RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair and the answer to last week's Puzzler. Here it is. You ready?
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: You are kidnapped and unceremoniously dumped on a deserted island in the Pacific. Now, this island is 10 miles long and about 100 yards wide, but the dimensions don't really matter that much. It's completely covered with grass and palm trees.
TOM: Hmm, I love it.
RAY: Your captors have been nice enough to give you a few things to assist you in surviving. They've given you a case of San Pellegrino water, a life-size poster of Ginger Grant, a flashlight, a box of matches and a space blanket.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: The first day you walk around the island and you realize that there's no chance of escape. The island is a sheer drop-off all around, 500 feet down onto sharp rocks and, worse than that, shark-infested waters.
TOM: Oh!
RAY: So, you go to sleep the first night, and you're awakened by the loud clash of thunder and the bright flash of lightning.
TOM: Uh-hmm.
RAY: Ha! You realize that lightning has struck the far end of the island, about five miles away from you. You're in the middle of the island and the lightning has set the grass and palm trees on fire. As luck would have it, there's a breeze blowing the fire toward you! So you, what?
TOM: You're in a lot of trouble!
RAY: You're done for! It's pushing the flames in your direction at a rate of, say, two miles an hour.
TOM: Yeah?
RAY: So if you run to the other end of the island, you've got five hours until it reaches you, and you know that everything on the island is going to be toasted, included you unless you think quick.
TOM: Yeah!
RAY: And don't forget what you got. You got a flashlight.
TOM: Let me look at that list again.
RAY: Let's go back to the list.
TOM: A life-size poster of Ginger Grant.
RAY: Right.
TOM: A flashlight.
RAY: Right.
TOM: A box of matches.
RAY: Yeah, a lot of good they're going to do you! The island's already on fire, right?
TOM: A space blanket.
RAY: And a case of San Pellegrino.
TOM: How big is the case? Is it like a thousand gallons?
RAY: It's a case. Six, eight, 12 bottles.
TOM: Yeah, OK.
RAY: You could douse yourself with the San Pellegrino, right?
TOM: Yeah! No, that's not going to last long.
RAY: That's not going to work. No. You'll be burnt up.
TOM: You could douse the space blanket, but it won't absorb any of the water because it's, what? A space blanket.
RAY: Right. You could cover yourself with the space blanket and hope that the trees leave enough oxygen behind for you to breathe.
TOM: You could do all those things.
RAY: However, you save yourself with the matches. You turn around with your back to the fire.
TOM: Yeah?
RAY: And you light on fire the grass in front of you. The same wind that's blowing that fire toward you, is going to blow the new fire toward the end of the island and leave behind a place where there's nothing combustible.
TOM: Oh! Man! This is great!
RAY: And you'll escape, but you'll only last two more days because there'll be nothing to eat on the island, and you'll be dead, but you'll have gotten two more days!
TOM: And you would've won the Puzzler!
RAY: That too! And every firefighter knows that this is a classic firebreak.
TOM: Yeah, this is great!
RAY: Yeah, Ken Rogers said, as soon as you light that match, the wind changes direction!
TOM: And then you're really done.
RAY: Now, who's our winner, Tommy?
TOM: The winner is the guy on the island, whose name is, oh, Margaret Reynolds. That's a funny name for a guy. From Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
