Riding High Review

Comment

Comment by Erik on May 18, 2009 at 12:16am

Yeah, I often get towards say the last 10 pieces and I'm totally like "I'm missing pieces" but it always works out.

Comment by Nate on May 17, 2009 at 5:54pm

I absolutely loved puzzling this one (thanks very much Erik!). Maybe even more than When Nature Calls, though that's hard to say because they have very different aesthetics. The swirly bit in Riding High was very well done--one of those things where you are pleasantly surprised that the pieces you have left over do, indeed, fit into those remaining negative spaces--it's just that those spaces don't quite look like the pieces... I loved the use of the clown in this one too.

Comment by June Herold on August 14, 2008 at 8:43pm

yes that's the book! Tx for posting the link.

Comment by Erik on August 13, 2008 at 1:07am

Interesting reflections on the book, is it this one http://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/dp/0465028020?

And yes, the clown is quite colorful.

Comment by June Herold on August 12, 2008 at 6:05pm

OK I finished Riding High courtesy of a puzzle pal o'mine and enjoyed it. Nothing much for me to add because Erik's review is good.

I would really like seeing more Indian, Far East Asian themed puzzles. Intricate patterns and subject matter many of us would like such as animals and fantasy like creatures populate many stories from those cultures, which brings me to the following comments:

I opted out of purchasing this puzzle because the elephant is not a beast of burden on my top 5 list of creatures! At least until recently.

A book I read recently, The Happiness Hypothesis has intrigued me. It uses the metaphor of an elephant and its rider for emotions (the elephant) and the rider (the intellect). The elephant's proportions make it massive in comparison to the rider. But the rider, or intellect, steers the elephant. However, the rider cannot make the elephant do what the elephant doesn't really want to do. The elephant may be willing to follow the rider despite the elephants best judgment, for a long, long period of time. But in the end, if the elephant has ignored its needs and desires, it will over take the rider.

Looking at the elephant another way, the elephant is the human body, which is the voice of our emotions and it doesn't lie, according to many schools of thought. And of course, elephants never forgot. And this brings me to the point: Recent work on the causes of Alzheimers and other forms of dimentia has begun to look at the prolonged effects of burying emotions, of compartmentalizing emotions so deep that our minds, our riders, are completely unaware of the damage they are doing to our lives. That damage is done somewhere to our being. So just because someone is physically in good shape into their 50s and has no visually apparent damage, the burried unbearable emotions may be shorting out/burning out aspects of the brain causing dimentia. Again, discussion of this is relatively recent. I'm not a psychologist or trained medical professional. But I find this line of examination very thought provoking. And this little puzzle resonated with me all the more.

By the way, the clown piece in this puzzle is one of the most colorful and fun clowns I've seen! And it's the clown who is the rider. The whimsy of this puzzle for me, in light of this recent reading, just underscored how much happiness is important in our lives. And getting a few chuckles and smiles from puzzles is a good thing.

Comment by Erik on August 10, 2008 at 4:28pm

June-as I recall the catalog picture is pretty close, but not 100% identical. You can compare the catalog picture to my flickr picture of my copy completed perhaps.

Comment by June Herold on August 10, 2008 at 2:46pm

Erik, hey! I'm working Riding High now. Is the catalog picture really the solution?

Comment by Jennifer on August 7, 2008 at 9:13am

You crack me up! I in no way meant to imply that you or Andrea began your creative endeavors at Stave. I'm talking puzzle stuff. I can still remember the wooden box you made and brought to your interview. Seems like it was just yesterday but the gray hairs are telling me something else! I guess I'm not still in my 20s!

Comment by Erik on August 6, 2008 at 5:38pm

I've got a day job still.... :-p

Comment by Jennifer on August 6, 2008 at 5:31pm

You are awesome. We love it and your fellow puzzlenuts, do too! I'm thinking we need you to write some of the puzzle copy for the next catalog. You're good!

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