The Tricky Truck

It's time for the new puzzler. And I thought I would use an automotive puzzler.

This is a real, actual true story, because it happened to none other than yours truly.

This one has to do with my old truck.

My son comes to me years ago, my older son, Louie, who had been driving my truck, and he says, "Dad, there's something wrong with the truck."

I said, "What, is it out of gas again?"

And he says, "No, no. I start the thing up in the morning and I drive it. And then he radio stops working, the whole radio won't work. The whole thing is dead. And I drive it for a little bit, and it comes on all by itself, and it goes off again. It is all messed up."

So, I decide I am going to fix the truck. So, I take the truck into the shop the next morning. And while I am driving, I notice that the radio indeed stops working. But I also notice something else. Something really interesting. When I step on the gas, it stops working. When I take my foot off the gas and go to step on the brake, it starts working again. Then when I take my foot off the brake, and step on the gas, it stops working again.

So I think to myself, this will be easy to fix. It must be a loose wire under the dash. When I step on the gas, the throttle cables must be hitting this loose wire causing the radio to stop working. Simple.

So when I get to the shop, I spend 2 hours working on this truck. There is no loose wire. There is constant current going to the radio. I can't find any reason that this might be happening. The truck appears to work perfectly. The radio works fine. I can't recreate the problem in the garage.

So, I give up on the truck for the day. As I am driving the thing home, the same thing happens, of course. So on this drive home I am fiddling with everything on the dash. And I discover that when I pushed in the cigarette lighter, the radio worked. I pulled out the cigarette lighter, the radio stopped working. So, I put the lighter in, and I hold it in. I don't let it pop out, and the radio works the whole time. Until the cigarette lighter fuse blows and then the radio stops working again.

I continue the drive home and I realize at that moment, that I can't see a thing. All of a sudden, both headlights have stopped working.

And just then, I realize what is happening.

And the puzzler is, what is going on here?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

G Washington

It is time for the new puzzler. I have a bunch of crappy puzzlers to choose from today. But I am choosing this one. Don't ask me why.

Here it is.

Many years ago, I was vacationing in upstate New York, and I was in a little sleepy town called Cold Springs.

While I was there, I had occasion to go to an antiques auction. You know a big auction of antiques. That is where they claim to have some rare and priceless antiques, stuff that collectors would really want.

One of the items that comes up is a child's sled, a wooden sled that the auctioneer claims was made by George Washington himself.

The auctioneer turns the thing over and carved into the one of the wooden slats on the back is this:

"G Washington, September 10, 1752."

Now I remember from sixth grade that the square root of 3 was George Washington's birthday. The square root of 3 is 1.732. And George Washington's birthday is in 1732.

So, if this carving on the sled is accurate, that would make him 20 years old at the time. So it stands to reason that at the age of 20, before he started his military career, that he might be making a sled for a niece or nephew or for his own kids. Who knows.

So, I'm ready to bid 20 bucks on the thing, and someone in the crowd pipes up and says, "It's a fake."

He was right. It was a fake. And the puzzler is, how did he know that?