RAY: Hi, we're back. You are listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers. We are here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's Puzzler. You may recall this one came from Malcolm Ross McDonald, who designed the Evolution of the Modern Mechanic T-shirt.
TOM: Yes, and quite a job he did.
RAY: What indeed. So I will be forwarding all complaints directly to Malcolm. If you remember, I suggested that when you heard the answer to this, Tommy, that your response would be ...
TOM: Oh, gosh!
RAY: I think it is Oh, oh, oh, oh.
TOM: Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, gosh!
RAY: That's it! Can we hear that one more time?
TOM: Oh, gosh!
RAY: Yeah. That's it.
TOM: They can do miracles there in the control room.
RAY: Here it is: I took a sheet plain white paper. No lines on it or anything, just a blank sheet of paper. Like eight-and-a-half by eleven. And, using a fountain pen with black ink -- all these things are designed to obfuscate -- I wrote my signature on the paper. Anywhere on the paper. It really didn't matter. I also wrote something else in the paper. Both were plainly visible. When I looked at my signature through the magnifying glass that I had, I was not at all surprised to find that it was enlarged. But when I looked at the other thing that was on the paper, it wasn't enlarged. What was the second thing that I wrote?
TOM: Oh, man. Now, I will admit that I thought about this for 10 seconds as you were saying it last week. And I thought ... the only feeling I had was that, that it was a word trick.
RAY: Well, I didn't really write anything. I didn't write words or letters. By your definition, would using the pen on the paper constitute writing?
TOM: Assuming the tip of pen touched the paper ...
RAY: Yeah. In other words ...
TOM: And made marks.
RAY: Would drawing something be equivalent to writing?
TOM: Yeah. I would accept that.
RAY: All right, then. All right.
TOM: Yeah. Did you?
RAY: Yeah, I did. What I drew was an angle. I drew two lines. So, if I drew a thirty-six ...
TOM: Oh. Oh. Play it. Oh, oh, gosh.
RAY: Oh, come on.
TOM: Well, that's no good, because you can't draw an angle without sides. And the length of the sides had to have been enlarged.
RAY: But did they enlarge the angle? You just didn't get it and it's sour grapes. That's all I can say.
TOM: What was the question again? When I looked at the other thing, it wasn't enlarged?
RAY: When I looked at the angle was it enlarged? Come on.
TOM: The other thing. I think you could have worded it better.
RAY: Well, I tried to word it to make it difficult.
TOM: I see. I would have said something like part of it was enlarged and part of it wasn't. Wouldn't that work better? That way the lines could have been longer. They would have been; they would have looked longer.
RAY: I don't think that was necessarily better. I think it is good just the way it is.
TOM: Well, if you do. I think it's bogus!
RAY: In any event, we do have a winner.
TOM: It is bogus. Because ...
RAY: Would it be better if I said I drew something on the paper?
TOM: No. It wouldn't have been better. Because you have to draw the two lines that made the angle. And those lines were bigger!
RAY: Did the angle get bigger? Do we have a winner?
TOM: Yeah, yeah.
RAY: Well, obviously, someone thought ... someone figured it out.
TOM: Yeah, sure. We give these prizes away for nothing. The winner this week is Sam Wallace from Moreland, Georgia. And for having his correct answer selected at random from all the correct answers that we got this week, which was none, Sam ...
RAY: We're just giving Sam 25 bucks.
TOM: Sam had the best handwriting and he is going to get a $25 gift certificate for the Shameless Commerce Division of the Car Talk section of cars.com. With which he can get a brand-spanking-new Evolution of the Modern Mechanic T-shirt.
RAY: Which is going to be worth squat now that ...
TOM: It pictures the backward evolution of the modern mechanic from modern man on down to, what? Us! Or, as we like to say, from Homo erectus to Homo incorrectus.
RAY: Anyway, we'll have a new ... I can't describe the Puzzler because I haven't figured it out which one I am going to use yet.
TOM: That's all right.
RAY: I am weighing them on the bogus scale.
TOM: BOGUS ONE!
RAY: And that will be coming up with the third half of the show today. So don't go anywhere. In the meantime, if you have a question about your car or anything else, give us a call at 888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you are on Car Talk.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
