RAY: Hi, we're back listening to car talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and of the answer to last week's puzzler. Now this puzzler has historic, folklore, cultural, and true, minus the obvious, I think I mentioned, misrepresentations, obfuscations, and lying.
TOM: Other than that, it was pretty straightforward.
RAY: Pretty much true, I think. I have it on good authority. Anyway, this took place during World War II. It seems that a young American fighter pilot had his plane shot up pretty badly, but before it crashed, he managed to parachute out and he landed in northwest France, outside a little village, where he was discovered by the townspeople. They have to somehow get him back to his unit in England so he can continue to fly his missions to help liberate France from the grip of the Nazis. Did I put intriguing in here too, historic folklore, cultural, intriguing. Yeah. Anyway, so they remove all his clothing and discard it, including his shoes, his socks. They destroy his dog tags, even. And they dress him up in typical French garb. You know, he has got a waist-length woolen jacket, a pair of sabots, a French beret, two or three days' growth of beard. So, they make their way to the coast where other members of the Resistance will be waiting to get him back to England across the channel. Their last night in France, they stop at a little inn to enjoy a little repast and some cognac. And while they're there, a group of German soldiers comes in. One of the German soldiers scans the room. He is out of earshot of any of the people sitting at this table, and he points to this person and says, that's the American. How did he know? All the hints were there.
TOM: And then some. I think we call them red herrings. Too many hints. I think this was too easy. We'll see.
RAY: What the German soldier observed is that members of the resistance and their would-be escapee dining, repast. And while Americans traditionally cut their meat with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right when they go to eat that same cut meat or whatever, they transfer the fork to the right hand, and the Europeans, who can't wait to shovel it in, don't waste a second and will eat with the left hand. So, when he saw this person swap --
TOM: Who looked and smelled like an authentic Frenchman.
RAY: -- swap the fork to his right hand, it was the kiss of death. So, who's our winner?
TOM: The winner is Stephen Green from Iowa City, Iowa.
RAY: Hey, hey. Is he related to our Dave Green?
TOM: I don't know.
RAY: David, have you been slipping answers to your relatives in Iowa City?
TOM: They tried to spell it differently just to screw us up.
RAY: Anyway, it's Stephen Green, David's cousin from Iowa City, Iowa. And for having his answer selected at random from the station wagon full of correct answers that we got, Stephen is going to get a $25 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division, which is at the Car Talk section of cars.com. And with the measly $25 gift certificate, Stephen can put a sizable down payment on a Car Talk roadside survival kit. A sizable down payment, like an eighth.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
