Puzzler Answer: Citizenship

Ray: If you can tell me last week's puzzler...

Tom: You'll give me a sleek black beauty?

Ray: I'll refer to you for the rest of the show as -- "My Brother- The High Priest of All Knowledge."

Tom: Will you call me Doctor Magliozzi?

Ray: Yes I will. Can you remember it?

Tom: No.

Ray: I didn' think so. Here it is: Two girls are born of the same parents, but not at the same time, otherwise they'd be twins, in Boston. One of them, however, is a citizen of the United States and the other is not. How could this be? And one did not give up her citizenship.

Tom: What were their names?

Ray: Ethel and Lucy

Tom: Was there an embassy involved?

Ray: No embassy involved. I stipulated they were not twins.

Tom: Was there a ship involved? A space ship?

Ray: Ahhh - there you go. There may have been a ship involved. One of those ships may have been of English origin. The fact is, one of the girls was born before the United States was the United States, when Boston, Massachusetts was a colony. The other was born later when the United States was a country.

Tom: That's good. That has one of the elements of a good puzzler -- surprise!

Ray: Just one, huh?

Tom: Making a simple assumption that this had to have happened like yesterday, when in fact, it could have happened 200 years ago. That's good. I like that. Do we have a winner?

Ray: Yes

Tom: The winners this week are Bob and Shirley Wright from Plainwell, Michigan. Is she the sister of Iamshirley Wright?

Ray: Sister-in-law.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]