Lost Pig

This game has single-handedly (that is NOT a masturbation reference) brought me back to the joy of Interactive Fiction. It's been some time since I've had to type 'NW', and hearing about Lost Pig, I felt compelled to, as in the days of my chronically be-seated youth, madly type basic sentences and weird abbreviations into a computer. And oh, how wonderful to return to the fold! Lost Pig is a perfect example of the form, in my opinion. I can't imagine the amount of play-testing that went into making almost every warped combination of disparate objects or obviously ridiculous actions something that doesn't baffle the parser, but instead, produces a hilarious and preconceived result. And while that is admirable in itself, the core puzzles are extremely well thought out; every one, at least for me, was of the head-slapping 'Goddamit why did I spend a half hour on that?!' variety. Including the elusive 'seventh point'.
And the NPC is sweet as well.
Sadly, playing this first has raised my expectations for the genre -- while there are other fabulous IF games available, few are as tightly knit as this one. I love expansive IF, of course, but I could play a million shorter ones if they covered almost every possibility as well as this one!
I mean, in how many computer games, no matter how graphically endowed, can you set your own pants on fire?