One of our puzzles in November was borrowed from somebody tagged Elon Musk (Parody) was posted as Monday Micro Softy 52: Elon Musk asks, Are You a Genius? It’s nothing unusual for social media posters to have parody accounts of iconic figures.

Here’s a puzzle posted on April 11, 2025, by Elon Musk News. This problem, we are told, is “only for geniuses”: In the wheel of numbers shown, what is the missing number? No advanced math is needed. Only arithmetic and a sharp mind.

Over to you, geniuses!

Solution to Micro Softy 55: “It Happens Every Spring”    

Image Credit: Crystal Madsen - Adobe Stock

Only the puzzle question from last week’s Micro Softy needs to be repeated. The elaborate calculated distraction about baseball can be ignored.

Question: What doesn’t occur in spring, occurs exactly once in June and July and exactly twice in August?

Although you have the right to be angry after you know the answer, please don’t overdo it.

 Answer: The letter U.

Remember the useful pun hint from last week? “The answer has to do with you [U], but nothing to do with baseball.”

For the record, not all of our puzzles involve math.

The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:

Monday Micro Softy 55: “It happens every spring.” Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball’s summer. To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know. You can find puzzles 51 through 54 linked here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. Links to Microsofties 46 through 49 are here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedaling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.

Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!