Thinking Outside The Box

I started thinking "oustside the box" in first grade at Lake Otis Elementary School when I had a contentious argument with my teacher during my alphabet recital of the letter "z." I pronounced it "zed" thanks to having lived in Calgary, Canada for two years prior, where they pronounce "z" in Commonwealth English.

My teacher punished this academic insubordination by giving me a "timeout" in the small, dark space created by the open classrom door and the interior wall. She then pressured me further, by squishing me and leaning against the door with her full-sized figure. Even so, like the Virgil Hilts character (played by Steve McQueen) the legendary "cooler king" of The Great Escape, I still wouldn't submit "...w, x, y, zed, zed, zed!"

So, has anyone seen my box? Where is that friggin' box anyway? The closest thing I have to a box now is a empty. crumpled Half Price Books shopping bag.

From yee wiki:

Thinking outside the box (or thinking beyond the box) is to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to novel or creative thinking.

The term is thought to derive from management consultants in the 1970s and 1980s challenging their clients to solve the "nine dots" puzzle, whose solution requires some lateral thinking.

The catchphrase, or cliché, has become widely used in business environments, especially by management consultants and executive coaches, and has been referenced in a number of advertising slogans. To think outside the box is to look further and to try not thinking of the obvious things, but to try thinking beyond them.

The Nine Dots Puzzle

The "nine dots" puzzle. The goal of the puzzle is to link all nine dots using four straight lines or fewer, without lifting the pen and without tracing the same line more than once. One solution appears below.

One of many solutions to the puzzle at the beginning of this article is to go beyond the boundaries to link all dots in 4 straight lines

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Yp2L6c2KM