{"id":22777,"date":"2026-06-10T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/?p=22777"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:48:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:48:05","slug":"the-rubiks-cube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/the-rubiks-cube\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rubik&#8217;s Cube"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-social-links is-content-justification-right is-layout-flex wp-container-core-social-links-is-layout-765c4724 wp-block-social-links-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-facebook  wp-block-social-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61556140010887\" class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M12 2C6.5 2 2 6.5 2 12c0 5 3.7 9.1 8.4 9.9v-7H7.9V12h2.5V9.8c0-2.5 1.5-3.9 3.8-3.9 1.1 0 2.2.2 2.2.2v2.5h-1.3c-1.2 0-1.6.8-1.6 1.6V12h2.8l-.4 2.9h-2.3v7C18.3 21.1 22 17 22 12c0-5.5-4.5-10-10-10z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n<li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-instagram  wp-block-social-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/boudin_mcneese\/\" class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M12,4.622c2.403,0,2.688,0.009,3.637,0.052c0.877,0.04,1.354,0.187,1.671,0.31c0.42,0.163,0.72,0.358,1.035,0.673 c0.315,0.315,0.51,0.615,0.673,1.035c0.123,0.317,0.27,0.794,0.31,1.671c0.043,0.949,0.052,1.234,0.052,3.637 s-0.009,2.688-0.052,3.637c-0.04,0.877-0.187,1.354-0.31,1.671c-0.163,0.42-0.358,0.72-0.673,1.035 c-0.315,0.315-0.615,0.51-1.035,0.673c-0.317,0.123-0.794,0.27-1.671,0.31c-0.949,0.043-1.233,0.052-3.637,0.052 s-2.688-0.009-3.637-0.052c-0.877-0.04-1.354-0.187-1.671-0.31c-0.42-0.163-0.72-0.358-1.035-0.673 c-0.315-0.315-0.51-0.615-0.673-1.035c-0.123-0.317-0.27-0.794-0.31-1.671C4.631,14.688,4.622,14.403,4.622,12 s0.009-2.688,0.052-3.637c0.04-0.877,0.187-1.354,0.31-1.671c0.163-0.42,0.358-0.72,0.673-1.035 c0.315-0.315,0.615-0.51,1.035-0.673c0.317-0.123,0.794-0.27,1.671-0.31C9.312,4.631,9.597,4.622,12,4.622 M12,3 C9.556,3,9.249,3.01,8.289,3.054C7.331,3.098,6.677,3.25,6.105,3.472C5.513,3.702,5.011,4.01,4.511,4.511 c-0.5,0.5-0.808,1.002-1.038,1.594C3.25,6.677,3.098,7.331,3.054,8.289C3.01,9.249,3,9.556,3,12c0,2.444,0.01,2.751,0.054,3.711 c0.044,0.958,0.196,1.612,0.418,2.185c0.23,0.592,0.538,1.094,1.038,1.594c0.5,0.5,1.002,0.808,1.594,1.038 c0.572,0.222,1.227,0.375,2.185,0.418C9.249,20.99,9.556,21,12,21s2.751-0.01,3.711-0.054c0.958-0.044,1.612-0.196,2.185-0.418 c0.592-0.23,1.094-0.538,1.594-1.038c0.5-0.5,0.808-1.002,1.038-1.594c0.222-0.572,0.375-1.227,0.418-2.185 C20.99,14.751,21,14.444,21,12s-0.01-2.751-0.054-3.711c-0.044-0.958-0.196-1.612-0.418-2.185c-0.23-0.592-0.538-1.094-1.038-1.594 c-0.5-0.5-1.002-0.808-1.594-1.038c-0.572-0.222-1.227-0.375-2.185-0.418C14.751,3.01,14.444,3,12,3L12,3z M12,7.378 c-2.552,0-4.622,2.069-4.622,4.622S9.448,16.622,12,16.622s4.622-2.069,4.622-4.622S14.552,7.378,12,7.378z M12,15 c-1.657,0-3-1.343-3-3s1.343-3,3-3s3,1.343,3,3S13.657,15,12,15z M16.804,6.116c-0.596,0-1.08,0.484-1.08,1.08 s0.484,1.08,1.08,1.08c0.596,0,1.08-0.484,1.08-1.08S17.401,6.116,16.804,6.116z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Instagram<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>The Rubik&#8217;s Cube<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Eleanor Levine<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">My sister Adelaide got me a Rubik\u2019s Cube for Hanukkah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Every year she and her wife get me whatever is on sale at Aldi. One year it was three bags of coffee that I threw out, though I could have taken them to my AA meeting at 5 pm in New Jersey where no one cares if this was a belated Hanukkah gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">This is not as bad as the Art Deco plates in a wire container that Adelaide and her wife gave me. We placed their Art Deco dishware on the kitchen counter but eventually threw it out because who puts these things on their counter when you barely have enough room for your grilled cheese maker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I buy Adelaide and her wife good things: Tommy Hilfiger shirts that fit her giant-size body, and a picture book about gnomes that my sister-in-law can peruse because she doesn\u2019t read regular books as she spends forty hours a week doing Excel sheet calculations on a computer in a Lego factory.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">My sister-in-law and sibling can take the ten dollars and get me a gift card for Amazon or Whole Foods. A can of tuna at Whole Foods would be more valuable than a Rubik\u2019s Cube that is still in its plastic container in my trunk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I know people who are so good at solving the Rubik\u2019s Cube that they received a scholarship to MIT. I graduated from Rutgers thirty years ago and have no desire to attend MIT. My Boston friends say, \u201cdo the Rubik\u2019s Cube so you\u2019ll learn to be more patient,\u201d but these Bostonians also think they live in a Henry James novel and examine the rudiments of life in its utter stillness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I have less patience than my brother Harold who is a cashier at ShopRite and discusses anti-Semitism with Sri Lankan ladies who\u2019d rather debate the hefty price of eggs. Harold is not upset that they gave me a Rubik\u2019s Cube for Hanukkah (we had to drive two hours each way to get it); he is furious they gave me chocolate-covered almonds knowing I\u2019ve had a binge-eating disorder since infancy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u201cAdelaide would freak out if you bought her wife\u2014<em>a diabetic<\/em>\u2014chocolate!\u201d exclaims Harold, who calls me a \u201cwhore,\u201d though I only sleep with unread books. Harold ignores our canines who moan to take them out, but Harold is too exhausted from his prole job at ShopRite (where he also discusses politics with Republicans who\u2019d never vote for Biden\u2014only Trump\u2014out of desperation\u2014but they\u2019d still never give their grandkids a Rubik\u2019s Cube).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Adelaide won\u2019t speak with these ShopRite conservatives because she refuses to speak with Republican friends she\u2019s known since childhood (they smoked pot by the telephone lines in Jersey swamps before the Hasidim from Brooklyn moved to Lakewood, NJ). Adelaide\u2019s old pothead friends are now Trumpies and don\u2019t believe in immigrants; there are too many immigrants\u20147,000 a day\u2014but Adelaide, who also says disparaging things about immigrants, but not too loudly (because we can\u2019t be friends with people who speak like fascists), well, she and these neighborhood kids were friends when Nixon bombed Cambodia and they did not know or care about this because the pot was more scintillating. In truth, I see that Adelaide has a point, because being friends with these modern-day bigots is like befriending the sad and assimilated Germans in the 1940s who were indifferent during the Holocaust\u2014but even those Nazi fucks would not have voted for Donald Trump.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I have a friend in Germany\u2014Dagmar\u2014who says, \u201cyou speak German like a Turk,\u201d and has a fabulous job as an anchor for Berlin PBS. <em>I write her too many emails<\/em>\u2014this gets in the way of her prosperous career like the time I refused to remove her name from my acrimonious blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Though not as humiliating as when her father called me \u201ca despicable kike dike,\u201d because I emailed him lesbian Hebrew poetry and he wrote, <em>\u201cdon\u2019t ever send me this shit again\u2026\u201d <\/em>This does not surprise me because when I met him in New Jersey (Dagmar and I were teenagers then), he said <em>\u201cJeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewish\u201d<\/em> with the \u201ce\u201d loud enough to be heard in downtown Warsaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In the 1970s, Adelaide had a crush on Dagmar and bought her a pair of Converse that did not fit. Dagmar thought this was creepy and stopped speaking with my sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I suggest we switch to the gift certificate\u2014even from ShopRite\u2014but Adelaide won\u2019t listen. She might not even invite me back next year for dried turkey\u2014though I offered to make lasagna\u2014<em>they have enough food\u2014<\/em>but could I stop and get a rhubarb strawberry pie for $18.95 from Delicious Orchards? I do not have an Elon Musk car, but my brother does and that\u2019s cheaper than using a Volvo for gas for a half hour to pick up the pie or we could get it a few dollars cheaper at ShopRite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Adelaide is not completely devoid of gifts and advises me: \u201cDon\u2019t be furious with your best friend, Agnes,\u201d who NEVER socializes with me if her adult children visit. Adelaide thinks sending Agnes a <em>fuming<\/em> text, where verbs and nouns are jumping off the Empire State Building\u2014yelling cruel epithets at her\u2014<em>might ruin a half-a-century relationship<\/em>. Adelaide advises that I \u201cdelete\u201d this message.<em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I calm down. I meditate listening to Lite FM. I breathe in and out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I phone Agnes, and instead of arguing about her infantile maternal nature, we discuss Hanukkah gifts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Agnes concurs\u2014a 5-dollar cup of coffee at Whole Foods is preferable to a Rubik\u2019s Cube and\/or almond chocolates and\/or the frigging mug Adelaide once bought me\u2014with 0.5-centimeter lizards engaging in foreplay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I appreciate Adelaide\u2019s wisdom, which is worth a $1200 appointment with Manhattan\u2019s best shrink. And while it\u2019s not a puzzle\u2014like the Rubik\u2019s Cube\u2014her words calm me more than a yoga instructor, at a discount seminar, could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Eleanor Levine&#8217;s<\/strong> poetry collection, <em>Waitress at the Red Moon Pizzeria<\/em>, was published by Unsolicited Press (Portland, Oregon). Her short story collection, <em>Kissing a Tree Surgeon<\/em>, was published by Guernica Editions (Toronto, Ontario, Canada). Her novel, <em>The Golden Kernel<\/em>, was accepted by Main Street Rag Publishing Company for 2026. Also forthcoming is her second collection of poetry, <em>Downsizing With Catherine Deneuve<\/em>, which will be released by Unsolicited Press in 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"438\" height=\"211\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg 438w, https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1-300x145.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\">&lt;&lt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/marianne\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/marianne\/\">Back<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/waving-not-drowning\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/waving-not-drowning\/\">Next<\/a> &gt;&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">To learn more about submitting your work to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/boudin-submissions\/\">Boudin<\/a><\/em> or applying to McNeese State University&#8217;s Creative Writing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/mfa-application-submissions\/\">MFA program<\/a>, please visit Submissions for details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Rubik&#8217;s Cube Eleanor Levine __________ My sister Adelaide got me a Rubik\u2019s Cube for Hanukkah. Every year she and her wife get me whatever is on sale at Aldi. One year it was three bags of coffee that I threw out, though I could have taken them to my AA meeting at 5 pm&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[256],"tags":[75,146,100,26],"class_list":["post-22777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pride-june-26","tag-boudin","tag-fiction-2","tag-flashfiction","tag-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22777"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23048,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22777\/revisions\/23048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}