******* The Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network******* >From The Desk Of
Maury Maille Puzzler Tower Car Talk Plaza Hahvahd Squayah Our Fair City This Week's Puzzler: Ray's Wife Proves He's All Wet RAY: This week's puzzler is from the realm of home repair and maintenance. My wife and I have had a long-standing debate about drinking water. One result is that we now have an under-the-sink filter, and a little spigot on the sink that dispenses just drinking water. TOM: I think that's bogus. RAY: I do too. In fact, I think all those things that come through your tap, like the cyclospora, arsenic, fecal-coliform and mercury are probably good for you, and help build a nice strong immune system. Anyway, the filter is kind of a pain in the neck to change, because it's underneath the sink, and it's got a big canister. So, I always avoid changing it. She says to me one day, "The filter needs to be changed." I say, "Well, how do you know? I turn it on, water comes out, it tastes good and it seems clean. I can't tell that there's anything wrong." She says, "I know it needs to be changed. It's supposed to be changed every year, and it's been two years." Still not convinced, I said, "Look, if it weren't working, no water would come out." She responded, "I know it isn't working, because the water isn't cold anymore. That's the sign that the filter needs to be changed." So, I reluctantly get under the counter, spend half an hour getting saturated, and put the new filter in. I open the spigot, and it works. She says, "See? The water is colder!" And that's my question is this: How is a new filter refrigerating the water? Think you know? Drop us a note via http://www.cartalk.com/email/email.html If you're right and we select your answer, we'll ship you a $26 Shameless Commerce Gift Certificate. Want to listen to Raymond obfuscate the puzzler in person? Listen anytime, at http://www.cartalk.com/content/puzzler/ ************ Remember last week's puzzler? Electrical Engineers Learn the Hard Way RAY: This puzzler is from Gary from Santa Clara, California. It's kind of an automotive puzzler. Gary writes: "As a shade tree mechanic, I've read many times that when removing a car's battery or doing electrical work, one is supposed to disconnect the negative terminal first, and only then, the positive terminal. Installation, as so many instructions say, is the reverse of that procedure. "Now, as an electrical engineer, I scoffed at these instructions, because I knew that opening a circuit at any point was equivalent to opening it anywhere else. I just disconnected whatever terminal was handy. One day, I was helping a friend change the battery in his garden tractor. He happened to be an electrician, and he knew as well as I did that it didn't matter which terminal was removed first. "But, as we learned the hard way that day, this isn't true. It does matter which is removed and replaced first. "Why is that?" Here's why: http://www.cartalk.com/content/puzzler/ So, did you figure it out? Yours in weekly puzzler torment, Maury Maille Puzzler Dissemination Specialist Car Talk Plaza ******************* Doing some car research? Via our lousy, little homepage you can... *Check important safety recalls *See what your car is worth right now *Check rebates and incentives on new cars *Search your town for new or used cars for sale *Place an ad to sell your car that'll actually be seen by people in your area *Research and compare new vehicles *Get the latest car news *Kill time until 5:00 p.m. rolls around and you can pack it in. *It's all at http://www.cartalk.com *********************************** Got more time to kill? This past weekend's new, lousy Car Talk show is now on the web site, at http://www.cartalk.com/Radio/Show/ ******************** Help Ray lose the night sweats he's been getting, trying to come up with a decent puzzler each week. E-mail him your suggestion any time, via http://www.cartalk.com/email/email.html ******************** Puzzled out? You can unsubscribe to the Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network anytime at http://www.cartalk.com/ct/maillist.jsp?puzzler_list=subscribe#psychic We'll forgive you.
