Support for Car Talk is provided by:

The Puzzler

Puzzler, 6/6/98; Down Under Wonder

RAY: Ha, 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 puzzler. And this is a quasi-automotive puzzler, I believe.

TOM: Oh, Okay, fine.

RAY: Wouldn't you say so?

TOM: Quasi-automotive, yes, master. Yes master.

RAY: Some years ago my family and I went on a little ski vacation and we spent the first day --

TOM: Ski vacation, you've never been on a ski vacation in your life.

RAY: This is a puzzler. No, we did, we went on a little ski vacation in the mountains.

TOM: Oh, little skis.

RAY: Little skis.

TOM: One footers.

RAY: It was snowshoes actually, and we, my wife and children and I went on a little ski vacation in the mountains.

TOM: Yeah, OK.

RAY: And we spent the first day hitting the slopes, so to speak. I did most of the hitting, with my face. And after that first day we decided --

TOM: And your butt.

RAY: No, face mostly, decided to spend the next day in the more familiar and congenial surroundings of the heated pool.

TOM: Good idea.

RAY: And while we were there, we were sitting there, the four of us, in our chairs crying out, towel boy. And a group of four people, another family, started walking toward us and my, my younger son noticed that there were two very cute teenage girls, blonde haired teenaged girls walking in front of what I would assume was, were, I could assume were their parents. And my son studied them for a few moments and as they drew closer, he said to me, they're Australians you know.

TOM: Wow.

RAY: And I said, oh, you've met them? He said, oh, no. They're as strange to me as are my textbooks. And I said, oh. And so you've overheard, you've overheard them speaking? He said oh, no. But I know --

TOM: Never saw them before in my life.

RAY: Never laid eyes on them.

TOM: OK.

RAY: And as luck would have it, they come and sit right down next to us and before they have a chance to utter a word, he leans over and says to them, pretty long way to come from Australia to do a little skiing. And the father says, uh, you're right mate, it sure is.

TOM: Wow.

RAY: And it wasn't the Crocodile Dundee t-shirts that gave them away, either. Now you have all the information you need. And, and I might add, a significant hint.

TOM: Don't tell them where the hint is.

RAY: Oh, I don't know where it is. I think there's a hint in there.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]

Search Car Talk
GO
Watch the show online, see bloopers, and discuss the episode, "The Car of the Future."
Learn the ploys, and chat with our covert car sales operative "Deep Plaid."
Can you save money and use regular, when your owner's manual calls for premium? Find out.
Check out these tips and fork over fewer dineros at the pump.
A 20-year retrospective, this way. (Warning: Fearfully ugly faces.)
Ready to wrap your cranium around Ray's most perplexing puzzlers? Great!
From air filters to oil changes, can you DIY? Find out.