Ray says there's a Puzzler, but there isn't

The Show
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I have noticed with these condensed episodes from the 90s that even if there isn’t a Puzzler, Ray says before the break the Puzzler response is coming up. The Puzzler has been on vacation for weeks, and they read a postcard it sent on an episode I heard today, but every week Ray still says the Puzzler answer is coming up. I think he even says a new Puzzler is coming up before the next break.

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I don’t understand why you are so obsessed with this . Just enjoy the reruns .

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I’ve notice that discrepancy too. I expect the problem is in providing two podcast shows per week, when only one per week was produced originally, the season the show was originally broadcast doesn’t stay in sync w/ the season it is listened to. As broadcast the puzzler vacation time was in the summer, but when “summer” occurs on the podcasts varies, creates some difficulty announcing the puzzler status . Not really a serious problem, just a bit of a quibble. One way to think about it, if the show were being produced now (July 2022), there still would be no puzzler, b/c it is summer now.

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I’ve been listening to some of the most recent podcasts and noticed a mention of the 4th of July holiday, and that the puzzler is on summer vacation. So confused now why the podcast actually does seem to be in synch w/the season? Thinking maybe the podcasts now are a combination of segments from multiple shows, stitched together, rather than simply an abridged subset of an earlier show. If the former, then the cut/pastes could designed to cause the season to match up. Seems the show itself is the puzzler … lol …

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I feel confident that the shows are a blend of calls picked from past shows, rather than a condensed version of one show. Here’s why:

I have a long archive of shows I downloaded over 5+ years and occasionally - for comic relief - listen to one or two of those. Just a couple days ago there was one call on a show from maybe 2016 or thereabouts that I’d just heard the day before on the most recent podcast. Otherwise, the two shows had no overlap.

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Had to older then that, Tommy passed away November 3rd 2014

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Even now? They went back to the early 90s for the shows that are available now.

They are at least up to the point where Jay Leno is hosting “The Tonight Show”.

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Oh right, I stand corrected.

Those shows I have podcasts for began after they went to “Best of Cartalk” so those were probably compilations also, rather than entire shows mostly intact.

But I’m pretty sure then that the current shorter shows are also compilations. Knowing that, I’ve always noted that the puzzler sequence was preserved.

I applaud the staff for being able to weave all the calls together so seamlessly. Even listening closely, I’ve never ever heard a hint of a problem after Ray welcomes the next caller.

One nice thing about having podcasts from long ago: when I hear a “new” puzzler that I don’t know how to answer, and really want to know asap, I can just go to the next newer file in the list of podcasts.

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