Asheville woman is married to ‘the happiest man in the world’

Asheville Citizen-Times columnist Carol Currie has the story:

When Jan Schochet was driving from Chapel Hill to Asheville the Sunday before last and listening to the hilarious NPR show, “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” the opening question on the show had to do with Alvin Wong. He had been named in a Gallup Poll as “The Happiest Man in America.”

The name rang a bell with Jan. When the segment went on to mention Honolulu, Hawaii, and the fact that Alvin was a Jew, she suddenly realized that he is the husband of Trudy Schandler.

Trudy is the daughter of the late Aaron and Arlene Schandler, of Asheville. Mr. Schandler owned the popular Schandler’s Pickle Barrel on Broadway Street, where the Mellow Mushroom is now.

Asheville people measured authentic Jewish delicatessen food by what was served at Schandler’s, corned beef on rye, pastrami and juicy wursts with sauerkraut and tangy potato salad. He had the same loyal staff and loyal customers for years.

Trudy was the weather reporter on WLOS-TV in the 1970s and then became a flight attendant, and that’s probably how she met Alvin.

The New York Times reported that Alvin Wong may be the happiest man in the world. More from the NYT’s economix blog:

We recently noted that Alvin Wong of Honolulu just might be the happiest man in America, since he has all the demographic characteristics that match up with higher levels of happiness according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. His family has informed me that he’s now become an overnight celebrity, and has been asked to do interviews in publications everywhere from Israel to Australia. I’m told he’s “gone viral in Bangkok.”

One more economix post here about the Wong story.

Thanks to loyal reader AW for pointing me to this.