Puzzling Problems for Michael Jackson

I love puzzles. I do a sudoku a day and a crossword once a week. I enjoy putting picture puzzles together with my kids. I really think it is good for a little kid's brain to do picture puzzles. I am also just a little frayed with the constant news releases about Michael Jackson. Have you seen the video being played over and over about how much Michael's two oldest children love their father. The video was taped about 8 years ago. If anyone is as observant as I am you will notice that the puzzle he puts out for his three and four year old children in the video is a 200 piece puzzle. There are a few problems with this. It is kind of like trying to fit a puzzle together when the pieces don't quite fit. Do you take an Exacto knife to the piece and shave it down to fit? No, that would ruin the puzzle's integrity. The same thing goes with the puzzle problems. The puzzle play time is replete with a lack of structural honesty. First, kids that age can't do 200 piece puzzles. Most three and four year-olds enjoy a 12 to 24 piece puzzle. I have seen some really gifted kindergartners do a 50 or 100 piece puzzle. But they have really done a lot of puzzles, and clearly Michael Jackson's kids have not. There are at least 10 adults around in the video, but no one has the sense to notice that the puzzle is age inappropriate. Those poor kids! Additionally, you don't do a large puzzle on the floor, you do it on a table because large puzzles take time and you usually don't finish them in one sitting. If started on the floor then the puzzle would have to be put back in the box for sweeping or vacuuming. You don't even attempt a puzzle from a crushed box, such as the one being shown in the video, because it is painful to know there will be pieces missing even before you start. The only thing those puzzle pieces are good for is to glue on a frame or an ornament as an art project. Any good puzzle person knows these things. You start a puzzle by gathering the straight edges so that you can make the border. Then you look at the picture and gather like colors so that you can maybe start piecing together the picture. What is he doing in the video with his kids? They are scooping the puzzle from the box to the floor and from the floor to the box. They have no strategy. Michael is not asking the question, "What kind of picture will this puzzle make?" Poor Michael, I bet no one ever taught him how to put together a puzzle either.

So why does this bother me? It bothers me because if they are so clearly faking the good time they are having by working a puzzle, what else are they faking? Honestly! It is the lack of integrity I see when putting the Michael Jackson puzzle together. Puzzle people are bothered by these types of things. I would never adjust a puzzle piece to fit into a puzzle and I have a hard time watching others do the false fit.

Okay, if you don't want me to notice these details, the press had better stop showing this type of footage over and over. I always told my teenagers that I am judgmental because I have judgement. Now that I have shared this observation, the next time you see the footage, and you will see the footage if you leave your TV on for five minutes, notice the puzzle and make your own decision.