The reclusive inventor of the Rubik's Cube wants to do more than amuse you

For those outside the fold, the Rubik's cube is cognitive kryptonite. Until this week, I'd certainly never solved one. Even now, saying that I solved a Rubik's cube feels like a grievous overstatement of my accomplishments. The truth is that we--a patient pre-teen "cuber" whose solve time is 47 seconds, her slightly-less-patient middle school teacher (whose solve time, she's embarrassed to admit, is closer to a minute and a half), and me--completed a cube together. The site of my public humiliation could not have been more incongruous with the task at hand.