the smedley log - suburban scrawl

Putting it together

This is the only reliable way I ever found to solve the Rubik’s Cube on my own.

Will Smith, on the other hand, seems to be an old pro at it. Anyone who saw The Pursuit of Happyness might remember that solving a Rubik’s Cube was instrumental to Smith’s character securing a job interview. But figuring out why it spurred such a sense of deja vu in me took some time (and a bit of help from the late night TV gods).

Just the other day, I was watching an old episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air in which Will solves a Rubik’s Cube for a Princeton recruiter. His mastery of the cube resulted in an college admissions offer.

Which probably explains the vague sense of recognition spinning through my head while I watched the movie a few months ago. Now I’m wondering if that was part of the original story, or if it was added as something of an inside joke. Or maybe the similarity between the two scenes, odd as it may seem, had something to do with Smith taking the role.

Just something pointless to ponder on a wet Wednesday morning.

That’s exactly how I used to do it too. Yet another example of great minds thinking alike.

Somebody told me that they used to take the stickers off and then put them back on again. I never quite got that one. Almost seems easier to just solve the damn thing.

I knew people who did the sticker thing, too.

If I’m not mistaken, some company used to sell just the stickers for folks who wanted to make their triumph appear more convincing, or maybe it was just to replace the old ones when they wore out.

once in elementary school, by total freak of nature, i solved the rubik’s cube. it was a total accident and couldn’t ever repeat again.

I was recently at someone’s house who had a rubik’s cube-like device. It had even more range of motion than the traditional rubik’s cube and diamond shaped pieces. I managed to twist it in such a way as to totally deform it, boggling everyone in the room and rendering it basically unsolvable. I’m not sure that it was one of my finer moments.