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch stretches across hundreds of miles in the North Pacific, technically it links the Eastern Garbage Patch with the Western Garbage Patch. “Unlike most other trash, plastic is not biodegradable — i.e., the microbes that break down other substances don't recognize plastic as food, leaving it to float there forever. Sunlight does eventually "photodegrade" the bonds in plastic polymers, reducing it to smaller and smaller pieces, but that just makes matters worse. The plastic still never goes away; it just becomes microscopic and may be eaten by tiny marine organisms, entering the food chain.” Eventually this food chain makes its way to us…feel like fish tonight? Yuck!

Paper on the other hand breaks down into organic matter after many, many years. This fact alone, for me, makes paper the better choice when you’ve forgotten your own reusable bag. The Greenfeet blog has a great post on Paper vs. Plastic click here to read it.

Happy Puzzling!

Candy Wrappers

Hi Puzzlers,

As promised, today’s topic is on candy wrappers. We left the Sugar Rush post after the British colonized Barbados and Jamaica and began to almost exclusively produce sugar on these islands. With the forced labor of the African slaves, sugar prices dropped, allowing all social groups the chance to afford sugar and make candy.

In the 1830-40s glass jars were used to store and display brightly colored candies. Chocolate bars, invented in 1847 by the Fry’s chocolate factory, were “packed as unwrapped bars in wooden boxes with paper labels displayed on the shop counter.” The 1850s ushered in the invention of the fashionable and functional airtight tins, great for toffee and tin collectors alike. Tins also made toffees appear more luxurious and were great for gift giving.

The earliest wrappers came from street vendors who would wrap candies in recycled papers. Some crafty vendors would use brightly color paper and cut decorative edges around the wrap, then twist the paper around the treat. By the 19th century all sorts of candies were available to the public. These small candy pieces were sold by weight and bagged when purchased.

The first wrapped milk chocolate bar was produce by??? You guessed it! Hershey’s, in 1900, and it is still being produced today! During this time packaged foods were the only foods that offered people a safe, consistent tasting food, with a fixed price. This chocolate bar was the first of its kind and sold nationwide for a nickel. It’s “The bar that started it all.”

The next big hit was the Milky Way bar produced by Forrest Mars. This bar was very different from the Hershey’s bar-- it had a solid milk chocolate coating which kept the candy bar fresh and the inside was malt-flavored nougat. “The Milky Way was much bigger and tasted just as chocolatey, but cost much less to produce. “People walked up to the counter and they’d see this little flat Hershey bar for a nickel and right next to it, a giant Milky Way. Guess which one they’d pick?” bragged Forrest.

These two wrappers are great examples of what a successful consumer branding looks like. The wrappers have changed through the years but the yummy treats they hold have not.

If you love--candy wrappers you have to check out the Candy Wrapper Museum it is filled with tons of wrappers from around the world. And if you’re into learning more about consumer branding check out this Syracuse University thesis paper, A Century of Candy Bars: An Analysis of Wrapper Design by David Grager.

Happy Puzzling!