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Guess what, Will? What's that, Mango? So, have you seen this trailer for the movie Tag? It's about these brothers who play an epic game of tag? I think John Hams in it and maybe Ed Helms? Yeah, I was going to say I saw Ed Helms was in it. I saw a couple of articles about it. It looks pretty funny. and actually I saw it's based on a real story, right?

Yeah, so when I heard that, I was actually a little confused because I'd heard this other great story about brothers playing tag. And this for a while back, so this guy, Richard Mellon, was actually like a captain of industry. I want to say he came from Pittsburgh. And he and his younger brother, Andrew, had this game of tag that they'd play. And apparently the game lasted for seven decades. Isn't that nuts? But here's the craziest part, right? So when Richard was on his deathbed, he summoned his brother Andrew over to him, and he pulled him close, and then he just whispered into his ear, last tag. And then he died. Oh, I love that. It's such like a, it's kind of like a big brother thing to do, you know what I mean? So were those actually his last words? Yeah, and apparently Andrew had to stay it for four more years until he passed away. But that story made me think we should do today's nine things about epic last words. Let's dive in. Hey there, podcast listeners.

Welcome to part-time genius.

I'm Will Pearson, and as always, I'm joined by my good friend, Mengas shot ticketer.

And behind the soundproof glass, just chugging this big jug of V8 as he works from his treadmill.

I know. I feel like he thinks if he drinks enough V8, he's just never going to have to think about his last words. Well, you just never know. I mean, he's a really smart guy, but that's our friend and producer, Tristan McNeil. All right, Mango, so I know last words are a little bit of a morbid topic, but I still find them pretty fascinating. I just can't help it.

And I know John Green, when he used to work at Mental Flaws, he was completely obsessed with these.

Yeah, I remember showing us pages of this. And a lot of that found its way into looking for Alaska.

But one of the things I remember was like, that was the first time I heard that Dylan Thomas quote about 18 straight whiskeys.

I think that's the record, which were his last words, horrible last words.

And also Henry Ward Beecher's one about now comes the mystery, which is way more poetic.

You know, I think the part of what's so great about last words is when somebody you already consider a genius says something funny or just meaningful or even exactly as the character you want them to be. There's something

so satisfying about that. No, I definitely agree. So I kick this off with the tag story, but I'm

curious, what's your first last word going to be? All right. Well, i think i'm going to kick this off with a smart

aleck who didn't disappoint and that's voltaire now i know you and i have plenty of great facts about

voltaire i know that's just that was our old pickup line yeah i got so many voltaire facts up in here

but anyway you know there was the one that he was pen pals with with Catherine the Great or that he supposedly drank 40 cups of coffee a day. They may have been tiny cups, but still, it's pretty impressive. I know, and supposedly he was such a fiend for coffee that he actually imported these luxury beans because he couldn't just drink plain coffee. Really? I actually didn't know that about the luxury beans.

Well, my favorite story about Voltaire is what he told his priest on his deathbed. And as the story goes, the priest knew Voltaire was close to death, so he was encouraging him to use his last words to secure his place in heaven. Just kind of pressing him on it over and over to renounce Satan. and, you know, of course, Voltaire being a legendary smart, Alex just says to him,

now my good man, this is no time for making enemies. And then he passed away. That's pretty great. So here's a weird one I'd heard that I just thought was an urban legend. But did you know that the Nike slogan, Just Do It, is based on a phrase from

death row?

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