From cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Thu Mar 26 12:46:25 1998 Return-Path: Received: from sun28.aic.nrl.navy.mil by mc.lcs.mit.edu (8.8.1/mc) with SMTP id MAA00805; Thu, 26 Mar 1998 12:46:24 -0500 (EST) Precedence: bulk Errors-To: cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Mail-from: From cube-lovers-request@life.ai.mit.edu Wed Mar 25 18:23:23 1998 Message-Id: <9803252324.AA16745@jrdmax.jrd.dec.com> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 98 08:24:24 +0900 From: Norman Diamond 26-Mar-1998 0817 To: cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: RE: 5^3 quiz I bought my first 5^3 from a department store in Japan in 1985, while it was alongside the 3^3 and 4^3 on the mass market. Bought my second one from Dr. Bandelow some time later. In Japan it was called "Professor Cube" which could be taken as "Professor's Cube" because it would be a bit too awkward to pedantically insert the syllable for possessive form (in Japanese grammar) between two polysyllabic foreign words. (Tangential details: pu-ro-fue-so-ru kyu-u-bu is 5 + 3 syllables, while pu-ro-fue-so-ru no kyu-u-bu would be 5 + 1 + 3 syllables.) The magic dodecahedron reached the mass market around 1989 or so. Those were the days. Some time around 1993, the mass market shifted to computer games. -- Norman Diamond diamond@jrdv04.enet.dec-j.co.jp [Speaking for Norman Diamond not for Digital]