Mar 29, 1997
RAY: Here it is. I remember one day this old geezer drives into the shop with his '76 Volare. And says something like, "Boys, my car is having trouble. It doesn't like a certain kind of ice cream that I buy." He goes on to explain that he only has three flavors of ice cream he likes to eat and that he goes to the local parlor to buy. He eats either vanilla, chocolate, or three-bean tofu mint chipped-beef ice cream. He says, "When I go to buy chocolate I park in front of the ice cream parlor. I buy the chocolate. My car starts right up. The same thing happens if I buy vanilla. The problem occurs when I buy the three-been tofu mint chipped-beef. I buy the stuff. I come out. The car won't start. It cranks, and cranks, and cranks, and cranks. It doesn't want to start. Finally it starts. It runs on one cylinder, maybe it runs on two cylinders, it shakes and rattles, and it takes me 10 minutes to get going." Crusty, who's asleep in the corner says, "You're right. Same thing happens to my car, and you're right, it is the ice cream."
TOM: Wow.
RAY: All the information you need to solve this is packed into the Puzzler.
RAY: Think of the hints. First of all it's a '76 Volare. It's old. It's carbureted.
TOM: The driver is old.
RAY: The driver is an old geezer. I thought of you immediately. And he's buying an unusual kind of ice cream. And I mentioned that all the hints were packed into the puzzler.
TOM: Packed in!
RAY: No - when you go in to buy chocolate, you go into the freezer case and there's chocolate in a container -- you take it, you pay for it, you get into your car and drive away. Same thing with vanilla. Nobody buys mint chip beef bean tofu. Right? So of necessity, it is hand packed.
TOM: Which takes what?
RAY: Longer. Long enough for his car to vapor lock.
TOM: Exactly.
RAY: So that's why his car doesn't like that ice cream.
TOM: Because the heat that is generated from the engine.
RAY: When would you be buying ice cream? In the summer.
