******* 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: Whole Lotta Hand-Shakin' Going On RAY: John and Mary are married. They agree to go out to dinner with four other married couples. So, there are five couples, or ten people, altogether. They arrive at the restaurant, and, because there are some people who don't know other people, there are some handshakes that take place, and introductions. Anyone who doesn't know somebody will shake hands with that person. People will not shake hands with anyone they already know, and, of course, you don't shake hands with your own spouse. TOM: Unless you're meeting her for the first time. RAY: Right. At the end of the dinner, John asks all the people there, including his own wife, how many hands each of them shook. He gets the following answers: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, and 8. There are 9 other people there, and they give him 9 different answers. Here's the question: How many hands did John's wife Mary shake? Now it may seem that you don't have anywhere near enough information to solve this problem. But you do. Think you know the answer? 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? Keepus Leftus, Brutus RAY: This week's puzzler comes from the wonderful world of ancient history and transportation. Some time ago, a team of British archaeologists came upon some ancient Roman ruins. Among the ruins were a stone quarry, a nearby fortress of some kind, and what appeared to be a small town, with some houses, some livestock pens, and so on. All of these things were connected by roads -- those famous stone roads built by the Romans. In fact, they probably obtained the stones for the roads from the very quarry they discovered. After some careful observation, these archaeologists determined that the Romans drove their carts and wagons, and, probably chariots too, on the left side of the road, just like the Brits do. How did they know this? TOM: The signs that were up. "Keep left." RAY: Right. "Keepus leftus, Brutus." Here's the answer: 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 ******************* USEFUL INFORMATION ALERT: Tired of paying auto club dues to an outfit that lobbies against environmental causes? Check out Better World Club. It's an auto club with genuinely decent values-- unlike some others we could name... whose initials happen to be AAA. Better World Club cares about... *Your environmental interests -- it gives 1% of its revenue to environmental clean up and advocacy. *Your consumer interests -- it even offers discounts on hybrid rental cars. *And it has the nation's only bicycle roadside assistance program. Dump your AAA membership and join Better World! If you join via the Car Talk web site, you'll even get an extra month's membership. Check out Better World Club now 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.
