# Even insane-looking problems are sometimes real!
**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/even-insane-looking-problems-are-sometimes-real/661739
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [September 20, 2023, 7:34pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/even-insane-looking-problems-are-sometimes-real/661739 "2023-09-20T19:34:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kirupa](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kirupa)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2023, 7:34pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/even-insane-looking-problems-are-sometimes-real/661739/1 "2023-09-20T19:34:27Z")
This was one of the best things I’ve read recently! 🚘
> For those of us who understand that the obvious is not
> always the solution, and that the facts, no matter how implausible,
> are still the facts …
>
> A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:
>
> “This is the second time I have written you, and I don’t blame you
> for not answering me, because I kind of sounded crazy, but it is a
> fact that we have a tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert
> after dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies so, every
> night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice
> cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It’s
> also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my
> trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy
> vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won’t
> start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just
> fine. I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no matter
> how silly it sounds: ‘What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not
> start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get
> any other kind?’”
>
> The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter,
> but sent an engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised
> to be greeted by a successful, obviously well-educated man in a fine
> neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time,
> so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It
> was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came
> back to the car, it wouldn’t start.
>
> The engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, the
> man got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got
> strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla.
> The car failed to start.
>
> Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this
> man’s car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore,
> to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the
> problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: he jotted down
> all sorts of data, time of day, type of gas used, time to drive back
> and forth, etc.
>
> In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy
> vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of
> the store.
>
> Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at
> the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were
> kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took
> considerably longer to find the flavor and get checked out.
>
> Now the question for the engineer was why the car wouldn’t start
> when it took less time. Once time became the problem – not the
> vanilla ice cream – the engineer quickly came up with the answer:
> vapor lock. It was happening every night, but the extra time taken to
> get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to
> start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the
> vapor lock to dissipate.
>
> Moral of the story: even insane-looking problems are sometimes real.
Taken from: [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wkw/humour/carproblems.txt](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wkw/humour/carproblems.txt)
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### Author:  [@senocular](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/senocular)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2023, 12:02am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/even-insane-looking-problems-are-sometimes-real/661739/2 "2023-09-22T00:02:27Z")
Reminds me of [Debugging Behind the Iron Curtain | Jake Poznanski — Robots, Thoughts, AI Rights](https://www.jakepoz.com/debugging-behind-the-iron-curtain/)
---
### Author:  [@steve.mills](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/steve.mills)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2023, 3:12am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/even-insane-looking-problems-are-sometimes-real/661739/3 "2023-09-22T03:12:51Z")
Radioactive cattle…that’s insane…
then again Flint Michigan is pretty bad…
corruption kills…