RAY: Hi! We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappett Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and, duh, the answer to last week's Puzzler.

TOM: Yeah! Let's go!

RAY: Well, this was another Bedouin travel Puzzler, because you liked the first one so much.

TOM: I did like it. It was great. It was rotten.

RAY: Anyway, this Bedouin is driving home from work late one night, and his car breaks down. We'll call him Fred. And he calls his brother and says, "Frank! I need help. You gotta come rescue me. My car broke down." So, many hours later, Frank shows up with his car and a towrope.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: Right? They assess the situation, and the broken-down Bedouin, that is, Fred, says, "Are you ready?" And the rescuing brother...

TOM: Frank. Frank.

RAY: ... Frank says, "I can't tow you home."

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: Fred says, "Oh, that's OK. I'll tow you." Huh? I mean, after all, the guy broke down, he calls for help.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: And he's going to do the towing? How could this possibly be?

TOM: Wow!

RAY: Well, the way it could possibly be, the only scenario I can envision, is that Fred's brakes had failed.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: So, if, if in fact Frank had tried to tow him home, he'd be crashing into him every time he stopped.

TOM: Sonja Henie's tutu!

RAY: On the other hand, if Fred is driving...

TOM: In the front.

RAY: ...the broken car in the front...

TOM: And Frank steps on the brake...

RAY: ...And he steps on the brake, the brother will see the brake lights and know enough to step on the brake himself and slow both cars down.

TOM: Because the rope will pull. Ah.

RAY: Until the rope breaks. That's next week.

TOM: Man, that's very good!

RAY: Do we have a winner this week?

TOM: No.

RAY: Nobody won?

TOM: Yeah. We got a winner.

RAY: They were so disgruntled over last week's.

TOM: See now, that's a good Puzzler. That's good.

RAY: I realize there is not an abundance of good Puzzlers out there. So, you can't go shooting your wad the first 10 years of the show.

TOM: No.

RAY: You gotta go for the long...

TOM: Dole them out.

RAY: ...run. And you gotta intersperse a couple of stinkers in there.

TOM: Sure.

RAY: And more than that, it makes people really appreciate the few good ones that come along every once in awhile.

TOM: Sure. I mean, don't forget, even the best of hitters bats only like 300.

RAY: That's right.

TOM: In baseball.

RAY: And everyone thinks he's a hero and a star, and he makes $4.9 million a year. Don't forget that part.

TOM: And don't forget that part.

RAY: Yeah.

TOM: So, if you hit one out of three, that's pretty good. Of course, you're about one out of 10. But the winner is Victoria Loudis from Douglaston, New York. And for having her answer selected at random from among all those thousands of correct answers that we got, Victoria's going to get a $25 gift certificate to Car Talk's Shameless Commerce Division...

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]