May 11, 2009
RAY: This is from my marital relations series and it was submitted by Tom Busemaier. He writes:
'Last week my darling wife misplaced her car keys on about five different occasions. And, of course, each time I was called upon to help find them. This most recent disaster had her on the brink of a full blown conniption.
'I was in the kitchen trying to wash down the last of a box of Oreos with a quart of cold buttermilk when I heard her getting ready to tip over the desk in her study. I sprang to the rescue. I immediately spotted her keys, pointed to them and succeeded in calming her down using a four-word sentence.
'But here's the interesting part. That four-word sentence consisted of all homonyms and three of them were the exact same word. What could this sentence have been?'
Now for those of you who don't remember, homonyms are words that sound alike but are spelled differently, like cite, c-i-t-e, s-i-t-e, and s-i-g-h-t. So what four words could have been used that made her calm down?
'Last week my darling wife misplaced her car keys on about five different occasions. And, of course, each time I was called upon to help find them. This most recent disaster had her on the brink of a full blown conniption.
'I was in the kitchen trying to wash down the last of a box of Oreos with a quart of cold buttermilk when I heard her getting ready to tip over the desk in her study. I sprang to the rescue. I immediately spotted her keys, pointed to them and succeeded in calming her down using a four-word sentence.
'But here's the interesting part. That four-word sentence consisted of all homonyms and three of them were the exact same word. What could this sentence have been?'
Now for those of you who don't remember, homonyms are words that sound alike but are spelled differently, like cite, c-i-t-e, s-i-t-e, and s-i-g-h-t. So what four words could have been used that made her calm down?
Answer:
RAY: Here's the answer. Chuck's father-in-law didn't see anything.
TOM: He didn't?
RAY: He felt something. He went around and put his hand on all the tires. The purpose of having the air in your tires is to keep your muffler and such from dragging on the street. But the proper inflation is also important because it maintains the tire's ability to dissipate the heat that's created because of the friction that's made between the tire and the road.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: And if you don't have enough air, the under-inflated tire gets much hotter and it will eventually lead to the disintegration of the tire, and blowout. So when Dad went around and felt the tires, he felt one that was decidedly hotter.
TOM: And he said that's it.
RAY: He didn't know much, exactly. The five seconds was a guess.
But it was enough to turn the light off, certainly enough to make the car safe to drive home. Pretty cute, eh?
TOM: Not bad at all.
RAY: Do we have a winner?
TOM: Yes. The winner is Martha Jones from Cheraw, South Carolina. And for having her answer selected at random from among all the correct answers that we got, Martha's going to get a $26 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at Cartalk.com, with which she can buy our book of car questions and car answers, Ask Click and Clack.
RAY: Congratulations, Martha!
TOM: He didn't?
RAY: He felt something. He went around and put his hand on all the tires. The purpose of having the air in your tires is to keep your muffler and such from dragging on the street. But the proper inflation is also important because it maintains the tire's ability to dissipate the heat that's created because of the friction that's made between the tire and the road.
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: And if you don't have enough air, the under-inflated tire gets much hotter and it will eventually lead to the disintegration of the tire, and blowout. So when Dad went around and felt the tires, he felt one that was decidedly hotter.
TOM: And he said that's it.
RAY: He didn't know much, exactly. The five seconds was a guess.
But it was enough to turn the light off, certainly enough to make the car safe to drive home. Pretty cute, eh?
TOM: Not bad at all.
RAY: Do we have a winner?
TOM: Yes. The winner is Martha Jones from Cheraw, South Carolina. And for having her answer selected at random from among all the correct answers that we got, Martha's going to get a $26 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at Cartalk.com, with which she can buy our book of car questions and car answers, Ask Click and Clack.
RAY: Congratulations, Martha!
