Paula and I are kindred spirits. If you are honest, most of you are kindred spirits with Paula Poundstone. She reaches into my heart and tickles it.
I was so happy when she began to appear as a contestant on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me. If you could do scans of my brain while listening to Paula, you'd see the happiness part light up over and over and over. When she says something hilarious, I laugh because it is a combination of surprise and recognition.
For example, if you ask her how she ended up with sixteen cats, she will tell you she had fifteen and then got one more.
She does have sixteen cats, and a couple of dogs so that people will think of her as a pet lover rather than a cat lady. She has three adopted kids. She has wrestled with her own demons, and she has wrestled with her kids and her pets.
I believe the idea for this book came out of her appearances on Wait, Wait. She stops the show frequently when Peter Segal describes the results of a scientific experiment to demand to know things like: who on earth would think of this? and: why would you even want to measure that? and: I would like to know just how they got somebody to do that.
Putting two and two together, she came up with the brilliant idea of unscientifically searching for happiness. She tries exercise, the internet, organizing, movie day, volunteering and more, and pseudo-scientifically describes in great details and tangents the results.
Last night I dreamed of my son, who is nearly twenty-six. In the dream he was somewhere around four. His image in my dream was so real I woke up smiling. But in the dream he had come up to me and asked me if I would listen to him read, and I (lovingly) told him that I didn't have time right now. That is the effect of being let in to Paula Poundstone's family. It is the acknowledging of infinite love and innumerable shortcomings.
This is Paula:
Alley chose a college in Oregon. I drove her the seventeen hours from here to there in time for her freshman orientation before I realized, I can't do this every day. So I just left her.My daughter would recognize me in that story.
Paula decided her family needed a movie day. I have lots of movie stories, but two stand out.
One day, we went to a matinee (lower price) of a horror movie. They were advertising a horror double feature later that day. So we went out and grabbed a burger and came back for two more horror movies.
Another time, when my daughter was reading Macbeth in class, I suggested we watch some movie versions. There were three at the library, so we spent a day watching all three and comparing them. None of us to my knowledge is a big fan of movies of Shakespeare's plays, and honestly it isn't my idea of fun, but that day was fun.
A couple of years ago, I saw Paula perform at the Charleston Music Hall. She began by telling the audience that she would love to talk to us after the show. And then she performed for two full hours. I hope she enjoyed it as much as we did, and that she didn't do it because she just couldn't think how to stop talking. At one point, she lay down on the floor, I think to show us her socks.
She always finds a person in the audience to talk to, which is why I specifically ask for a seat farther back. It is amazing when this happens, but I believe I would be the person who just sat there, unable to say a word.
Paula wrote one other memoir, in 2004, titled There's Nothing In This Book That I Meant To Say. This means that I could be 79 years old when she writes her next one. I can't wait.
Meanwhile she has a new podcast, Live from the Poundstone Institute, in which she continues her unscientific studies. So that will help me get by while I wait for her next book.
Today is my birthday. I am not with my family, but I have been so happy to spend the time with Paula and her family. Thanks, Paula, for all the heps of happiness you have sent my way.
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