Peter,

I'm still interested in seeing the CFF table of contents, though I
might be subscribing to it, because you write

RUBIK'S CUBE IN 44 MOVES: HANS KLOOSTERMAN

Does that article actually show how to solve the cube in 44 moves?
Even if they count half-turns as single moves, it is significantly
better than the 52-move Thistlethwaite solution in Singmaster. Also,
Thistlethwaite was thinking of improving his method, and perhaps this
is a report of it. Or maybe it's just more rumor and conjecture, but
it's nice to hear after all this time.

I was making a few patterns over the weekend for some kids, and thought
of some stuff I was thinking of trying out. For instance, if you
restrict a face to two colors, there are only about fifty different
patterns, at least if you ignore handedness. I wonder how many of them
can be put on every face of the cube. We know the ones with corners
alternating colors are impossible. We have some experience with some
of the patterns--the X's, Crosses, Spots, T's, and H's--but that still
leaves a large number of possibilities.

My Christmas present to myself this year was to order Rubik's Cubic
Compendium. I hope to be able to report on that sometime soon. It's
always possible we may have a Cubic renaissance, though I'm not holding
my breath.

Dan