www.smallworldexperiment.com is looking into the phenomenon known as the Milgram effect-or as you've no doubt heard a half a million times in your life: "It's a small world"

You've also probably heard that everyone on the planet is supposedly linked by only six degrees of separation, or is it we're all linked to Kevin Bacon? I dunno, but this experiment is supposed to put that theory to the test.

What it is: The gang at www.smallworldexperiment.com created a world map jigsaw puzzle made out of foam rubber. the puzzle has 54 pieces. They sent the pieces out to strangers all over the world. Each person who was sent a piece is to "pass it on" (mail) to someone they know. Then this person will do the same, and on and on. The idea is to see if any of the pieces make it back to the original "owner". Now of course, someone could cheat and look on the website (where the pieces' progress are posted) and find out who the original person was, and send it to them, but that would not test the theory. The idea is to send your piece on to someone you actually know.

SO ANYWAY, My good friend Don from Ormond Beach Florida sent me this piece. It is number 51 (if you go to the www.smallworldexperiment.com website, you'll understand). I took a couple of snapshots of it on a beautiful sunny February day in the east central Wisconsin city of Fond du Lac. Since the piece has the word 'ocean' on it, I thought it would be cool to shoot it in front of the lighthouse, although that's no ocean it's sitting on, but a totally frozen lake Winnebago. Oh, and the bottom shot was just a couple of 'girls gone wild' here in the studio.

I'm sending the piece on to New Mexico. I think it will be glad to get out of this climate. Who knows, maybe YOU'LL end up with a piece! Wouldn't that be...f r e a k y ?

Say hi to Kevin for me, OK?

-Steve Wirtz