Builders of Corn Mazes Hope to Lose Visitors, and One Actually Did

[Gerald]

As corn mazes go, the one on Bob Connor’s farm in Danvers, Mass., isn’t particularly challenging. “It’s one of our average-to-smaller mazes,” said Brett Herbst, who counts that maze among the 2,000 he has designed in the past 16 years. A typical visitor should expect to complete it in about 20 minutes, he said. Still, a local family had to be retrieved by the police on Monday when they were unable to find the exit to Mr. Connor’s maze before the sun set. The parents, toting an infant and a small child, panicked and called 911, setting off a chain of events that soon turned them into a target for late-night jabs from television hosts like Jay Leno and Chelsea Handler. (The punch line, Mr. Connor said, was that the family was about 25 feet from the exit when they called for help.) Modern corn mazes are complex systems designed with the aid of sophisticated computer programs. But they are meant to be challenging, not life-threatening, according to maze builders, and getting out should never require a police escort. “The great thing about designing mazes is it’s like playing a game of chess” against the customer, said Adrian Fisher, a British designer who holds the world record for the longest maze path ever built. “You plan all your moves in advance, yet in the end you’ve got to be willing to lose.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/science/14maze.html?ref=science


Note: October 13, 2011

[Torplexed]

http://media.bonnint.net/seattle/6/655/65507.jpg

A corn maze.....ooomiGaawwd!

Yeah, these two and their baby have been the subject of quite a few parodies the past few days. Including one about a couple on a stalled escalator calling 911 because they have no clue as to what to do now. They've come to be seen as symptomatic of a urban culture that lacks any personal initiative or basic direction finding skills.

You do wonder if Lewis and Clark would be spinning in their graves.

[AVGWarhawk]

These two are permitted to have children?

[Torplexed]

These two are permitted to have children?

They probably had to lean on their cellphones to figure out how to do that as well. :O:

[soopaman2]

These two are permitted to have children?


2 stupid people breeding makes a case for Eugenics.

[Betonov]

Just stick to the right wall :O:

[Osmium Steele]

How do you move if you are stuck to the wall? :O:

[Krauter]

Just stick to the right wall :O:

I thought it was always the left wall :o

[mookiemookie]

I thought the whole point of a corn maze was that if this happened, you could just walk out through the corn?

Sheeshk...

[soopaman2]

I thought the whole point of a corn maze was that if this happened, you could just walk out through the corn?

Sheeshk...

Once again, my call for Eugenics.:O:

[Gerald]

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/3236/maze042.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/10/maze042.jpg/)
Unravel the mystery of Southwest Wisconsin's Most Challenging Corn....