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/or the answer to last week's Puzzler.
TOM: Go ahead.
RAY: Here it is. There are three very qualified applicants for a job at Mercke Research, and the president of the company, Paul Mercke, has interviewed all of them extensively. He calls them all in and says "Guys, I can't figure out which one of you to hire, so I'm going to administer one final test, and whoever comes up with the answer first gets the job." You with me?
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: And the test is fair. I'll repeat, the test is fair.
TOM: Yes.
RAY: No one will be at a disadvantage.
TOM: This is crucial.
RAY: In fact, the only one who will be at an advantage is the one who has the superior intellect, and that's the person, of course, that I want to hire.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: Here's the test: I have in front of me four hats. They're all identical, except that three of them are black and one of them is white.
TOM: Oh.
RAY: I'm going to blindfold all of you, and then I'm going to place one of the hats on each of your heads. Then I'll take the fourth hat and remove it from the room. Then my assistants will help me remove your blindfolds simultaneously so that you will see the other two participants and their hats. So each person is facing the other two people.
TOM: Mmm-hmm?
RAY: The first person to identify the color of his hat wins the job.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: Right? So they put the blindfolds on. He goes around and puts the three hats on, throws the fourth one into the hallway. As they're getting ready to remove the blindfolds, one guy raises his hand and says "I know what color my hat is," and he could add, and "it's black."
TOM: And it's black. Yeah.
RAY: The question is how does he know?
TOM: I know how he knows.
RAY: Go ahead, man.
TOM: No one will be at a disadvantage.
RAY: Exactly.
TOM: And if any of the hats was white, then somebody would be at a disadvantage, the guy --
RAY: The guy wearing --
TOM: -- with the white hat.
RAY: -- the white hat because he would look at two black hats.
TOM: And they wouldn't. The other two guys would be seeing a white and a black and they would immediately know.
RAY: Exactly. So --
TOM: And so, if no one is going to be at a disadvantage, all the hats have to be black.
RAY: Ex --
TOM: So do you ??
RAY: And before the blindfold was put on --
TOM: Exactly. They should have known the answer when he was explaining it. Someone should have then said --
RAY: Well, the truth is --
TOM: -- I know.
RAY: -- none of those knuckleheads got the job because that's exactly right.
TOM: Yeah. They were all too slow.
RAY: All dopes. Anyway --
TOM: All dopes.
RAY: -- do we have a winner?
TOM: You bet we do. The winner is Rob Nevins from Alleria, Ohio. And for having his answer selected at random from the igloo full of correct answers that we got, Rob will get a $25.00 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division of the Car Talk section of Cars.com. And with that gift certificate, he can get a copy of our brand new CD since I'm sure nobody got him one for Christmas. It's called "Car Talk Car Tunes, Volume One, the Car Talk Compendium of Disrespectful Car Songs." And it's a million seller. My brother's got a million of them in his cellar.
RAY: No. It is a best seller, at least compared to the other junk ??.
TOM: I realize we never should have called it Volume One.
RAY: No, never call stuff Volume One.
TOM: No. If we had called it Volume Two, everyone would have said wow, must have been, the first one must have been great. ??
RAY: Oh, then we could sell Volume One. We could reintroduce Volume One back by popular demand.
TOM: By popular demand, Volume One.
RAY: And we sell it, Berman, you're fired.
TOM: Or better yet, we could label them both Volume One. We could use the same CD in the case [that's in/that said?] Volume One and Volume Two.
RAY: How would they know till they got it?
TOM: How would they know till they got it? And most of them wouldn't get it because they'd give it away as a Christmas --
RAY: Thoughts, ideas like that are going to wind you up in jail.
TOM: I don't have a Ph.D. for nothing.
RAY: Anyway, we'll have a brand new I believe automotive Puzzler --
TOM: Really?
RAY: -- coming up in the third half of the show, so don't touch that dial.
TOM: You're not going with the --
RAY: With the World War II one?
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: I could be talked into it. Right now, if you have a question about your car, you can give us a call at 888-CAR-TALK which is also 888-BASSOO-BLACK. BASSOO-BOUK.
TOM: Oh, I didn't know that.
RAY: No, I didn't know it either. Hello, you're on Car Talk.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
