So I stumbled onto this weird game after reading a thread at our UP EEE ’98 YahooGroup. The initial e-mail pointed to a Flash version of the game. People replying to the e-mail thread were frustrated until, one by one, they figured it out.

Being the intrigued person I am, I followed the link and subsequently trashed my schedule for the next half hour. I knew the solution was very simple or the people in the thread wouldn’t moan and bitch about it then exclaiming “I got it!” and saying that it doesn’t involve heavy math. A lot of them declared that the name of the game is quite important.

So for the next ten to fifteen minutes, I tried the game without getting it—and instead getting generally frustrated. (Petals—roses—dice? Huh?!) I even tried to google for the answer (yes, I am such a cheat). The web search’s significant find was the complete rules:

• The name of the game is “Petals Around the Roses.”

• The answer is always zero or an even number.

I didn’t find the solution on the web (I didn’t try hard enough), so I tried to play the game again concentrating on the significance of the even numbers.

Then I figured it out.

You know that instant where something becomes so amazingly clear, so exceedingly simple, that you wondered “now why the hell didn’t I think of that before?” That’s basically how I felt.

Then my life continued on as before, unchanged.

Addendum: Even Bill Gates was stumped by this game for several hours.