RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappet brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the new puzzler.
TOM: I can hardly wait.
RAY: Well, this is interesting. On October 15, 1996, I received — this is the real date, see?
TOM: October 15, 1996, well, hey, you're catching up.
RAY: Well, I received the following email.
TOM: You're catching up, man!
RAY: It says: "Despite your completely incomprehensible failure to use the last puzzler I submitted, I'm giving you another chance. By the way, I'm a cute little kid confined to a hospital bed with a wasting disease. The doctors don't hold out much hope of my surviving past the end of your show's current season. My last wish is to have a puzzler used on Car Talk."
TOM: Oh man!
RAY: But, don't let that influence you. Well, I didn't.
TOM: Evidently not!
RAY: On Tuesday, 18 January 2000, I received the following email: "Despite your completely incomprehensible failure to use the last puzzler I submitted..." The exact same one!
TOM: Same puzzler?
RAY: Same puzzler.
TOM: And the kid has survived?
RAY: He survived, yeah!
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: Pretty good, huh?
TOM: Great! And maybe it was just a hope that you gave him that someday you would read his puzzler.
RAY: Well, in fact...
TOM: It saved his life!
RAY: It was with considerable reservation that I use his puzzler today.
TOM: I know, because now if you use it, the kid'll be dead in an hour!
RAY: Maybe. I mean, this has been keeping him alive! Every week he listens and says, bums didn't use my puzzler yet!
TOM: This is dangerous. I mean, are you sure you want to do this?
RAY: Well.
TOM: You think he's lying, don't you?
RAY: Yeah, I think he's a lying little snot.
TOM: Let's hope so.
RAY: Here we go. You ready? I'm just going to read his letter because I think it's, don't forget, he had four years to revise it, and he didn't.
TOM: He didn't, so he must have thought it was pretty good, yeah.
RAY: On the hottest day of the summer, my mother was driving her decrepit '88 Toyota Corolla from New York City to Philadelphia with her significant other. They were going to a wedding, and the bride had asked them to courier a shipment of gourmet, frozen sorbet centerpieces from a little known sorbet emporium in Queens. Believe it or not, sorbet centerpieces are considered quite the thing at wedding receptions. At least in Philadelphia. At the emporium, they loaded a crate packed with sorbet centerpieces into the back seat of the car. The merchant warned them that they had three hours before the sorbet would begin to melt. Philadelphia is two hours away. Flushed with the urgency of their charge, they set out.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: All went well until they ran into bumper to bumper traffic.
TOM: Oh man!
RAY: Heading over the 59th Street bridge. You knew it had to happen.
TOM: Sure.
RAY: Significant other began showing symptoms of cardiac distress, and mom changed course to New York hospital.
TOM: Oh man!
RAY: The next thing she knew, a policeman was reviving her! She had lost consciousness and crashed into a guardrail, but was miraculously uninjured. She recovered sufficiently to drive significant other to the hospital. A full cardiac workup showed no medical problem. The sorbet must go through! So, they set out again, having lost an hour. Now, they're in trouble.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: Significant had a few more rough moments as they passed through the Lincoln Tunnel, but he seemed to have recovered on the Jersey Turnpike. The story has a happy ending. They made it to the wedding with moments to spare and without further incident. The sorbet was a smashing success.
TOM: Wait a minute, what could the question possibly be? Go ahead. Go ahead, keep going!
RAY: Keeping going? I'm done!
TOM: You're done?
RAY: I'm done.
TOM: Well, isn't there a question?
RAY: I don't know. A full cardiac workup showed no medical problem. The question is: what happened? They loaded the sorbet, they get into hot days. Hot, hot day! They have to hurry. They have to rush to Philadelphia.
TOM: Yeah?
RAY: he guy says, you got three hours. They know Philadelphia's two hours away.
TOM: Yeah?
RAY: They're crossing the 59th Street bridge, the old man starts to show symptoms of a heart attack.
TOM: Yeah?
RAY: She changes course for New York hospital.
TOM: Yeah?
RAY: The next thing she knows, a cop is reviving her.
TOM: Her?
RAY: Her! She takes him to the hospital because she's concerned. Damn the sorbets!
TOM: Yeah, for a moment at least.
RAY: For a moment. When they found out he's all right...
TOM: Back in the car!
RAY: Back in the car. The sorbets must go on.
TOM: OK, so you've just divulged that it really, her significant other, was actually a person. We didn't know that before.
RAY: I did, didn't I? Well, the question is: what happened? Now, if you think you know the answer, write it on the back of a $20 bill, or a stale croissant, and send it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge.
TOM: Our fair city.
RAY: MA, 02238. Or you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of cars.com. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1-888-CarTalk. That's 888-227-8255.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
