Toledo Air

After reading this, over at Half Past Kissin' Time I was inspired about what to blog today.

I have always been a fan of the practical joke. Not just the water bucket over the door variety, but the long running, well thought out, that makes you laugh for the duration kind of joke. This one is an absolute classic that I was only witness to but wish I could claim credit for.

In college, some of the campus housing consisted of apartments that housed 8 people. 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, a common living room and very little privacy. One of these apartments housed some friends of mine, who pulled this beauty off. Two of the guys ("Mitch" and "Steve") happened to be complete motor heads. "Lester" (the victim) was anything but a 'car expert' and a little too trusting and naive, especially considering the personalities of the people he was living with.

"Lester" had a tire that was low on air every day for a week. Little did he know that "Steve" was the cause of this. Every night on his way back to the apartment he would stop and let about 1/4 of the air out of "Lesters" driver's front tire. "Lester" went to the local gas station and filled the tire daily only to find it low again in the morning. So he took it to the local tire repair shop. The attendant found no problem, didn't charge for the check and sent "Lester" on his way. The next morning he finds his drivers' rear tire is low on air.

That night "Lester" goes to "Steve" and explains the tire issue and asks for an opinion and advice. With a total straight face, Steve asks if there is a slow leak that could be caused by a puncture. Lester tells Steve how he had the tire checked and now a different tire was loosing air and that he was now refilling his tires daily. "Steve" continues to ponder what the problem could be for "Lesters'" benefit. "Eureka! I Know what the problem is, You have Toledo air in your tires. Did you fill them when you went home to Toledo two weeks ago?". "No", replied
"Lester", "They were fine when I was home." " Hmmm, but were they originally sealed in Toledo?" "Steve" wanted to know. "Well yeah, but what would that have to do with anything?" "Lester" questioned with suspicion and doubt in his voice. So "Steve" proceed to explain that the latitude of Toledo being 5 hours north, had a different air density and thus pressure changes happen. The only solution was to have the tires resealed here at the lower latitude and and made up a convoluted explanation about how in reverse there wouldn't be a problem with pressure changes. "Lester" wasn't quite buying it, but wasn't sure. After all "Steve" knew everything there was to know about cars.

So "Lester" left "Steve" to seek a second opinion, completely unaware that "Mitch" had overheard the entirety of the conversation from the common living room and was trying hard not to convulse with laughter. After having the tire problem explained to him, "Mitch" asked the normal questions and then said "Wait, where were your tires sealed?". He continued to explain the whole latitude/longitude issue to "Lester", trying not to use the exact phrasing that "Steve" had.

That was enough confirmation for "Lester". The next day after class he drove back to the tire shop and insisted that they reseal the tires. The attendant asked "why?" and "Lester" explained how he had "Toledo Air" in the tires and how the longitude and latitude was the culprit of the problem and how his two buddies helped him to figure it out. The attendant burst out laughing and informed "Lester" that he had been had. "Lester was pretty ticked, but the rest of us laughed till we cried.