Frozen Vermont

Puzzler time.

Okay, I know last week's puzzler was long. This one is also long. Consider yourself warned.

Here we go.

Many, many years ago, when I was 23 I was teaching science to seventh and eighth graders in the frozen state of Vermont. This was a lifetime ago.

Anyway, there I was one Saturday morning sitting in front of my TV watching some educational program. I think it was like Mighty Mouse or something, when the phone rang.

I knew who it was. It was one of my fellow teachers who happened to live across the street, who I knew was going to ask me to help move a cast iron stove into his house because he had asked me about it the day before.

So I picked up the phone. And he explained to me that he didn't have the stove right then, because he was going to pick it up at the factory. He'd be back in a few hours. And if I were available, could I help him when he got back.

And I said, "What about that no-good brother-in-law that lives with you? Can't he help you out?"

And he said, "No, he won't be back until late tonight. You're here, and he's not, so I am asking you."

I said, "Okay. Go get the stove, and I'll be waiting."

So I got dressed and made some coffee and busied myself around the house, annoyed about having to do this.

As I waited for him to return, I noticed a wonderful thing began to happen. The snow that was falling down changed to freezing rain. And I said to myself, "Oh, this could be good, because I can guess right now he's at the factory, and they're loading the stove into his Volkswagen bus. Except he's never going to be able to get up his steep driveway when he returns with all this ice. And I'll be off the hook. And maybe by tomorrow, when the ice melts, his brother-in-law will be home to help him, and I will be off the hook!"

So sure enough, there I was hiding behind the drapes and peeking out the window when he gets back. And I was right. He can't get up the driveway. He's slipping and sliding all over the place. Every time he lets the clutch out, the wheels just spin like crazy. And it is even worse because of the additional weight of the cast iron stove.

So there he is, he is slipping and sliding all over driveway on the ice. He gets out and throws some sand under the wheels. The sand doesn't help at all.

He gets out again, slams the door, opens the engine compartment door, which they had back then on the VWs. He does something which takes about a second or two, closes the engine compartment door, and the next thing I know, he's climbed his driveway.

Then he calls me and says, "Okay, I'm home. Come help me move this stove will ya?"

The puzzler question is this.

What did he do that literally took a second that enabled him to get up his driveway under the same conditions that had prevented him from doing this a minute earlier?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Whereabouts in New Hampshire

This one is definitely automotive. This is a true story. Here we go.

Years ago, an elderly woman came into the shop with her equally elderly car. It was an old Lincoln Town Car.

Huge car. One of those really big cars that takes up so much space, it should have a seat in the UN General Assembly.

Anyway, she's talking to Manny, the youngest of our technicians at the time, and she's explaining to him what she wants done with her car.

Of course, I'm eavesdropping, and she says, "There are two things that need to be looked at. One of them is that I need a tune up."

And all the technicians have been instructed to ask why when someone says they need something like that. So he asks, "Why?"

And she says, "Well, my mileage has been off. The engine seems to be laboring. The power is diminished, and I just know I need a tune up."

Manny asks, "Okay. And what about the second thing?"

She says, "My shift indicator is off. When I'm in Park, it really says I'm in Reverse, and when I'm in Drive, it really says I'm in Two."

He says, "Ah ha! I know what's wrong with your car. What's wrong is that you're not in the right gear. You're in second gear, and that's why your mileage is off, and that's why the engine sounds like it's laboring..."

And she says, "That is not it, young man. I can feel all the shifts when I start driving. It shifts from first to second, and then from second to third, and then if I stomp on the gas, it down shifts like it's supposed to."

So Manny says, "Okay, back to square one. How do you know the mileage is off?"

And she says, "Well, I check it all the time."

And he says, "But you're only getting probably seven or eight miles to the gallon in this big car anyway. Why bother to check it? How would you really know if it was off?"

The woman says, "Every month I take a trip to visit my mother-in-law in New Hampshire. That trip is normally no problem. This time I noticed on my return trip that, when I got back, the thing seemed to be laboring. My mileage was terrible for the whole return trip. And I began to notice all these symptoms."

So he thinks for a second, asks her a few more questions. And then he asks, "Whereabouts in New Hampshire does your mother-in-law live?"

And she says, "Way up north in New Hampshire."

And he asks, "Does your mother-in-law live on a dirt road?"

And she says, "As a matter of fact, she does. It's a lousy dirt road with potholes, and I hate driving there."

And he says to her, "I know what's wrong with your car. You don't need a tune up, and one repair is going to fix everything."

And the puzzler is, what did he learn from this last question that enabled him to figure out what was wrong with her car?