Nov 09, 2021
This puzzle was spawned by a letter we received via our newspaper column. It was about a husband and a wife that was having a marital dispute about the use of the handbrake.
They both own matching Nissan Sentras. Old ones like '82. Real beauties.
Those were the days when the signs would rust up to the windows. And you see the Datsun written underneath.
And they would frequently go places together each in their own car and would park and then would find their own way home. But the husband was always in the habit of leaving it. When he parked leaving it in first gear. And the wife would always leave her car in reverse when she was parked.
So on one occasion, they met at the movies, and when they came out, lo and behold, both of their cars were towed away.
So they go to get their cars. He gets into his car and turns the key and it goes WhuWhuWhuWhuWhu. It cranks and cranks but doesn't start. She gets into her car. Vroom! She drives away and leaves him there. Why? What were the peculiar circumstances surrounding the fact that his car didn't start after it was towed, but her car did start?
They couldn't get into the car when they went to tow them. You see they were locked and they couldn't break in. And both had the emergency brake on.
So in good tow truck driver fashion, they picked each car up from the back end and towed it away.
Both are front wheel drive cars, and both were in gear. So when they towed these babies away, the engines were turning because the wheels were turning, and the things were in gear.
The difference was his engine was turning backwards, because he was in first gear.
And what happened was his timing belt jumped off. And it bent all his valves and he junked the car actually, later that night.
And of course her car didn't suffer any damage because she was she was smart and had it in reverse. So the engine was going in reverse, and everything was hunky dory.
