When I ran across this task, I knew I wanted to construct my own labyrinth for it. But out of what? As I pondered, it came to me that it would be delightful to play "in" a labyrinth not as a place, but as an object, dare I say a substance. As one plays in mud, or clay. After pondering sticky alternatives, I settled on the marginally cleaner medium of mashed potatoes and ketchup.

The first stage was design. As much as I love the classic medieval labyrinth pattern, I just don't have the fine motor skills to render it on a plateful of mashed potatoes. I found several simpler designs online, and sketched out some ideas on an index card.

Next, execution. I made a plate of mashed-potato-like substance and impressed by labyrinth design into it before adding the ketchup .

This was the easy part. Creating a labyrinth, funny looks from my roommates aside, is within my comfort zone. Playing with my food, now, that I have internal rules against. So I started small.

I really got into it though! It turned out to be a perfect squishing substance, way better than playdoh. I even attempted a close encounters bluff, but it was not captured on camera.

All in all, I found this task to be a complete success. It was more enjoyable even than I expected!