Chocolate Chip Cookies and Timing Belts

We have a new puzzler this week. Here it is.

A customer called me the other day with this question.

He said he had an interesting thing that happened to him over the weekend. He was driving his car. Out on a pleasure drive with the wife and the 2.3 kids. So here he is on this excursion and the car started running very badly. Real bad. Low power and everything. He didn't know what was wrong. But there were no repair shops open on Sunday. So he pulls into one of those little gas stations. All the mechanics are out on their boats, of course.

This was one of those gas stations where they only sell chocolate chip cookies, milk, and gasoline and you have to pay for everything before you get the gas. Anyway, the attendant comes out and he says, "Gee, I don't know much about cars, but I happen to own one of these here. I'll look at it if you'd like me to. I don't know if I can fix it with milk and cookies, but I'll do my best!"

He said the guy seemed actually quite knowledgeable. And after careful study of 40 or 50 seconds, he said, "You have a broken timing belt."

And the customer said, "My car couldn't possibly run without a timing belt. I had that happen on my last four cars so you can't drive if you have a broken timing belt."

He said to me, "Do you believe this guy?"

And I said, "Yes, I do."

What's going on here? Is it the timing belt? And what kind of car was it?

That is our puzzler for the day.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

A Proper Puzzler

It's time for a puzzler, a real puzzler., unlike that silly endeavor thing that I've been so interested in lately.
In a former life, I may have stolen this from Marilyn vos Savant, but I don't know! Maybe I'll call her up and ask her.
But it will be poetic justice, because we know she'll steal it back and she'll get double credit, as she should!

I don't know the origin of this puzzler. The true origin of it. I don't think anyone could ever know the true origin. The creator of this puzzler may not be able to speak for himself or herself. We think that we know the origins of things, but as they say, there is nothing new under the sun. Therefore the origins are lost to antiquity!
Here it is. It's a non-automotive puzzler. That's a hint.

Okay. Here it is. This is a, "What is it?"

Clue #1 - The person who makes it doesn't need it.
Clue #2 - The person who buys it doesn't use it.
Clue #3 - The person who uses it doesn't know it.
What is it?

This is a tangible item. This is not an abstract thing. So the mail will be a lot briefer because people can just write down the name of the thing instead of 25 pages of collective aggregate multitudinous nouns.

Our estimable technical adviser suggested one possible answer was dog food.
I thought that was a good answer. But he would be wrong.

I love this. This is a good one. This is now a proper puzzler, and no longer an endeavor of nouns.