Grew up listening to Car Talk with my dad.

When I was 19 I attended summer school in Cambridge, and right in Harvard Square there was a window on the top of a building painted “Dewey, Cheetum, and Howe”. Fans will recognize this as the name of their fictional lawyers in the credits. I tailgated someone leaving, took the elevator up and knocked on the door.

A middle-aged woman answered, and I gee-golly’ly asked if this was Car Talk. She—Louie “Cronan the Barbarian”—said “Yes!” and invited me in.

She generously showed me around, apologizing that Tom and Ray weren’t in at the moment—my guess was Ray was at the garage, and Tom was exploring the cafe standards of the greater Boston area. She smiled.

On my way out she asked if I liked ice cream and pointed to a Ben and Jerry’s branded freezer right at the entrance. “They just come by and refill this for free, if you ever want some, you’re always welcome to come by, say hi and grab yourself a pint.”

I went back three times that summer. Never did meet Tom (RIP) or Ray, but sure got some good ice cream, and some welcome comfort as an awkward kid in a big new city for the first time.

I still look forward to their twice/weekly reruns.

For those who may not know, Tom and Ray are mechanics who were the hosts of the Car Talk radio show that aired on NPR from 1987 to 2012 (edited past episodes are still aired online weekly I think). The radio show would take listener calls about their car problems, and Tom and Ray would help them solve these issues. However, that is a very reductive description that does not capture the unique explosive humor, rapport, and varied conversations and observations about the minutiae of everyday life and the human condition.

The HN crowd may enjoy the weekly puzzlers that are presented every week ranging from car puzzles, logic / mathematics puzzles, and historic folkloric puzzles.

One of the best moments in car talk was when Astronaut John Grunsfeld called in to complain about how his government vehicle, a 'Rockewell van kind of thing' was running. Ray and Tom finally caught on when Grunsfeld admitted he was going 17K MPH while a couple hundred miles north of Hawaii. ;)

The banter between them included memories of an unpaid bill and references to the 'small technical institute' nearby ("Oh, that place!").

Great stuff all around. https://youtube.com/watch?v=moAqzM4ptm8

My favorite puzzler:

100 prisoners are each locked in a room with three pirates, one of whom will walk the plank in the morning. Each prisoner has 10 bottles of wine, one of which has been poisoned. And each pirate has twelve coins, one of which is counterfeit and weighs either more or less than a genuine coin. In the room is a single switch which the prisoner may either leave as it is or flip. Before being led into the rooms, the prisoners are forced to wear either a red had or a blue hat. They can see all the other prisoner’s hats, but not their own. Meanwhile a six digit prime number of monkeys multiply until their digits reverse. Then all have to get across a river using a canoe that can hold at most two monkeys at a time. But half the monkeys always lie and the other half always tell the truth. Given that the nth prisoner knows that one of the monkeys doesn’t know that a priate doesn’t know product of two numbers between 1 and 100 without knowing that n+1th prisoner has flipped the switch in his room or not after having determined which bottle of wine was poisoned and what color his hat is. What is the solution to this puzzle?

This was played on the July 18, 2009 edition of Car Talk on NPR and attributed only to “Alan”. If you download the podcast, the puzzler starts at the 36:00 minute mark.

As a grad student at MIT in the mid 90s, I took my elderly Toyota to Ray's garage to get worked on several times. I was amazed to find out that often as not Ray would be the one working on my car. He was as funny in person as on the show and was talented at figuring out the least expensive way to get the old blue thing back on the road (I think he remembered what it was like to be a grad student financially speaking :).

Really appreciated that he was still providing that service. When I graduated, I celebrated by getting the Blue Plate special done - where they went over the vehicle and enumerated all the work you needed done, ought to get done, and could do if you really wanted to. The only mechanics I've ever really trusted to go on that sort of fishing expedition...

They were the ultimate example of how one can make any topic engaging.

I bet a pretty significant part of their listener base had little interest in learning to repair cars. But it didn’t matter. They were so engaging, hilarious, and you could sense the strong brotherly love.

I also read once that they had started a thing in their garage where you could bring your car and they’d walk you through fixing it and you could do it yourself with their tools. So you paid more to rent the space and tools. Seems like a dream to me and the HN crowd I’m sure. Like a car based maker space.

I still remember the time I found Car Talk (late 80s?): I was driving from Arlington MA to Lexington with the radio on NPR, mindlessly listening to some call-in talk show. A caller was asking why there was blue smoke coming out of his car's tailpipe: The smartass who answered said that was exactly what you would expect from red shift.

It was such a high-level quip that it woke me out of my driving trance. "Who are these guys?"

Several years later in grad school, I used the Good News Garage (which was about a mile from the MIT campus?) to replace a radiator. It was a little odd to be talking to Ray in person because I had grown used to him being only a voice. Nevertheless, he was a good enough guy.

Great show, I could not care less about car maintenance back when I listened to this show religiously. Years later, my kids loved Pixar's "Cars" and what a delight to see (hear I guess) them make a cameo.