If you've never listened to Car Talk, it's very hard to fully appreciate what made it so appealing. But here's an example: Tom Magliozzi, the older and goofier of the two, would guess whether the caller with a car question was Kathy with a K or Cathy with a C. That's right. Every K/Cathy who called, over 20 years. He would guess based on geographical differences. In his own mind. The truth is, Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers (and I have no idea why they called themselves this), were out of their minds, in a really wonderful way. They weren't too interested in working very hard. They weren't worried about calling a car a lemon. "Life is too short to drive a German car." They just didn't give a shit. And that was what made them such good traveling companions. Say you had to get up early on a Saturday morning and drive someone to band camp; you didn't mind if you could laugh along with Tom's big, infectious laugh. 700 stations, millions of listeners, later, these two gearheads, who actually thought cars were boring but the people who owned them fascinating, opened up the radio. All the programs that explore American life have Tom and Ray Magliozzi to thank.

 

Lawdawg came into the deadpool to get the solo, his only hit of the year, and he seems to have left for greener pastures. But his parting gift was 13 points.

 

The end credits of Car Talk featured fictional staffers. What a good idea! We would like to thank the following:

 

Our obit intern: Reston Peece
Our spiritual advisor: Will Mitagen
Our technical advisor: Izzy Cold
Our deadpool advisor: Wendy Dye
Our legal advisor: Val Itpik
And our beloved founder: I.Q. DeFicient

--Amelia