Puzzling

I'm not surprised to learn that Rubik's Cube is making a comeback. It's a classic toy, and in these troubled times we long for the simple days of 1981, when a Republican president at least conducted his corrupt foreign policy in secret.

Back in 1981, when I was ten, Rubik's Cubes accumulated like debt in our household. We had big ones, small ones, round ones, really small ones. We also collected the puzzle's various offspring; I actually never much liked puzzles, so I was fond of Rubik's Snake, which wasn't a puzzle at all, just this twisty sort of thing.

At some point I grew emphatically frustrated with Rubik's Cube, and I despaired of ever learning to work it properly. But I discovered that it was easy to pop it open with a screwdriver, then put it back together correctly. Now that's problem solving.