RAY: Oh, 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 repairs, and the answer to last week's Puzzler. And this Puzzler comes from my "World War II" series.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: A very long war.
TOM: There have been a lot of them.
RAY: Yes.
TOM: You haven't done any 15th-century wars for a long time.
RAY: No.
TOM: Or whatever those earlier ones were -- the guys with the bows and arrows. What was ... when was that?
RAY: Oh, the Crusades and the like. What are you talking about?
TOM: I don't know.
RAY: [??]
TOM: That's it, that's it.
RAY: Anyway, here it is. David Thorndyke had been operating as a spy behind the German lines even before the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. I should mention that the names have not been changed; they've been completely made up.
TOM: Oh, so these are not real names.
RAY: No. Anyway, as a son of an English father and a German mother, Thorndyke was perfectly suited for spying on the Germans. His knowledge of the language, German culture, history, music, were unsurpassed. And yet, among his colleagues he was not above suspicion in the Third Reich; nobody was above suspicion. He was watched carefully, but never a false move did he make. As the war wore on, invasion plans materialized. Of course, he knew about these because he was a spy. He became encouraged, even euphoric that soon the war would end and he would return to jolly old England.
TOM: Yeah, that's it. Let's discuss this: it's jolly old England; Merry Christmas and jolly England.
RAY: Whatever. One day, while he was in Berlin, maybe lost in his thoughts, thinking about his return to jolly old England, he was standing on a busy street corner, getting ready to cross the street, when he felt a tug on his sleeve and a pistol in his ribs. He'd been discovered. How?
TOM: This was so easy.
RAY: You think?
TOM: Oh, even Dougie got it immediately.
RAY: Oh, I hadn't meant for it to be that easy.
TOM: You didn't. Especially ... I mean, I guess on the heels of the previous World War II Puzzler of just a few weeks ago.
RAY: Well, it had to do with lefts and rights.
TOM: It had to do with lefts and rights again.
RAY: I guess that was the giveaway.
TOM: I think maybe it was.
RAY: His English birth betrayed him.
TOM: Yeah, because he looked to the right. As he was stepping off the curb, he looked to the right. And, that's the direction that the cars would be coming from if you were in England.
RAY: Jolly old.
TOM: Jolly old, or merry old.
RAY: Yeah.
TOM: Yeah. Merry old, but old David Thorndyke is nowhere now, except maybe ...
RAY: So he looked in the wrong direction, and, of course, the Gestapo guy, who'd been following him around ...
TOM: Who was suspicious of him anyway.
RAY: From the very beginning.
TOM: Just needed one little thing to shoot him, an excuse to shoot him in the ribs, and that's what ...
RAY: That was it. That was it.
TOM: That's it. Of course, what we didn't know was that there was someone over to his right who yelled out, "Hey, David." He turns to the right -- bingo, he's dead.
RAY: Anyway, who's our winner?
TOM: The winner is Jill Sanford from Fort Collins, Colorado. And, for having her answer selected at random from all of the other correct answers that we got this week, Jill ...
RAY: Choosing a Hot Point range, what?
TOM: Jill's going to get a Kenmore washer/dryer.
RAY: Stackable?
TOM: Stackable washer/dryer, and a $25 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at the Car Talk section of cars.com. And with that $25 she can get a washer/dryer from Sears.
RAY: Well, Jill, if you're not home when they deliver the washer/dryer, back they go.
TOM: Or, she can get a copy of our CD, "Why You Should Never Listen to Your Father When It Comes to Cars," and she can unload that as a Father's Day gift. See, we even provide disposal advice. You buy the stuff, it's junk, and you give it away.
RAY: Cool. Anyway, we'll have a new Puzzler from the "coinage" series ...
TOM: Coinage.
RAY: Coming up in the third half of the show. So don't give up on us yetÑit might get better. In the meantime, if you have a question about your car or anything else, please give us a call at 1-888-CAR-TALK; that's 888-227-8255.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
