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The Puzzler

New Puzzler, 11/29/97: George Goes Sledding

RAY: It's time for the new puzzler.

TOM: Yeah. Oh, new, historic.

RAY: I have a plethora of potentially putrid puzzlers from which to choose and I've chosen this one.

TOM: Yeah. OK.

RAY: And I'll have to embellish it.

TOM: I'll try not to, I'll try not to get you into any trouble.

RAY: A few years ago I was vacationing in upstate New York and I was in a little sleepy town called Cold Springs.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: Which has nothing to do with anything, but that's where I was.

TOM: We never know. We've got to pay attention.

RAY: I lie. And I had occasion to go to an antique auction, but an auction of antiques that is where they claim to have some rare and priceless antiques. Stuff that collectors would really want.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: One of the items that comes up is a child's sled, wooden sled, that the auctioneer claims was made by George Washington himself.

TOM: Wow! Does it say, "Rosebud on it?"

RAY: It has teeth marks from his wooden --

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: And he turns the thing over and carved into one of the wooden slats is G. Washington, September 10, 1752. Now, I remember from sixth grade that the square root of three was George Washington's birthday, 1732 was when Washington was born. So, he would be 20 years old.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: It would stand to reason at the age of 20, not having launched his military career, he would be engaged and making sleds for maybe his own kids or maybe a niece or a nephew. So, I'm ready to bid 20 bucks on the thing and someone in the crowd pipes up and says, "It's a fake."

TOM: It's a fake.

TOM: Wow! Yeah, you have all the information necessary --

TOM: And then some.

RAY: And then some.

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