******* 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 Car Talk Puzzler: The Not-So-EZ Pass RAY: This next puzzler is quasi-automotive. It came from a fellow named Alex Schoen. Evidently this little letter was in a major newspaper a few years ago. Alex says, "due to copyright issues, you may want to change the names. But by the time you read it in 20 years, it probably won't matter." Here's the letter: "After moving to Nashville from New York recently, it occurred to me that I no longer had a pressing use for my EZ Pass." (EZ Pass is the electronic transponder that allows you to go through tunnels and over bridges without having to stop and pay currency at tolls.) The letter continues, "Following the EZ Pass instructions, I filled out a few forms and dropped my pass off at UPS, destination Staten Island Service Center. "Two weeks passed, and I received my normal EZ Pass e-mail statement. I entered my account and, lo and behold, my recently surrendered pass had been used by someone driving all over the New York Metro area! I was incensed! "I immediately called EZ Pass and informed them that someone had stolen my pass. I explained that I had mailed the pass and now someone was running up my bill and I didn't know why. "The representative on the other end of the phone explained everything." What happened? 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 Ray obfuscate the puzzler in person? Listen anytime, at http://www.cartalk.com/content/puzzler/ ************ Remember last week's puzzler? Reading from Bottom to Top RAY: After last week's lengthy puzzler with the lights, I thought this week it would be nice to have a brief, short-winded puzzler. This puzzler was sent in by Dan Cassidy. I had to change it a little bit, but not too much. He did a good job. TOM: A good job of obfuscating? You wrote twice as much as he did! RAY: Well, here it is. When you read the English language, you read from left to right. Other languages, like Chinese, Hebrew, and Arabic, for example, you read from right to left. But, everything reads from top to bottom. But can you think of an example of when you might read the English language from bottom to top, so that the next line of text is the one above the first line of text? Ready for the answer? Here you go: 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 *************** Write Tom and Ray--Please! Been meaning to write us a witty, brilliant, evocative, insightful letter? Excellent! We're not getting any of those things from the chumps hanging around Car Talk Plaza. For that matter, we'd settle for anything better than the usual schlock Tommy reads on the air. So, what are you waiting for? Write Tom and Ray right now at http://www.cartalk.com/email/email.html ******************* Useful information alert: How to Get a Free Car Talk CD or Booklet! Tired of paying auto club dues to an outfit that lobbies against environmental causes? Check out Better World Club -- and in the process get a Car Talk booklet or CD for free! Better World is an auto club with genuinely decent values -- unlike some others we could name... whose initials happen to be AAAŠ. 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 now, you'll get a free Car Talk CD, or a copy of our booklet, 10 Ways You May Be Ruining Your Car without Even Knowing It. Check out Better World Club now via the link at the top of http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/hybrid/ *********************************** 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.
