A Okay

Puzzler time.

Here we go.

This was many years ago. It was a cold and dreary day in Wisconsin. A young nursing student pulled out of the university parking lot. She was driving a 1972 Ford Galaxie 500, and it was a jalopy, to be sure. Her dad had put patches on the holes in the body work, and welded the bumper back on when it had fallen off, but it was reliable transportation, and her meager student budget would not allow for anything else.

She came to a stoplight on the way home and she began to slow down, she applied the brakes to slow down. All of a sudden, they locked up. She skidded to a stop, heads turned, and she knew that obviously something was wrong. She was embarrassed and perplexed and obviously afraid. She proceeded down the road slowly. At the next light, even after applying the brakes very cautiously and slowly again, something locked up and the car skidded, even with the gentlest touch of the brake pedal. It was scary for her.

So she takes the car to the repair shop, and they pull the wheels off, and they check the calipers, and they check the wheel cylinders, and the brake spring hardware, and they check the brake hoses and they pronounce everything with the brake system is A Okay.

And in fact, they were right, everything with the brake system is A Okay.

So, the puzzler question is, what is wrong with her car?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

10 Minute Trains

Many years ago, one of our producers lived in New York. And he was a two-timing guy, he had two girlfriends, you see.

One of the girlfriends lived in Brooklyn and the other lived in the Bronx.

He could never decide which one to visit. He liked both of them equally and decided that he would just throw it to fate. He knew that when he went down to get the train, he would descend the stairs into the subway and pretty soon a train would come. And if it was the Bronx train, he'd get on the train and go visit the girl in the Bronx. If it was the Brooklyn train, he'd get on and visit his girlfriend in Brooklyn. And what made it great was that the trains ran equally often, every 10 minutes.

So he decided that he would go down to the train at random times during the day or night. He didn't know the schedules of these trains, but he did know that every 10 minutes there would be a Brooklyn train, and every 10 minutes there would be a Bronx train. He figures his chances are 50/50, either way.

However, he finds himself going to Brooklyn 9 out of 10 times. Even though the trains run equally, every 10 minutes to each location, and he chooses random times to go down to the train, he ends up 9 out of 10 times going to Brooklyn.

Why was this happening?