In 1876 Herman Melville wrote, “This world clean fails me; still I yearn.” I had an English lit professor at Brown, Charles Nichols, who intoned those words every single time our class met. And that was in the soft 1970s, children. It sort of comes to me in a whisper frequently when the world seems to be going sideways. (I like it so much, I asked my friend Diana Weymar, the creator of @TinyPricksProject to embroider it for me. Here it is.)
It’s hard to wrap our heads around everything that is happening. The good that has occurred was only instigated by the Godawful actions of a corrupt and criminal administration. If Trump, et al had been somewhat less evil and craven, they well might have won themselves a second term. Yes, he got impeached again, but marauding, defacing, sacking, and ultimately murdering in our iconic Capitol will do that for you.
Gun-toting new Congresswoman Lauren Boebert needs to be relieved of her duties, her position, and her perks right this instant. How dare she give terrorists a map of the individual offices of her fellow congresspeople? Why did Coloradans elect her? The rest of us need a nap. And we are not going to get one. At least I’m not. Things are moving too quickly. You snooze, you lose.
Eight extremely long years ago, I watched with pleasure as Barack Obama and Joe Biden took their second oaths of office. Next Wednesday I will eagerly watch the next inauguration, which will have the smallest audience in modern times. Who cares? Can you believe that we had a president who argued over who had the biggest crowd for over a year? I want the four years refunded.
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Lisa Birnbach and Paul Ollinger
I met this week’s guest a few months ago, when I was a guest on his interesting and well-made podcast, Crazy Money. Paul Ollinger has reinvented his life at least half a dozen times by my count. He went from slacker to Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business where he joined the ranks of the shiny MBAs looking for riches. He worked at Yahoo and then was one of the first 250 employees of Facebook. After collecting his stock options and paying off his student debt, Paul left Northern California and moved to Georgia where he is now a stand up comic. Uh yeah.
Reinvention is a hot topic – made more so by the pandemic. And Paul’s funny. What else do you have to do today?
But first, my five things that made life better.
1. Impeachment 2.0. Just when it seems like government moves at an unbearably slow pace – pausing for wasteful recounts, and rethises and rethats, we watch the Democrats in the House race towards a second impeachment that occurred one week (1) after the riot in the Capitol. One week! That’s powerful. Even with all the obstructions set up by the other side, the deed was done. Now we must see what happens next in the Senate, while the new administration has to manage the distribution of COVID vaccines, Covid tests -- thousands of things to restore and improve.
2. Speaking of which, my dear 90 year old progenitor got her first shot this past week. I am so grateful that she could get it. (User’s note: This same elderly relative could not have booked or confirmed her own appointment, as she’s no longer using her computer. Until you can work the system with a telephone, please volunteer to help out your elderlies.)
Lisa and Sheila (which one is which?)
3. Sheila the puppy seems to like me. She really likes me! And all for just 1/3 of a cup of kibble twice a day. (Now if only I could handle her crying when I leave her in the kitchen alone, we’d really be in business.).
4. Drive & Listen – my digital friend Ellen Angell Sholk (who started and runs the Five Things that Make Life Better fan page on Facebook) just posted this app discovery. It allows you to drive around cities all over the world – from Amsterdam to Zurich – for 20 or 30 minutes. A vicarious trip made better by its ability to pair itself with local radio. Now noticed that people weren’t wearing masks in these videos – they are not live, and were filmed a few years ago, but that only makes the escapism more pleasant. Drive & Listen is on Instagram.
5. Codenames the game. I am imagining you are all familiar with it? This is a game one plays online with a partner against another team of two. You download a code and then it’s kind of a spy game – a grown up digital version of Hasbro’s Guess Who?, the long time board game. Further, playing the game with our friends Fred & Chuck was like having a grown up playdate. It pushed away all our concerns for a full hour. That’s big! I mentioned it to one of my #exhibits who said it was old news. So am I.
Paul Ollinger’s 5 Things:
1. Life Fitness Treadmill: Here's an example of you get what you pay for. A buddy of mine gave me his old treadmill. While it was free, it was also cheap and flimsy. When I upgraded to gym-caliber equipment, I started using it 10x more and I never worried about the thing falling apart under my non-trivial mass. It has been a key to sanity during quarantine (recall that I live in Atlanta where we have the square footage for home gyms, etc.)
2 5:00 a.m.: The time between 5:00 and 6:40 a.m. (when I wake the kids up) is the most peaceful and productive of the day. It is me, coffee, and ideas.
3. Brooklyn Brewery’s Special Effects Hoppy Amber: I'm doing Dry January, and this alcohol-free beer is by far the best one I've tried. It's got body, character, and Brooklyn Brewery took time to make the packaging as unique as their other products. It actually feels like you're drinking a real beer.
4. King’s Hawaiian Buns: lest you think I'm on a health kick, I'll confess to both enjoying these irresistible, sweet sensations and feeding them to my children. I used to drive by their plant on the 405 in Torrance, CA on the way to see my Toyota clients and their agency, Saatchi & Saatchi.
5. Runnin Down a Dream: Since March, I have watched this Tom Petty documentary (directed by Peter Bogdanovich) in whole or in part probably five times. It runs four hours, but I wish it was longer.
More About Paul Ollinger:
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@Paul_Ollinger
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@Paul_Ollinger
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@CrazyMoneyPodcast
The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC. My team is Shpresa Oruci, Michael Porte, Sam Haft and Boco Haft.The Field in NYC