What Toy Do You Miss?

One of my favorite toys was Rubik's Magic Puzzle.  Sort of a Jacob's Ladder on steroids.  It was made of 8 independent squares connected by bands that allowed the squares to move and change position relative to each other.  The object was to take the puzzle from a 2 x 4 rectangle with three rings to the image on the left.


Other configurations were possible including 3 dimensional such as loop and a "fish" (image on right).    


It was created by Ernő Rubik and came out in the 80's.  Like the cube there were speed competitions.  Below is a video showing the solution and a one-handed 2 second attempt.  I would love to have one again.





What toy from your past do you miss?

Angry Birds and Chocolate Frosting

A curwhibble Word Cloud

Just Watched - Playtime

Playtime directed by and starring Jacques Tati

on IMDB
review by Ebert
Available Streaming on Netflix

From the Ebert Review

"Jacques Tati's "Playtime," like "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "The Blair Witch Project" or "Russian Ark," is one of a kind, complete in itself, a species already extinct at the moment of its birth."


Paris in Jacques Tati's Playtime is a collection of Modern concrete and glass towers.  The sights we expect are either not included or seen from a distance or seen as reflection.  The most striking view of the Eiffel Tower is a reflection on a glass door of one of the high rises.  


The movie takes place over a day and night in Paris and is populated by an American Tour group, the people of Paris, and Mr. Hulot.  There is virtually no dialog and the dialog that is there has the quality of something barley overheard as you are walking through a room.


The movie is a set of visual and aural vignettes, almost slapstick, but never dumbed down.  There are time where there is so much going on in the scene that you know you missed something.




One of my favorite moments in the film is as one of the American tourists walk pasts a series of travel posters in an Airport, you see that every city across the globe is filled with the same glass and concrete towers.  

An amazing extended sequence takes place in a new restaurant that is not quite ready to be opened.  This sequence alone is worth seeing the whole film.

Just Read

At Home by Bill Bryson

"Bill Bryson (A Short History of Nearly Everything) turns his attention from science to society in his authoritative history of domesticity, At Home: A Short History of Private Life. While walking through his own home, a former Church of England rectory built in the 19th century, Bryson reconstructs the fascinating history of the household, room by room."


at Amazon

"House aren't refuges from history.  They are where history ends up."

A wide ranging history, that covers everything from the Crystal Palace and materials and techniques to build it to the history of plumbing, archeology, architecture, gardening, parks, fashion, wigs and much more,  At Home takes us room by room to examine how the home became a home.

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