******* 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: A Curious Escalator Designs RAY: This puzzler came from Irving Biggio. Here it is: He writes, "Unlike many of your puzzlers, this one is actually about transportation. In our fair city of London, England-- not far from the real Cambridge-many of the Underground, or subway, stations have three escalators. It's always the case that two of them are up escalators, and one is a down escalator. It doesn't matter which way the rush hour crowds are moving, or if more people are arriving or leaving, or the time of day: There are always two that go up, and one that goes down. The same is true for underground stations out in the suburbs." Why is this? Now, Irving's been kind enough to provide some wrong answers to explain this phenomenon. For example, it's easier to go down than to go up. Or, people going down can also take the stairs. But, he adds parenthetically, most of the Underground stations don't have stairs. He also provides a hint: When the station with the escalators is elevated above ground, the opposite situation holds. That is, there are two escalators going down, and one going up. Think you know why the Brits have designed their subway this way? 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? Ray's Mysterious Gas Station Chat RAY: I thought I'd start off the new, fall puzzler season with a quasi-automotive puzzler. Last month, when gas prices were at their highest, I stopped off one day at my friend Paul's gas station to get tanked up. While he filled my tank, we talked about world affairs, sports, the latest fall fashions in the automobile repair industry, the state of the auto repair business, and cars in general. I listened to his lament about how much it cost to fill his underground tanks. When he had finished filling my tank, and I was about to leave, I made a statement. I said something like, "Gee, it's really getting harder and harder to do these days, isn't it?" He said, "Yeah, it is." Another customer, who was pumping his own gas, heard my statement, and also agreed with me. He added, "And, it's not likely to get any easier." The question is, what was the "it" I was referring to? Ready for the answer? Here you goŠ 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.
