A Puzzling Life

I must confess to some geekdom.... I should probably confess to a lot, but since the blog is doing it for me, I can forgo that for now.  Back to my confession.  I love puzzles.  I love crosswords, Sudoku, word search, the jumble, mind puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles, logic puzzles, and yes, things like the Rubik's Cube.

Being able to solve the Rubik's Cube is an honour which lies somewhere between useless and dubious.  It certainly doesn't help me meet women, and other than surprising some of my students--who quickly ask me how fast I can do it--curse you YouTube, curse you.  I can do it but I am no record holder.  Shouldn't that be good enough?  As I was saying, other than surprising my students, it doesn't do much else for me.

I remember watching a "reality" TV show called "Beauty and the Geek",  One of the contestants (guess which one?) was unpacking their luggage when they produced multiple cubes.  When questioned why so many cubes were needed, the reply was, "Just in case."

Since that day I have wondered what that meant.  Just in case what?  Is there something about the Mayan Calendar prophecy that I don't know?  Maybe I've got some kind of edge.  Maybe cube solvers will rule the new order.  Probably all that guy meant was that he would have something to do if the internet went down.

I learned to solve the Rubik's Cube from a book.  I got it as a Christmas gift while still in elementary school.  Oddly enough, I did those moves so many times that I haven't forgotten them more than 28 years later.  I guess there really is something to muscle memory.

I had a whole collection of these puzzles.  I had a pyramid, a missing link puzzle, a tower with colour graduated balls.  I think the people in my life wanted to get me on that TV show That's Incredible.