Puzzler of the week

[Scott MacLean]

This week's puzzler:

Many years ago, I received a late night phone call from my brother: I knew it was one of two things - either his wife threw him out and he needed a place to sleep, or his car had broken down.

This time, though, it's his car. He says, "I need help. Do you have a rope to tow with?"

I say, "Yeah. Sure. I'll be right there." So, I watch Ted Koppel and the "Tonight Show," I take a shower and I make a sandwich - and then I decide to head out and give him a hand.

I arrive with my car, tow rope in hand. He's asleep in the car, snuggled up with one of his favorite raccoons. He wakes up, and tells me what's wrong. I say, "I can't tow you, you knucklehead."

And Tommy says, "We only have a few blocks to go. I'll tow you."

I say, "Huh?" But he's right. The question is, what's wrong with his car? Now, don't forget: Tommy's the one that broke down and he's going to tow me back.

Got a clue why Tommy's towing Ray?

Last week's puzzler:

I was driving on an access road about to get on the freeway. There was a convertible up in front of me, with the top down. It was a beautiful day. There was a couple in the car who I could only imagine were husband and wife. The car was a small sports car with a standard transmission -- a Miata, or something like that.

We had about three stop lights to go until the on ramp to the freeway, and at every stop light the couple would turn to each other and have a conversation. When the light turned green the conversation would abruptly stop until they came to the next red light.

The car was not excessively loud. There was no loud background noise, and they did not have the radio on.

Here's the puzzler. Why did they converse only at red lights?

Last week's puzzler answer:

Their conversations were limited to stop lights because they were conversing with hand signals. They were using sign language. At least one of them was deaf.