The Endless Mile
RAY: This was sent in by John Kelly and he writes with a true story:

"While living in the Bronx a friend, who will remain anonymous, bought a car in White Plains about 21 miles north of the city. He didn't have anyone to help him pick it up so he decided to do it all by himself." (Now whenever someone says, "a friend who will remain anonymous," and then the rest of the story is something harebrained, you know it's him! So John, we're with you, brother!)

"And because he wasn't trading the car in, he came up with this ingenious plan. He drove his old car 21 miles north and parked it in the dealer's lot, picked up the new car, paid for it and got the keys, and drove it one mile south. He locked it up, walked back north one mile to the dealer, picked up his old car drove it two miles. He locked it up, walked back one mile, picked up the new car, drove it two miles south, locked it up, walked one mile back to the other car, etc., etc., etc., until he reached home with both cars."

So the question is, at the end of the very long, long day, how many total miles did he walk and drive? Sounds simple, right, but be careful!

The Case of the Whacked Out Clock
RAY: We have a friend, Tommy and I, who shall remain nameless, who works at a government facility and does very, very important work.
TOM: Yes.
RAY: And one day, he's at his desk working away, reading some very technical manual when he's awakened … I mean, startled by the sound of his stomach growling. He turns in his seat and looks at the electric clock on the wall behind him. This is one of these clocks that's been there for, like, a thousand years. It plugs into the wall.
TOM: Big analog round thing.
RAY: Right. He looks at the clock, and as he turns back to his work, he says, "Well, it's obviously too early to eat lunch. I must have forgotten to eat breakfast." He begins to work. A short time later, he's again awakened, startled, by the growling of his stomach. And this time, he turns to look at the clock another time. You with me so far?
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: He looks at the clock another time, and he notices that it first of all says a time later than what it did the first time he looked at it. The second hand is sweeping. The hour hand has moved from where it was the last time he looked at it, and the minute hand is in a different position. And as he turns back to his desk, again thinking that he must have forgotten to eat breakfast and he doesn't know how he's going to make it to lunchtime, his stomach growls a third time, and he says, "The clock is broken." And yet, everything seemed to be working.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: Now, I may have to give a hint. The question is: How did he know the clock was broken?
TOM: Well, the minute hand, the second hand and the hour hand have all moved, you said.
RAY: Yeah. The two hands are exactly 180 degrees apart, like they would be at 6:00. That's the hint I was going to give.

The Caddie in Winter
RAY: This puzzler was submitted by Shelly Payne. Here it is:

Several years ago my father-in-law, who lives in Minnesota had trouble with his late model Cadillac DeVille. His battery kept dying every couple of days. He would get it jump started and it would run fine for a few days, but then would die again. So he took it to the dealership. They checked it out. They couldn't find anything wrong.

One morning after there had been several inches of snow he went out and sure enough, what? The battery was dead. So he jump started it and went into town to get a cup of coffee at the local drug store. Now being that he lives in such a small town, he went and parked right in front of the drug store. And while he was drinking his coffee, he complained to the pharmacist about how his car was driving him nuts. The pharmacist asked, "Is that your car right out there?"

And he said, "Why, yes, that is my car." And the pharmacist said, "I know why your battery is dying."

What did the pharmacist notice?

it appears there may not be anymore car talk puzzler.

David's Mystery Corolla
RAY: As promised, this week's puzzler is automotive in nature, although you don't need elaborate automotive knowledge to figure it out.

TOM: Will there be declarification? Obfuscation? Will inky shadows be mentioned?

RAY: You never know! This was sent in by David Lane. He writes,

"One day, I drove my very reliable 1993 Toyota Corolla to the store. When I came out, it wouldn't start. The starter motor was silent. I turned the key, and there was no sound whatsoever. Repeatedly turning the key sometimes produced some clicking sounds under the dash but most of the time it produced nothing.

"I kept trying and, finally, after many tries, the starter motor kicked in and the car started right up. I considered myself pretty lucky.

"On the way home, I glanced at the dashboard. All the gauges read normal, and there were no warning lights on. But I noticed something, and immediately knew what the problem was.

"When I got home, I fixed it in just a few minutes."

So, what was wrong with David's car?

Bloody Brakes
RAY: This was sent by a guy named John Tomasetti from somewhere out there, some dot com place, dot com. Anyway, he says this is a real-life situation, actually happened to me, etc., etc.

He has a 1982 Jeep CJ7, and it had sticky front-brake calipers. So he decided that he was going to rebuild them himself.

"So," he said, "I bought the rebuilding kits for both front wheels and proceeded to rebuild the calipers myself. The rebuilding kits included all the necessary o-rings and dust boots, as well as new steel pistons to complete the job. I proceeded to rebuild both of these front calipers, feeling good that I had no spare parts left over. I was satisfied that I did the rebuild job correctly, and, in fact, that my work was flawless.

"However," he goes on, "when I finished the job, I couldn't seem to bleed the brakes properly. The pedal went to the floor as if there were air trapped in the system. I must have bled a gallon of brake fluid through the system to no avail, but there were no leaks. Finally, I took the Jeep to a shop, and, using their professional equipment, they bled them--to no avail."

TOM: Wow!

RAY: Finally they say, "You need a new master cylinder." They, what? Replaced the master cylinder three times to no avail. They checked the lines, they checked the rear brakes--everything in perfect condition. They gave up.

After five days, three more master cylinders, and many more gallons of brake fluid, he takes the thing to the Jeep dealer. They bleed the brakes, they put in master cylinders, they do all this and, finally, someone figures it out, and it cost no money to get it fixed.

So, what did they do? What did this one brilliant guy notice?
Answer the Puzzler »
Remember last week's puzzler?
The Hat in the River
RAY: Imagine this: It's the first day of summer. You decide to rent a little rowboat at the dock and go for a ride. You begin to paddle upstream. Did I tell you you've got two oars in the water?

TOM: People say I don't have two oars in the water. What do they mean by that?

RAY: You're rowing upstream. You get a mile from where you put your boat in the water, and your hat flies off. You say, "Ah, forget it!" You keep rowing.

Suddenly, you realize that your two tickets to that night's Sleepy LaBeef concert are inside the sweatband of the hat. At that moment, when you realize you've also lost the tickets, you've rowed away from the hat for 10 minutes.

You turn around and you start rowing again, trying to get to the hat. You're rowing with the same intensity that you were when you were going upstream.

You catch up with the hat right at the point that you first put the boat in the water.

How fast is the current moving?

From Rags to Britches
RAY: Now, this puzzler is lengthy and complex and obfuscated and full of useless information. So pay attention.

Our producer, Dougie Berman, is walking home from work late one afternoon. About 2:15, as he approaches his house, he notices that there is a car parked in front of his house with the engine running. And in the driver's seat is a man and while this car is sitting there Dougie notices someone coming from the direction of his house carrying what looks like a huge pile of rags. The man opens the back door, throws the rags in the back seat and jumps in the car. The driver puts the thing in gear and they speed away.

Dougie goes into the house. He plays with the dogs. He opens his mail. He takes a nap. Et cetera, et cetera. Several days later he notices that all of his clothes have been stolen.

TOM: Took him a few days to notice.

RAY: So, he calls the police to make a report, and they come down. You know, the inspector comes down and says, well, what happened? And Dougie explains everything. And Dougie's standing there in his underwear, because what? All of his clothes have been stolen.
And the police asked him if he noticed anything about the guys. Dougie said, no, they were average height, average build, average weight. Then they asked, what about the car? Do you know something about that? Well, Dougie said, I happened to be a student of the automotive field, and I did notice that it was an '89 Corolla, midnight blue. I noticed of course that the engine was running. I noticed that it had Massachusetts license plates, and there was a dent in the trunk. And the police said, we'll get back to you. Weeks go by. Weeks.

Finally, the police call him up and say, we have the car and two suspects and we just need you to come down and identify your stuff.

Dougie comes down to the police station and he looks at the two guys, but he doesn't recognize them because he's not that attentive to details. He goes up into the parking lot, and sure enough, there's the car. There's an '89 blue Corolla, midnight blue, Mass. plates, dent in the trunk.

And Dougie remembers that there was one thing that he forgot to tell the police about the car. He walks over very quickly and looks inside the car for one second, and walks away and says that's not the car. These aren't the guys. What did Dougie look at? A quick look inside and walked away and Dougie said, can't go to work for another two weeks. I won't have any clothes.

So that's the question: What did Dougie look at?