RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers and we're here to talk about cars, car repair and, of course, the answer to last week's puzzler. And this was sent in by a fellow named Bob Shea, from somewhere in cyberspace, so if it's wrong I'll give you his email address and you can send the hate mail directly to him.
TOM: This puzzle is quasi-automotive, quasi-historical and maybe quasi-bogus but we don't know. Everyone knows that the panel in an airplane cockpit is called the "instrument panel" because it contains all the flight instruments, of course. Well, a car also has instruments but the panel that holds those instruments is not called an "instrument panel," it's called the "dashboard." And the question very simply is, where does the term "dashboard" come from?
RAY: Yeah.
TOM: You had an idea that --
RAY: I thought it had something to do, dashing one's brains against it.
TOM: I did have that idea. How close was I?
RAY: And I'm sure that's often been the case. You were pretty close but, anyway, before there were cars, people used to get around using horses and buggies, and as you might imagine the roads were dirt and when it rained the roads became muddy. You with me so far?
TOM: Yeah.
RAY: So if you were in a buggy and the horse was trotting along, the rear hooves would kick up mud. So carriages or wagons had a board that was fixed at an angle not unlike the dashboards of cars, and it was called the "dashboard." In fact, if you remember, Ward Bond leading the wagon trains across the plains.
TOM: Yeah, they put their feet on.
RAY: They used to put their feet on there. And when they started building cars, of course, they were really adapting carriages.
TOM: Sure.
RAY: So the thing that they attached the instruments in the car to, or the horseless wagon, was called the "dashboard" because it looked just like the dashboard of a wagon. And it was called the "dashboard" because it did its job primarily when the horses were kicking up mud when they were dashing. So horses hooves --
TOM: Get out. Do you mean dashing and debonair or dashing down the road.
RAY: No, no. They were dashing through the snow.
TOM: Geez.
RAY: When the horses were dashing that's when their hooves were throwing up the greatest amount of mud and it just so happened that the thing in the car looked like the dashboard in a wagon. Oh Tommy's making the face, he's making the face.
TOM: Aw, I don't like it.
RAY: We're going to have to have some corroboration from the good people at the Smithsonian, I think.
TOM: The Smithsonian would be good because it sounds, I would have to say that this is on the bogus scale of one to ten, I'd say this is like a seven.
RAY: OK, never mind.
TOM: Ten is bo-oh-oh-oh-gus. And this is up there. A dashboard, there have been so many other possibilities. The running board.
RAY: No, the running board is alongside.
TOM: Huzzah, why not, why? When the horses run --
RAY: That's next week's puzzle, the running board. Where did the running board come from?
TOM: The gallop board. Yeah, the running board. That'll be next week's puzzle.
RAY: I'm going to state Bob, what's this guy's name?
TOM: Bob Shea.
RAY: Robert C. Shea.
TOM: OK. We'll forward all the hate mail right to him. Send this (??) is from my brother.
RAY: His reputation is on the line. But Bob, I'm with you.
TOM: Send it to Ray at Bogus.com.
RAY: I've done extensive research on this, which consisted of reading your email. And I concluded that you're right on, brother.
TOM: Well, we do.
RAY: Oh God.
TOM: Every week is getting.
RAY: Well, you're getting old.
TOM: It's a little bit stretching of something there, come on.
RAY: I don't think so, go ahead.
TOM: Well Laurie Wiley agrees with you anyway, she's from Maple Shade, New Jersey, and she's our winner this week and for having her answer selected at random from all the correct answers we got. Laurie will get a $25 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at the Car Talk section of Cars.com. That's a lot of things. First you've got to go to Cars.com, then you've got to go to the Car Talk section of Cars.com, then you've got to go to the Shameless Commerce Division of the Car Talk section of Cars.com.
RAY: Hardly worth it. I think it should be $50.
TOM: Hardly worth it. It should be $100.
RAY: Alright.
TOM: With that gift certificate she can get a copy of our NOT Grammy award-winning music CD, "Car Talk Car Tunes."
RAY: Why didn't we win a Grammy? I thought we were going to pay off the judges.
TOM: Me, I thought you paid off the judges.
RAY: Anyway, we'll have a brand-new, I would say, cute little puzzler coming up in the third half of the show, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime if you have a question about your car or anything else, feel free to call us at 888-CAR TALK, that's 888-227-8255, Hello, you're on Car Talk.
[ Car Talk Puzzler ]
