Monday, January 20, 2025

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This Week's Puzzler

The Fuse Issue

The puzzler is back! After a much needed break, so we could come up with the next bunch of puzzlers. It is time for the long-awaited new puzzler.

Here it is. 

Years ago, a customer shows up at the garage, an elderly gentleman who's got an old car. A really old car. 

He says, "Hey guys, my car is really running lousy. I need some of that fuel system additive that you guys sell." 

We had this stuff at the time, I don't know what was in it. Just a bunch of random stuff. So I sell him a can of this stuff, which he's going to put into his gas tank. 

And I'm not really listening. He says, "The car is really running lousy. It's getting terrible mileage. I need to do something. So, what do I do with this stuff I just bought?"

And I said, "Well, you put it in and you fill the tank up with gas, and then you drive it."

So he does it. He says, "Is this going to help my terrible mileage? I can't afford to really fix it, but I need to do something. Will this stuff work to make it run better?"

And I was honest and said, "No, I don't think so." But he buys it anyway, and off he goes. 

Several hours later, he calls me up. He says, "I've been driving the car all day. As luck would have it, I had a bunch of errands to run, but I've been in stop and go traffic on the highway for the last hour or two."

And I said, "Oh, so the car is fixed then?"

And he says, "Not really. I don't have any brakes now. The pedal went down to the floor. It's being towed in. It won't get there before you close, but you'll find it there tomorrow morning."

Anyway, we arrive the next morning to find his car with the keys under the mat. And I tell one of my guys, "Check out this car, pull the thing in to the garage. But be careful, because I think he blew a brake line or something."

About 20 minutes later, the guy hands me the keys, and he says, "It's all fixed."

I said, "What did you do?"

He said, "I replaced the fuse."

And I said, "What? He said he had no brakes!"

And he said, "I repeat. I replaced a fuse, and the car is fixed."

And indeed, it was fixed. 

So the puzzler is how did replacing a fuse fix the car?

Good luck.
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Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Can you solve this week's puzzler?

Folkloric, historic and occasionally sophomoric
Folkloric, historic and occasionally sophomoric
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This Week's Puzzler

Greetings from Car Talk Plaza!

Hello friends! The Puzzler is taking a short break, but we'll be back in with more historic, folkloric, and occasionally sophomoric puzzlers!
Now, without further ado, the answer to the most recent puzzler!

4X4X8

So, imagine, if you will, there is an old man who lives way up in the mountains of New Hampshire. He lives in a very small town deep in the woods.

This man has a flock of sheep that he tends to. A lovely, happy little flock of sheep. 

One morning, he comes back from the town and notices that one of his sheep is missing. His favorite sheep is gone. Her name is Elsie. 

He decides to figure this out, so he talked to some of the neighbors and asked if they had noticed any strange cars in the area. He wants to know if someone had kidnapped one of his sheep. One of the neighbors said, "Yeah, I did see a car, but I couldn't tell you the make or the model, but it did have an unusual license plate."

So this guy decides to try to find this car. There are not many people who live up there, so he thinks if he has the license plate, he can figure out who took his sheep. And if he has the plate number, he can report it to the police. 

So, he asked for the plate number, and the neighbor says, "It was 4 by 4 by 8, as in 4X4X8."

Upon hearing this, the man said, "I know what kind of a car that is, and I know who stole my sheep Elsie."

From that license plate, he was able to tell the make and model of the car, and who kidnapped his sheep. 

And the puzzler question is, what kind of a car was this? 
Find out here »
Congratulations to this week's
puzzler winner:

Dave Smith

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

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Contents © 2024, Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.
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