1 year ago today, on October 9, 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) reached a record closing high of 14,164.53, which still stands. Today, the stock market, due to the financial crisis, closed at 8,579.19, a fall of 39.01%! Even worse, this may not be the bottom of the current stock market plunge.

Most of the drop, of course, has taken place in recent days. Over the last 4 days, the market has dropped 17%. If we assume that this rate were to continue steadily, which it won't due to market mechanisms, it would only take another 19-20 days for the DJIA to reach zero. This example isn't mean to scare you or be a prediction, but rather as a dramatization of the scale of the recent drop.

Your challenge is to put the 1-year stock market chart below back together before the real stock market gets put back together. Or, you could simply try and do it as fast as you can, which will still be quicker than the real market gets put back together.

Open the puzzle by clicking here!

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

To work on the jigsaw puzzle, click on the above link to open the modal window that contains the puzzle. The clock will start when you use your mouse to pick up the first piece. Move the pieces around by clicking and dargging them with your mouse. You can use this to arrange pieces on the board, and to connect pieces by placing your selected piece close enough to a connecting piece that one piece's nub locks into the other's void. You can close the window by clicking the circular area in the upper right corner of the window.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

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Well-known actor, director, entrepreneur, and racing entusiast Paul Newman died yesterday (September 26, 2008).

While most people knew Paul Newman for his classic movies such as Cool Hand Luke and The Sting, his racing car enthusiasm, or his successful line of salad dressing, few people know of his military service in World War II in the Pacific Theater.

Although his battle with cancer was only made public in June 2008, friends of Paul Newman report hearing the news of his cancer diagnosis in early 2007. He died at 83, and will missed by many.

In his memory, I'm posting the following jigsaw puzzle in his memory. Simply click on the image, and a window containing the Jigsaw puzzle will open. Enjoy it, and think of your favorite Paul Newman memories as you do.

Open the puzzle by clicking here!

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

To work on the jigsaw puzzle, click on the above link to open the modal window that contains the puzzle. The clock will start when you use your mouse to pick up the first piece. Move the pieces around by clicking and dargging them with your mouse. You can use this to arrange pieces on the board, and to connect pieces by placing your selected piece close enough to a connecting piece that one piece's nub locks into the other's void. You can close the window by clicking the circular area in the upper right corner of the window.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

(Public domain Paul Newman image courtesy of Aleposta.)

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Voice-over artist Don LaFontaine died on Monday (Sep. 1). His name wasn't well-known to many, but his voice was known by his catchphrase, “In a world...”.

Since his voice is better known than his face, I'll help you piece together his face by, well, having you piece together his face! Thanks to Jigzone, I'm able to bring you the following Don LaFontaine jigsaw puzzle.

Because Jigzone requires an area of at least 700 pixels for an embedded puzzle, and this blog's content area is only about 500 pixels wide, I'm embedding it via FancyBox, which is a jQuery version of the standard Lightbox window.

Open the Don LaFontaine jigsaw puzzle by clicking here!


Check out the following videos to see Don LaFontaine in action:

• Don discussing his career


• Don's GEICO ad


• 5 famous voice-over artists in Don's limo


• Don's voice-over “cameo” from the full Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trailer

Click here to see the rules for this puzzle.

To work on the jigsaw puzzle, click on the above link to open the modal window that contains the puzzle. The clock will start when you use your mouse to pick up the first piece. Move the pieces around by clicking and dargging them with your mouse. You can use this to arrange pieces on the board, and to connect pieces by placing your selected piece close enough to a connecting piece that one piece's nub locks into the other's void. You can close the window by clicking the circular area in the upper right corner of the window.

Let everyone know how you did in the comments!

(Public domain image courtesy of Maciek17)

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