Computer geeks are often nerds.

Many nerds feel uncomfortable in social situations and awkward in groups. However, learning to move past this discomfort is important for successful networking. With that in mind, here is a puzzle that connects social confidence with the value of building professional relationships.

Michael entered a room ready to network. Nine other people also arrived at the same time. Everybody shook everybody else’s hand.

For this week’s puzzle, how many handshakes did that amount to?

For the super nerds out there, for extra credit: How many handshakes would it be if there were n people were in the room and everyone shook everyone else’s hand once?

Solution to Micro Softy 91:  Locked in a Trunk! What to do?

Here’s last week’s puzzle: Jimmy the Mooch and Tony Two-Toes had both borrowed money from loan shark Chicago Fats and failed to repay him. To make an example of them, Fats’ goons locked the pair in the airtight trunk of a 1960 Lincoln Continental. Both men soon began gasping for air; Tony died of asphyxiation, but Jimmy managed to survive longer thanks to a secret he kept to himself.  Jimmy’s partner Mikey, “Second Breakfast” Caputo, discovered the car and pried open the trunk, rescuing Jimmy whie still alive but faint.

So the question was, how did Jimmy survive longer than Tony if they were in similar physical shape?

When the air was depleted in the trunk, Jimmy snuggled up to the spare tire, which was fully inflated. He periodically pressed the valve stem and took a deep breath of stale air.

The answer to this Micro Softy clarifies the hint given last week: “When Jimmy the Mooch emerged from the trunk he was tired. He had no spare energy left.”

Note for nitpickers: Unlike the early-era “continental spare tire” designs (which are external spare tire mounts or kits popularized in the 1930s–1950s), the 1960 Lincoln Continental’s spare tire was placed inside the trunk compartment in a recessed well/storage area. This was the typical design for full-size American luxury cars of that era, including Lincoln sedans and convertibles. And 1960 was before the advent of the donut spare tires commonly used today.

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 Microsofty 91: Locked in the Trunk! What to do? Can quick thinking save a man from a ruthless gangster’s vengeance? To solve last week’s puzzle, ask yourself, what changes were inevitable over the 25 years that Charlie mowed his lawn?

Image Credit: Natallia - Adobe Stock

Monday Micro Softy 90: Mow Power to You: Why would Charlie’s well-maintained lawnmower apparently be losing energy efficiency over the years? To unraveling the multiple negatives in last week’s confusing sentences, we start by remembering that any two cancel each other.

Monday Micro Softy 89:    Double Negatives Are a No-No. Actually, they do have their uses — for example, if politicians are trying to correctly state views while making them hard to understand. To solve last week’s puzzle: you are told how many heads there are so start by flipping that number of coins.

Monday Micro Softy 88:  Flipping Gold Coins. Computer programmers must be good at math. The solution to this week’s Micro Softy uses math — but you don’t need to know the math to impress your friends. The answer to Micro Softy 87 depends on understanding which number a given sequence of the code represents.

Monday Microsofty 87: Are you as good a detective as you think? Here’s a test from the world of codebreaking To solve last week’s puzzle, look up the definition of “calorie.” Are we using the word to mean the same thing? You can find links to Microsofties 77 through 86 here as well.

Monday Microsofty 76: The Smoking Gun explains a computer scientist or engineer, a law enforcement officer often relies on abductive reasoning to crack a case, so with this in mind, you will have to crack last week’s puzzle. You can find links to Microsofties 55 through 75 here as well.

Image Credit: spuno - Adobe Stock

Monday Microsofty 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 links here to Microsofties 51 through 54 as well.

Monday Microsofty 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. You can find links here to Microsofties 46 through 49 as well.

Monday Microsofty 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 pedalling? 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 can find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Microsofty 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 can find links here to Micro Softies 30 through 39 as well.

Image Credit: New Africa - Adobe Stock

Monday Microsofty 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 You can find links here to Microsofties 22 through 29 as well.

Monday Microsofty 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. You can find links here to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Microsofty 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? You can find links here to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!