August 19, 2025 • 16 mins
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Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: host of "Reasonably Happy," comedian and author Paul Ollinger!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask AI” and audio rebuses.
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"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. I thought we might start with
a quick puzzle. This puzzle is based on something I
noticed while shopping and a New York delicatessen, and that
is I noticed there are a surprising number of candies
(00:47):
that have weapons in their names. Yeah who knew they were?
I mean, I knew candies bad for you, dentists, dentists
tell us, But yes, this is actual weapons in candy names.
I'll give you one example, Tri dent. I do count
gums as candies, so try it, and tri.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Dent is definitely a weapon, even though it's good.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, three pronged spear even though it is sugarless, but
still counts as candy. So my challenge is, can you
name any other candies that have weapons in their names,
either types of guns or bombs or knives, and the
answers and more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello puzzlers,
(01:34):
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast, the cow Bell and
Your Blue Oyster Cult Puzzle Songs. I am your host,
AJ Jacobs, and of course I'm here with Chief Puzzle
Officer Greg Pliska and Greg before the break, I asked
if you could think of any candies with weapons in
their names. It's a surprisingly violent segment of.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Of E say, it's not fair to give me the
candy category. I don't eat a lot of candy. I
go for the savory snacks. So next time we should
get my wife and kids. We'll get my kids on
they'll nail this one. I wrote down shive snacks.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Is that a thing? Yes, it is cherry bomb.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I was like, cherry bomb is a is actually a
little explosive, not candy, though there might be a candy
called cherry bomb star burst.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Oh that's great, I mean throwing star.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I'm going to give myself credit for the throwing star
in Star Bulls and Escape failing only slightly reasonably fail reasonably,
I'm reasonably happy with how.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I Oh, I like that good good foreshadowing. Yeah, I
think there are bomb pops. I don't know if i'd
count them as well.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, but those are like popsicles, right.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I was thinking of three musketeers. You got muskets, musket Okay,
you got bazooka, bazooka.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Gut zuoka Joe, Oh my god, you.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Got you got warheads much more on the nose war.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I wrote down airheads, and I was like, that's not right.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
But I was clearly yeah, you're in the area this one.
I I just throw out Reese's pieces. You got a piece.
You can't carrying a piece? Uh, spears mint, spear mint.
But the three I think that are the solid four
are tried and three musketeers, warheads and bazook What about crackle?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Does a rack count as a weapon? Probably not. It's
more a torture device.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Good point, Fair enough, All right, that's a different episode,
candy with torture devices.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Children come here for the puzzler for that, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
But today's guest is a man who has informed me
off the air that he loves kit Kats but hates Twizzlers.
He's a Twizzler hater. People, but we love him nonetheless.
He is a comedian, an author, and host of the
Reasonably Happy podcast with Paul Ollinger, and his name is
(03:58):
Paul Ollinger. Well, yeah, go figure.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Thank you for having me. I should say I don't
hate twizzlers. That sounds a little aggressive, Okay, Okay, I'm
I'm not a fan of twizzlers and it in it.
My wife has to have them every time she gets
on a plane, so that's the contrast. I just think
chocolate and wafers and a little bit of peanut butter
whatever it is in kid kat much better than waxy licorice.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Call me crazy, I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, this puzzle does not have anything to do with candy,
but it does have something to do with you, okay,
and that is your initials, p O p oh. So
the okay, the answers to all of these clues are
going to be people and their initials at the end.
So let me give you an example. If the clue
(04:49):
were where does the mail for the host of the
Reasonably Happy podcast get delivered? That would be Paul Olanders
raising his hands house. Ah, is that true? I was
thinking Paul Ollinger's po or p.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
O box post Office Office, right.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So they're all going to be words or phrases that
are initialed with the same initials as the people. By
the way, you share initials with Peter O'Toole and Patrese O'Neil,
the comedian, Ah.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
The Great Patrise O'Neil. Yes, terrific. Yes.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
And do you know my Facebook? My Facebook handle is
actually PMO Paul Michael Ollinger, but it's also the initials
of the Prime Minister's Office in India, so sometimes I'll
get messages for people looking for the Prime Minister of India.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
So do you do you weigh in on Indian am.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
I'm agnostic to domestic Indian issues, though I love all
my Indian brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Fair enough. Okay, here's your first clue. This is a
physician used by the Star of good Will Hunting. So
a physician that the Star of Goodwill Hunting might go to.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Okay, So that would be either Matt Damon or Ben
Affleck or Robin Williams physician, yeah, or Mini driver.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Potentially, we want to be inclusive.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It could be both Matt Damon or Mini driver.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
Anything, Okay, a physician used by the Star.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So you just take those you already got it, and
you take one of those and their initials are what, uh.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Matt Damon no, p no O Ben affleck No, Matt Damon.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
No, it doesn't have to be p O. It's going
to be a different pair of initials.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Oh, MD, yes, d oh duh, I go, okay, I
get it.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Matt Damon's MD. And you brought up or Greg brought
up many driver is also correct. So I thought i'd
start with one that was two possible answers.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
All right, now that you go.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Now there you got the I think you're to go.
Now you got the idea.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
I see, I got to just yes, no.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
More PO forget PO. All right, this is the Jagged
Little Pill singers morning what you might call.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Yeah, that's right, who Lannis Morrissa exactly. You've got the
right era for me. Aja.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Nineteen ninety five and nineteen ninety seven was really when
I was.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
I was a relevant person back then.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
All right, well we're going We're going a little farther.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
I knew the new stuff back the pop culture was
my thing then not so much anymore.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Well we're going back even a little farther. Might be
before your time. But okay, this is the spin doctor
who came up with the phrase the British are coming,
The British are coming.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
I didn't realize Paul Revere was a spin doctor.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
No, he had hired a spin doctor.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh, pr right, Yes there, Paul, I see, I.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
See Paul Revere's PR guy. Yes, because he did not
say the British are coming, because they all consider themselves
British at the time, so I believe it was the
regulars are coming. I will will also see you.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Would you would know this? Aj? You should know.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
This well at this part. I know because I find
it shocking and appalling that he really did have good
pr or actually he had a name that rhymed Paul
Revere because he got into Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride. Listen,
(08:39):
my children and you she'll hear the midnight ride of
Paul Revere. But he wasn't the only one. There were
lots of other riders out there. There was a guy
named Israel Bissel that some people say warned more people.
So I have written he.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Got but he got a he got a vacuum cleaner,
so you know it works out.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
I don't know works out well.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Come on, he could have written Listen, my children, I'm
firing a missile of the midnight Rive. All right, I'm
writing an epistole ride of.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Come on.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I was gonna say this is a tale that will
make you whistle. It's the midnight ride of Israel business.
But I think a pistol cannot be beaten. Thank you, Greg.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Listen, my children, Let's open a Bollinger for the midnight rive,
right of our friend Paul Ollinger?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Were you there? I know you're old, but not quite
that old?
Speaker 6 (09:37):
All right?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
How about this is the radio band used by the
lead singer of the rock group Queen.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
All right, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
All right, all right. This is the gym class attended
by a late Colombian drug lord, the Jim Class.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Okay, I'm doing this with backwards. I'm going to start.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I'm going to start the gym classes called pe and
our most famous Colombian drug lord of all time would
be Pablo.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Or well done, Well done? All what I got? Let's
do two more? We've got oh. This is a resume
that might include job titles such as railroad robber, baron
steamship owner, he operated.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Railroad Robber Baron would be like Carnegie.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Right, there's another one.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, but there's Rockefeller.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Was another one? Yet, yet another one? Flagler what a resume?
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Yes, cornelis Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
There you go. He had crazy money, Uh, a.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Little bit than I did.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
A reasonably happy guy. One would guess.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Maybe I've been to his place in Asheville. It's lovely,
the Biltmore.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yes, we were there too.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Oh, it's a beautiful, extraordinary. That was just like worth
a visit.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That was like the fifty room vacation house.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Right, that was the mountain place.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
The shack right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh, it's gorgeous, gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
How about the person that the Rock hires to spin
records at his wedding, the Rock, the sports entertainer of
the Rock.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Oh, he would, he would, he would. Dwayne Johnson would
hire a DJ.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
That's right, Dwayne Johnson wyer DJ. Okay, Oh, last one.
Then we'll do a legend. I don't know how you
are on sports, but this is a legendary former Philadelphia
seventy six er star. Well jus his chat GP you
might say, this.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Is uh oh ai, Yeah, Allen.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
That's a good who was ready to I was ready
to go with Julius Irving.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
But me too.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I was like, je, what's that?
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Who would be Yeah? Who else would be one? Anyway? Yes?
Well you guy, Alan Iverson, Yeah, the guy.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
The answer is the answer. And by the way, I
was delighted to see he's only six feet tall according
to Wikipedia. That's very We.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Got a shot. Aj we got a shot.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I used to be almost six feet but now I'm
well done. All right, before we go, your podcast is
Reasonably Happy with Paul Ollinger. Uh so, you've hunted hundreds
of people. You have two or three tips on how
we can all be more reasonably happy.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
I do. Don't compare yourself to others is probably the
number one thing that people can do to keep themselves
from driving themselves crazy. And and this was one of
the things that I discovered when I started reading the
book Out Money and Happiness all those years ago. You
learned some crazy things about human beings based on our
(13:07):
evolved brains, which means we use other people as benchmarks
to see how we're doing. And it doesn't make us happier,
but it does keep us alive. So stay alive, but try.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
To look in the mirror and see how you can
grow and don't worry about your neighbor's new lawnmower.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I love that. I love that my neighbor doesn't have
a lawnmower. But point taken, and I actually want to.
I enjoy a rhyming phrase, so I have. There's someone
said comparing leads to despairing.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
So there's one hundred per one hundred percent. You got
one more comparison is the thief of joy.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Our man Teddy Roosevelt said more.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Of a fancy way of saying that, yes, doesn't rhyme,
So I'm not going to remember that. I really do.
I give us one more before we go. Please.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
How to be happy? Spend time with friends and family.
That's the number one thing that leads to happiness. According
to the Harvard Longitudinal Study of Human Happiness. They studied
people over eighty five years or something like that, and
they found out that it's not about money, certainly past
a certain point. It's not about fame or professional achievement.
(14:24):
It's about people who have solid relationships. Invest in your relationships,
stay married if you can, and don't let your kids
run away from you, and you'll be a happy person.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Good advice, solid advice.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And that's like in person time. It's like real face
time with people.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Well yeah, I mean that's I think we all discovered
during the pandemic that isolation. Even if you have Hey,
look this is better than not doing it at all.
I enjoy being with you guys today. We've laughed, we've learned,
we've grown our brains. But in person is the right
way to you know, foster relationships. It's why people love
to play golf, it's why they love to fish. Because
(15:05):
you're just hanging out outside with friends. You're not thinking
about you know, you're not thinking about the problems in life.
You're just you're talking about fishing and you're hanging out
with your buddies on the water, and it leads to
a sense of well being.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I thought you couldn't talk while you're fishing because it
would scare of the fish away. I know too many
knots talk about it after you can talk about that.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Well.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Excellent. Thank you, Paul, and we are delighted that you
are in our social circles and helping us stay alive.
And we'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles.
They will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Take puzzlers.
Speaker 7 (15:50):
It's Greg plus got chief puzzle officer here with the
extra credit answer from our previous episode. Paul Ollinger joined
us to talk about various things, including his time at
book or as we called it, Visage Tome.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
The puzzle was two word clues for a company name.
We sort of charade the company name with two word clues.
In your extra credit clue, we told you you're two
parts of this a baby bird's home plus martial artist Bruce,
and that gives you a food company.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
And it's fanatic.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
It's not spelling, although partly spelling, and that gives you
a food a delicious A delicious food company. That, of
course is the babybird's home is a nest and the
martial artist is Bruce Lee for nest Lee or nest Lee.
I guess if we pronounced the tea, But either way,
it's delicious.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
I hope you enjoy it the way you enjoy the puzzler.
Here with us every day
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello puzzlers. I thought we might start with
a quick puzzle. This puzzle is based on something I
noticed while shopping and a New York delicatessen, and that
is I noticed there are a surprising number of candies
(00:47):
that have weapons in their names. Yeah who knew they were?
I mean, I knew candies bad for you, dentists, dentists
tell us, But yes, this is actual weapons in candy names.
I'll give you one example, Tri dent. I do count
gums as candies, so try it, and tri.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Dent is definitely a weapon, even though it's good.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, three pronged spear even though it is sugarless, but
still counts as candy. So my challenge is, can you
name any other candies that have weapons in their names,
either types of guns or bombs or knives, and the
answers and more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello puzzlers,
(01:34):
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast, the cow Bell and
Your Blue Oyster Cult Puzzle Songs. I am your host,
AJ Jacobs, and of course I'm here with Chief Puzzle
Officer Greg Pliska and Greg before the break, I asked
if you could think of any candies with weapons in
their names. It's a surprisingly violent segment of.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Of E say, it's not fair to give me the
candy category. I don't eat a lot of candy. I
go for the savory snacks. So next time we should
get my wife and kids. We'll get my kids on
they'll nail this one. I wrote down shive snacks.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Is that a thing? Yes, it is cherry bomb.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I was like, cherry bomb is a is actually a
little explosive, not candy, though there might be a candy
called cherry bomb star burst.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Oh that's great, I mean throwing star.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I'm going to give myself credit for the throwing star
in Star Bulls and Escape failing only slightly reasonably fail reasonably,
I'm reasonably happy with how.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I Oh, I like that good good foreshadowing. Yeah, I
think there are bomb pops. I don't know if i'd
count them as well.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, but those are like popsicles, right.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I was thinking of three musketeers. You got muskets, musket Okay,
you got bazooka, bazooka.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Gut zuoka Joe, Oh my god, you.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Got you got warheads much more on the nose war.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I wrote down airheads, and I was like, that's not right.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
But I was clearly yeah, you're in the area this one.
I I just throw out Reese's pieces. You got a piece.
You can't carrying a piece? Uh, spears mint, spear mint.
But the three I think that are the solid four
are tried and three musketeers, warheads and bazook What about crackle?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Does a rack count as a weapon? Probably not. It's
more a torture device.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Good point, Fair enough, All right, that's a different episode,
candy with torture devices.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Children come here for the puzzler for that, all right.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
But today's guest is a man who has informed me
off the air that he loves kit Kats but hates Twizzlers.
He's a Twizzler hater. People, but we love him nonetheless.
He is a comedian, an author, and host of the
Reasonably Happy podcast with Paul Ollinger, and his name is
(03:58):
Paul Ollinger. Well, yeah, go figure.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Thank you for having me. I should say I don't
hate twizzlers. That sounds a little aggressive, Okay, Okay, I'm
I'm not a fan of twizzlers and it in it.
My wife has to have them every time she gets
on a plane, so that's the contrast. I just think
chocolate and wafers and a little bit of peanut butter
whatever it is in kid kat much better than waxy licorice.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Call me crazy, I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, this puzzle does not have anything to do with candy,
but it does have something to do with you, okay,
and that is your initials, p O p oh. So
the okay, the answers to all of these clues are
going to be people and their initials at the end.
So let me give you an example. If the clue
(04:49):
were where does the mail for the host of the
Reasonably Happy podcast get delivered? That would be Paul Olanders
raising his hands house. Ah, is that true? I was
thinking Paul Ollinger's po or p.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
O box post Office Office, right.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So they're all going to be words or phrases that
are initialed with the same initials as the people. By
the way, you share initials with Peter O'Toole and Patrese O'Neil,
the comedian, Ah.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
The Great Patrise O'Neil. Yes, terrific. Yes.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
And do you know my Facebook? My Facebook handle is
actually PMO Paul Michael Ollinger, but it's also the initials
of the Prime Minister's Office in India, so sometimes I'll
get messages for people looking for the Prime Minister of India.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
So do you do you weigh in on Indian am.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
I'm agnostic to domestic Indian issues, though I love all
my Indian brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Fair enough. Okay, here's your first clue. This is a
physician used by the Star of good Will Hunting. So
a physician that the Star of Goodwill Hunting might go to.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Okay, So that would be either Matt Damon or Ben
Affleck or Robin Williams physician, yeah, or Mini driver.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Potentially, we want to be inclusive.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It could be both Matt Damon or Mini driver.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
Anything, Okay, a physician used by the Star.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So you just take those you already got it, and
you take one of those and their initials are what, uh.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Matt Damon no, p no O Ben affleck No, Matt Damon.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
No, it doesn't have to be p O. It's going
to be a different pair of initials.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Oh, MD, yes, d oh duh, I go, okay, I
get it.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Matt Damon's MD. And you brought up or Greg brought
up many driver is also correct. So I thought i'd
start with one that was two possible answers.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
All right, now that you go.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Now there you got the I think you're to go.
Now you got the idea.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
I see, I got to just yes, no.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
More PO forget PO. All right, this is the Jagged
Little Pill singers morning what you might call.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Yeah, that's right, who Lannis Morrissa exactly. You've got the
right era for me. Aja.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Nineteen ninety five and nineteen ninety seven was really when
I was.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
I was a relevant person back then.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
All right, well we're going We're going a little farther.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
I knew the new stuff back the pop culture was
my thing then not so much anymore.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Well we're going back even a little farther. Might be
before your time. But okay, this is the spin doctor
who came up with the phrase the British are coming,
The British are coming.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
I didn't realize Paul Revere was a spin doctor.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
No, he had hired a spin doctor.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh, pr right, Yes there, Paul, I see, I.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
See Paul Revere's PR guy. Yes, because he did not
say the British are coming, because they all consider themselves
British at the time, so I believe it was the
regulars are coming. I will will also see you.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Would you would know this? Aj? You should know.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
This well at this part. I know because I find
it shocking and appalling that he really did have good
pr or actually he had a name that rhymed Paul
Revere because he got into Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride. Listen,
(08:39):
my children and you she'll hear the midnight ride of
Paul Revere. But he wasn't the only one. There were
lots of other riders out there. There was a guy
named Israel Bissel that some people say warned more people.
So I have written he.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Got but he got a he got a vacuum cleaner,
so you know it works out.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
I don't know works out well.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Come on, he could have written Listen, my children, I'm
firing a missile of the midnight Rive. All right, I'm
writing an epistole ride of.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Come on.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I was gonna say this is a tale that will
make you whistle. It's the midnight ride of Israel business.
But I think a pistol cannot be beaten. Thank you, Greg.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Listen, my children, Let's open a Bollinger for the midnight rive,
right of our friend Paul Ollinger?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Were you there? I know you're old, but not quite
that old?
Speaker 6 (09:37):
All right?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
How about this is the radio band used by the
lead singer of the rock group Queen.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
All right, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
All right, all right. This is the gym class attended
by a late Colombian drug lord, the Jim Class.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Okay, I'm doing this with backwards. I'm going to start.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I'm going to start the gym classes called pe and
our most famous Colombian drug lord of all time would
be Pablo.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Or well done, Well done? All what I got? Let's
do two more? We've got oh. This is a resume
that might include job titles such as railroad robber, baron
steamship owner, he operated.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
Railroad Robber Baron would be like Carnegie.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Right, there's another one.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, but there's Rockefeller.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Was another one? Yet, yet another one? Flagler what a resume?
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Yes, cornelis Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
There you go. He had crazy money, Uh, a.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Little bit than I did.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
A reasonably happy guy. One would guess.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Maybe I've been to his place in Asheville. It's lovely,
the Biltmore.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yes, we were there too.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Oh, it's a beautiful, extraordinary. That was just like worth
a visit.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That was like the fifty room vacation house.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Right, that was the mountain place.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
The shack right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh, it's gorgeous, gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
How about the person that the Rock hires to spin
records at his wedding, the Rock, the sports entertainer of
the Rock.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Oh, he would, he would, he would. Dwayne Johnson would
hire a DJ.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
That's right, Dwayne Johnson wyer DJ. Okay, Oh, last one.
Then we'll do a legend. I don't know how you
are on sports, but this is a legendary former Philadelphia
seventy six er star. Well jus his chat GP you
might say, this.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Is uh oh ai, Yeah, Allen.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
That's a good who was ready to I was ready
to go with Julius Irving.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
But me too.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
I was like, je, what's that?
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Who would be Yeah? Who else would be one? Anyway? Yes?
Well you guy, Alan Iverson, Yeah, the guy.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
The answer is the answer. And by the way, I
was delighted to see he's only six feet tall according
to Wikipedia. That's very We.
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Got a shot. Aj we got a shot.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I used to be almost six feet but now I'm
well done. All right, before we go, your podcast is
Reasonably Happy with Paul Ollinger. Uh so, you've hunted hundreds
of people. You have two or three tips on how
we can all be more reasonably happy.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
I do. Don't compare yourself to others is probably the
number one thing that people can do to keep themselves
from driving themselves crazy. And and this was one of
the things that I discovered when I started reading the
book Out Money and Happiness all those years ago. You
learned some crazy things about human beings based on our
(13:07):
evolved brains, which means we use other people as benchmarks
to see how we're doing. And it doesn't make us happier,
but it does keep us alive. So stay alive, but try.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
To look in the mirror and see how you can
grow and don't worry about your neighbor's new lawnmower.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I love that. I love that my neighbor doesn't have
a lawnmower. But point taken, and I actually want to.
I enjoy a rhyming phrase, so I have. There's someone
said comparing leads to despairing.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
So there's one hundred per one hundred percent. You got
one more comparison is the thief of joy.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
Our man Teddy Roosevelt said more.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Of a fancy way of saying that, yes, doesn't rhyme,
So I'm not going to remember that. I really do.
I give us one more before we go. Please.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
How to be happy? Spend time with friends and family.
That's the number one thing that leads to happiness. According
to the Harvard Longitudinal Study of Human Happiness. They studied
people over eighty five years or something like that, and
they found out that it's not about money, certainly past
a certain point. It's not about fame or professional achievement.
(14:24):
It's about people who have solid relationships. Invest in your relationships,
stay married if you can, and don't let your kids
run away from you, and you'll be a happy person.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Good advice, solid advice.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And that's like in person time. It's like real face
time with people.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Well yeah, I mean that's I think we all discovered
during the pandemic that isolation. Even if you have Hey,
look this is better than not doing it at all.
I enjoy being with you guys today. We've laughed, we've learned,
we've grown our brains. But in person is the right
way to you know, foster relationships. It's why people love
to play golf, it's why they love to fish. Because
(15:05):
you're just hanging out outside with friends. You're not thinking
about you know, you're not thinking about the problems in life.
You're just you're talking about fishing and you're hanging out
with your buddies on the water, and it leads to
a sense of well being.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I thought you couldn't talk while you're fishing because it
would scare of the fish away. I know too many
knots talk about it after you can talk about that.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Well.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Excellent. Thank you, Paul, and we are delighted that you
are in our social circles and helping us stay alive.
And we'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles.
They will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Take puzzlers.
Speaker 7 (15:50):
It's Greg plus got chief puzzle officer here with the
extra credit answer from our previous episode. Paul Ollinger joined
us to talk about various things, including his time at
book or as we called it, Visage Tome.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (16:04):
The puzzle was two word clues for a company name.
We sort of charade the company name with two word clues.
In your extra credit clue, we told you you're two
parts of this a baby bird's home plus martial artist Bruce,
and that gives you a food company.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
And it's fanatic.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
It's not spelling, although partly spelling, and that gives you
a food a delicious A delicious food company. That, of
course is the babybird's home is a nest and the
martial artist is Bruce Lee for nest Lee or nest Lee.
I guess if we pronounced the tea, But either way,
it's delicious.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
I hope you enjoy it the way you enjoy the puzzler.
Here with us every day
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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