ungary, the birthplace of the
hind-boggling Rubik’s cube, has
L unched a toy development pro-
am which should keep the
id flooded with brainteasers
or years to come.-

iven the time it takes most
eople to solve the cube — from
inutes to several months — it
take forever to solve all the
Bical toys that the Hungarians
an to export.

The possibility of long-term
S of such puzzles has not been
on Erno Rubik, the Budapest
er who originally designed
cube as a teaching aid for
ents of three-dimensional
at the College of Ap-

an has developed at least five
puzzles to keep us twisting,
g and frowning for years.
le has even come up with a
ike game for two or more
Sople to play, but refuses to
ibe the contraption before it
Patented and marketed.
Thecube has already hadmany
ssors — among them,
ers called the ‘‘snake’’, the

“tower of Babel’’ and ‘‘magic’’
stars, marbles and corn cobs —
and toy producers here have their
sales strategies mapped out for
the next two years.

If that were not enough, inven-
tors submitted more than 5,400
ideas last summer to a contest
seeking even more brainbusters
for the Hungarian toy industry to
produce.

So many entries were so good
that the winners’ category had to
be expanded to do justice to the
best ones, according to officials
of Konsumex, the main exporter
of what Hungarians call ‘“‘logical
toys.’’ About 30 of the ideas
should be marketable, they say.

‘There are two periods in the
history of toy-making in Hungary
— pre-cube and post-cube,”’ said
Konsumex director Gyorgi
Tamas. ‘‘We’ve just begun the
post-cube period.”’

The cube has helped Politoys,
which produces the cube, boost
its turnover 10 times since 1979.

Another Rubik brainstorm is

the magic domino game which »

looks like a flatter version of the
cube with 12 black dominoes on

one level and 12 white ones on
another.

The tower of Babel looks like a
simple cylinder with vertical rows
of variously colored balls. But
once it is twisted, thousands of
color combinations. begin to ap-
pear and it can take hours —
perhaps even days — to bring the
rows back into order again.

There's more to come from Hungary's Rubik

The manager of Politoys said
that he would introduce four or
five new logical toys at the
Nuremberg International Toy
Fair in February, 1983.

“‘We’re still holding back a few
ideas,”’ he said with a smile.

Largely as a result of Rubik’s
famous cube, Hungary has
become a world centre for a
whole new generation of
brainteasing toys.

— Hungarian Digest

ILLY HIGGINS RIDES THE

IGHTS. Juvenile fiction by
Ora Montero. Illustrated by
ena Kassian. Lorimer, 1982.

ion, for young adolescents
’s labor history
a patty, so Gloria Montero’s
Higgins Rides the Freights is
refreshing change of fare.
‘Growing up in the Dirty Thir-
°s was tough for millions of
es and Montero’s thirteen-
periences the
’s growing hardships after
: a islaid offin Vancouver.
, in 1935, Billy has to sup-
| Plement their meagre “‘relief”” ra-
Ons by quitting school and
8istering as a single
{Memployed. Caught up in the
Telieg camp workers’ strike, Billy

ONE PROUD SUMMER.
“Wenile fiction by Marsha Hewitt
Wome Claire MacKay. The

a men’s Press, 1982. $6.95

4 Fast-paced action and class
Ble are intertwined in One
E roud Sul arecent offering

The Women’s Press that

niles the hard-fought strike

Valleyfield, ee i

Lucie Laplante has been forced
lea school and go to work in

itreal Cottons textile mill,
Sane the death of her father

ustrial accident. She is
ares plunged into the
Adult World of a ten-hour work
twenty cents an hour,

oo workers and a hot,
f actory that is a living hell
for three thousand workers.

Faced with no alternative but
out the millworkers walk out
‘at turns out to be a three-
e under the banner of
Textile Workers of
In doing so they incur

foremen who sexually .

story — for today

experiences tin-canning to raise
funds for food, being thrown in
jail, and the police attack on
unemployed culminating in Van-
couver mayor Gerry McGeer’s
reading of the Riot Act in Victory
Square...

The pee “Trek sees

Billy with 1500 unemployed from
Vancouver, riding the freights to
Regina where the infamous police
attack on an outdoor public
meeting leaves one dead and
scores injured and jailed.

Here is a story for our times, a
story of Slim Evans, Red Walsh
and the many Canadian heroes of
the depression who, half a cen-
tury ago, knew the necessity of
organizing the unemployed and
insisted on work and wages — a
lesson that must be relearned by

the wrath and suffer the attacks
of the government of premier
Maurice Duplesis, in the form of
arrests and the use of scabs under
. police protection.

The resulting hardships are met
by increasing militancy from the
strikers, and sets the stage for a

our young people of today’s
depression.

Gloria Montero, a fellow of
Bethune College, York Universi-
ty, is author of The
and We Stood Together, the lat-
ter being. first-hand accounts. of
major events in Canada’s labor
past. Writing for juveniles is no
easy task, but she has brought to
life the feeling of the times. One
might quarrel with the fact that
the hero is only 13 when in 1935
even 16-year-olds were discourag-
ed by the Relief ‘Camp Workers’
Union from joining. The main
thing is that Montero in all her
books tries to express to Cana-
dians the necessity of knowing
one’s history, a history made by
working people with our own

heroes.
— Betty Griffin

Drama from Quebec labor history

rapid maturing for Lucie. In one
summer she gains a lifetime of ex-
perience in trade unionism and
the effect labor struggles have on
people’s lives. :

Authors Marsha Hewitt and
Clair MacKay have interwoven
history and fiction in this sinceré
effort to give adolescents role
models drawn from'actual, work-
ing class experience. The fictional
Lucie stands side by side with
real-life textile union organizers
Kent Rowley and Madeleine
Parent and provides a young per-
son’s view of one of the most
hard-fought strikes of the several
that rocked Canada in the years
immediately following World
War II.

Young readers can share
Lucie’s experience, and gain in-
sight into the history of Quebec
and all Canadian working class
struggles that have been too long
missing from our country’s
literature.

- Actual photographs from the
strike as well as a historical note
have been included as an appen-
dix.

- — Dan Keeton

YOSR FOG SOSR OSL SOL OF OF FOG H FOGR FOS OS SOR,

and wishes for peace

‘To fight for peace

B.C. PROVINCIAL COUNCIL
YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE

We invite you to join us Dec. 31 at Fishermen’s Hall
SOA IIR OK IE SE I ER NH A IH HO OS OA IO

Season’s
Greetings

in the New Year

is to fight for life’

PSOE SOS P68 EOE VERE WEE BIOS PSOE SOS EOE PEEK SOE SOK

MSAK SANTA NH IE NT OE I HOH AIT HITE OOH HORI AGT HONS NOI OO OI PO

: o.
SY

y
R
B
R
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
B
¥
i
y

SR REE ISA NK RE RE NOE OSE SAR OE IO, NE OSE IO

Season’s Greetings
and a
Happy New Year

In 1983, support our
boycott campaign.
Don’t buy
Chilean products!
Canadians for Democracy
in Chile
For more information, or if you can
help in this campaign, call Susan 254-9797
or Patsy 980-7263
SSE ISK ER

SPARK SK RSA AIR GA GR HGR OR OR OG OTR OG GRO

Season’s Greetings
We wish for everyone

a world where flowers
bloom and children smile.

Let us go forward

determined to win peace

B.C. Peace Council
712-207 W. Hastings.
—- 685-9958

E namamama nana mana mamamaed

to 1983

Ls

:

SPSOE SOSOE SPSS NOSE SESE SSDE PSE SRE SRE NOE Ses es OK EK eK

"PACIFIC TRIBUNE~DECEMBER 17, 1982—Page 17