High Caliber

RAY: Well, one part of it, I think, is pretty obvious. And that is, if they had to vacate a position and their ammunition were captured, it would be unusable to the Americans. What hap? Too big! It doesn't fit in the rifle!

TOM: That's right. It would stick.

RAY: But the other part of it isn't so obvious. If the reverse happened--that is, if we...if the Japanese captured our ammunition, the smaller-caliber bullet would fit in their rifles, and they would be able to use our bullets to fire on us.

TOM: Ohh! But their aim would be bad, right? Because if it's flopping around there in the barrel of a rifle...

RAY: Anything is preferable to throwing rocks.

TOM: Wow! Now that is a great Puzzler, and I know that we are going to get such a raft of mail, probably. It's just too simple.

RAY: You know, I can take this.

TOM: We're going to get mail from Hirohito himself saying, "Thirty-one-caliber--what are you talking about?"

RAY: "We had those first!"

TOM: "We never made...that's why you guys made the 30-calibers, you jerks!"

RAY: It may be true, but at any rate, for the purpose of the puzzle, it was good.

TOM: Whether it's true or not.

RAY: It made a good puzzle.

TOM: It's a great question.

RAY: Right. On the basis of the information you had...

TOM: Roll...rule on?? or not.

RAY: Right. Exactly. It doesn't matter.

TOM: Do we have a winner?

RAY: No.

TOM: I didn't think so.

RAY: We show no winner this week. We do; the winner is Marsh Williams from Ohio...Columbus.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]