Monday, November 18, 2024

Can you solve this week's puzzler?

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This Week's Puzzler

The Inventor


Puzzler time. 

This one is rather automotive in nature. Here we go. 

In the early 1930s a young inventor came up with an idea for a little gadget which could be installed in an automobile.

When the inventor tried to sell his idea to his favorite gadget builder, the guy didn't want to build it. He was afraid that Congress would legislate against it, because it would be distracting to drivers.

But the inventor was very persuasive, and convinced the guy to build 100 of these little gadgets, which were later sold in front of the factory in just 10 minutes.

A multi-billion dollar business was built on this little gadget, and you'll hardly ever see a car without one now.

That was this little thing called?

Good luck.
Answer the Puzzler »
Remember last week's puzzler?

Writing Right


Here we go.

Here is an interesting fact. Leonardo da Vinci was left handed, but he wrote backwards. He wrote from the right side of the page to the left side of the page. And he didn't write the way we write. He practiced what was called 'mirror writing.' He actually wrote backwards. So if you held up a mirror to what he wrote, you could read it. If you ever read The Da Vinci Code, then you know this already.

I thought this was kind of interesting. Then I remembered when we were kids in school, every kid that was left handed was forced to learn to write with their right hand, almost without exception.

This is hardly ever done now.

But back then there was a very good reason for it.

There was a practical reason for it, which for the most part, does not exist today.

What was that reason?
Find out here »
Congratulations to this week's
puzzler winner:

 HART

Congratulations! This correct answer was chosen at random by our Web Lackeys.

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Thursday, November 14, 2024

Can you solve this week's puzzler?

View in browser »
This Week's Puzzler

Writing Right


Time for the puzzler this week. Here we go.

Here is an interesting fact. Leonardo da Vinci was left handed, but he wrote backwards. He wrote from the right side of the page to the left side of the page. And he didn't write the way we write. He practiced what was called 'mirror writing.' He actually wrote backwards. So if you held up a mirror to what he wrote, you could read it. If you ever read The Da Vinci Code, then you know this already.

I thought this was kind of interesting. Then I remembered when we were kids in school, every kid that was left handed was forced to learn to write with their right hand, almost without exception.

This is hardly ever done now.

But back then there was a very good reason for it.

There was a practical reason for it, which for the most part, does not exist today.

What was that reason?

Answer the Puzzler »
Remember last week's puzzler?

Two Tokens

Here we go.

We used this one many, many years ago. 

A blind man enters the subway by walking down the stairs with the assistance of his seeing-eye dog.

When he gets to the bottom of the stairs, there is a cage behind which is sitting a woman who's the token vendor. That is how long ago this was, because they have not used tokens in decades... And there's a sign there that says, "Tokens, 40 cents."

The blind man reaches into his pocket and through the slit in the cage he hands the woman a dollar. 

No words are spoken. She has never seen him before. They don't know each other at all. She hands him two tokens and 20 cents change. We know this puzzler is old because you can't ride the subway for 40 cents anywhere in the world. 

The puzzler question is very simple, how did she know he wanted two tokens?
Find out here »
Congratulations to this week's
puzzler winner:

 matthewvance

Congratulations! This correct answer was chosen at random by our Web Lackeys.

Facebook Twitter Instagram website@cartalk.com
Cartalk.com Community
This Week's Show Podcast
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Email preferences Shameless Commerce
Care of WBUR, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
Contents © 2024, Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.
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