caroljane

Holy crap he's back! Everyone look busy! LOL, obviously you have served time at Sunday School.

Who was the last President whose campaign was financed entirely by himself and his family and those who believed what he believed?

Geez. Am I the only one who caught the ironic gleam in JR's eye when he invited us to a "tea party"? Oh puh-leez! Raucous and rollicking, that's more his style, for bad girls and boys. (If you aren't one yet, you will be by the end.) No philosophy allowed, and if you lot have to talk books, off to his library with you. Tony B) Tony, I am guessing that you are not a wedding freak like me but I know you appreciate a decent teatime. Certain of my correspondents of the Royal Wedding Fanwomen network live in SA and are hosting open house showings with cucumber sandwiches, canapes, scones and cream cakes, tea and Pimm;s Cup, and a selection of iced cakes, and if you want to attend I can properly introduce you . Or improperly if that's your pleasure. Sense of Lively, Caroline Elizabeth

Oh wow, I did not know what Brant looked like, I am becoming less Respectable by the minute,

Carol, first, I didn't think your comment was "too flippant." I was amused by it. I was just explaining that there was a thrill of anticipation. I'm confused about your background with Objectivists. Please forgive if I'm intruding on painful territory, but I had the impression you were married to an Objectivist. Is the impression wrong? Of course it isn't.. but I have only been married once, to a definite non-Objectivist. But yes, a lovely guy I met when I was 18 and there is nothing painful at all, except the alternate history pain if we had ever got married!

isn't this the Practice thread ? Double post, Zod forgive me!

That "thrilling regular arrival" was later. I learned of the existence of Objectivism proper, NBI, and the newsletter in spring '63 through an odd occurrence. I'd re-read and studied Atlas, but I was saving The Fountainhead for a relatively free stretch of time. The copy of the book I started reading was a bookclub edition my mother had had on a shelf for years. I was about 2/3 finished with it when I came upon a signature which had been duplicated, leaving out the correct portion of the book. This was in the middle of the night and I had to wait till stores opened to go buy another copy of the book. The copy I bought had a postcard insert... Yes, they did the inserts in those days, too. I subscribed to the newsletter and bought all the back copies to date. The regular arrival of the newsletter, and then The Objectivist thereafter, WAS thrilling. It might be hard for people who weren't reading the stuff as it appeared to imagine the anticipation with which the story-in-progress was awaited. Now we can pore over all of it as a total record, scrutinizing each scrap of wording from multiple microscopic angles. Then, who knew what she was going to say next? I always did have objections to some of it, often especially to things in NB's articles. Still, for a number of years, I did eagerly await each new issue. Ellen Ellen, my comment was too flippant but that is usually my way. I know that the thrill was real. My friends felt it, and I was certainly interested to read "what will she say next" - I was always the last to get the handed-around single copy, the group was frugal. I only actually read a few Newsletters in 1968 and then the strange announcement and the mysterious name of Peikoff. Nobody in Toronto had the faintest clue of what had happened, or if they did they did not tell anybody. I never did know until I reconnected with my Objectivist friend about three years ago and read The Passion of Ayn Rand. What an installment that turned out to be. As is obvious I was never an Objectivist, as I have mentioned before, I lack the Eureka receptor. My experience was I think opposite to yours; I infer that you discovered Rand by reading her and found Objectivists through pursuing your interest. I was introduced to the philosophy by dear friends, and basically a fellow-traveller. I read, I reasoned, but it never felt like a "fit" with me and nothing resonated with what I had previously felt and thought, or subsequently did. But the interest, indeed the fascination, with the story of Rand and her movement,is obviously enduring. It's so great to discuss them with people "who were there."And still are!

BOW UPDATE The huge buzz created by the backlash against the non-ARIAN abomination of Atlas Shrugged, Part one, has resulted in the creation of the Individualist Estheticians for Part Two,a group of more than 200 specialists whose aim is to craft the movie Ayn Rand would have reallywanted. INEPT is comprised of prominent Rand scholars, , film professionals and experts who have read the novel at least twelve times, in addition to having read no other novels, and watching a lot of movies. The first meeting was held in Orange County, California, and we are happy to report that there have been 68 survivors, all but two of whom are expected to make a full recovery.

Johnny, welcome to OL. It's great to see a young man who is married join us (I have a 26 year old son who is still single) - I would like to see the pendulum swing back to younger marriages and more grandchildren for unselfish types like me. At some point Selene (Adam) will say hi and ask you if you are a slave of the State. This might seem alarming but it is the way he welcomes everybody,he has a heart of gold really. Seriously, this site has the best variety of good minds and good fun on the Objectivish net, so it seems to me. I am still newish myself. Come in and set a spell.

Dinosaurs. Confession: until 3 years ago I avoided owning a computer. My cell phone is for phoning only - and texting, unlike Brontosaurus Brant. I was the last photographer I know to switch to digital. And I was very proud when I figured out the quote function all by myself. T.Rex The Brontosaurus never existed except as a collection of bones in, I think, the Yale Peabody museum. --Brant got my first computer in 1984 and have been "on-line" for nearly 25 years I got my second son in 1984 and have been oncall ever since. I never learned to operate him properly. As soon as I mastered one technique he made it obsolete. As a nod to the thread theme, he learned to swagger all by himself. Carol Museum Piece

Beautifully evocative, Ellen. But I am shocked -shocked!- that your most exciting memories are not of the thrilling regular arrival of the Objectivist Newsletter. The bold arrogant blue, the stark uncompromising white, the sternly serene boneheadedness of some of the stuff inside it.... "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive..."

Betty Crocker Peikoff should know about cake if anyone does. He had his Atlas Shrugged movie rights cake, he ate it in the form of the $1m Aglialoro paid him for them, and now he's looking for a second helping of book sales on the back of the movie he disdains.

uh-oh, looks like we'll have to try and keep the lodge brothers in the kitchen. It's definitely better to keep them there, I agree, Carol. Just imagine the torture of having to rub off red wine spills from a light colored velvet carpet! Kitchen floors are less of a problem. You just mop up the stuff. I even like working in others' kitchens at parties and have never found out why this voluntary burst of activity does not happen in my own kitchen ... ;) Ah, the Schuhplattlers in their Lederhosen! They can get quite loud, so I'm not sure whether JR would be amused. ;) Wunderbar! You know that is a lot like the Fraternal Stepdance that is part of the Rite at the Igloo. We do it more to keep ourselves warm than anything else. How about a multicultural folk dance performance at the party?

Brant, my state of technology is exactly the same as yours - except that this is the peak of my lifetime expertise, as I have always been the last to grudgingly learn the durn stuff even when young. I can go you one better because I don't have a cell phone and can't be reached anywhere and everywhere. I'm probably the last free woman in Canada. Carol Quill pen in hand

Shhh Michael! Cripes, now we'll have to find a backup to jump out of the cake.

Geez. Am I the only one who caught the ironic gleam in JR's eye when he invited us to a "tea party"? Oh puh-leez! Raucous and rollicking, that's more his style, for bad girls and boys. (If you aren't one yet, you will be by the end.) No philosophy allowed, and if you lot have to talk books, off to his library with you. Tony B) Actually, my preference is for an intellectual but spirited atmosphere, Bohemian basically, with much talk of philosophy, history, politics, and the arts. Classical music or jazz should be on in the background and there should be lots of dark beer and both red and white wine and plenty of foodstuffs - no watercress or cucumber sandwiches, but pretty much standard party stuff: veggies and dip, chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, fruit, shrimp with cocktail sauce, that sort of thing. Raucous and rollicking makes me nervous; it makes me think something is going to get knocked over and broken or that one of my books is going to have somebody's cabernet or somebody's schwarzbier spilled on it. JR uh-oh, looks like we'll have to try and keep the lodge brothers in the kitchen.

Tony, You mean after you have sipped some herbal tea and eaten some of the dainty watercress sandwiches with the crusts cut off (maybe JR can also get you some with cucumber because you like them so much), you will then proceed to the beer room - wherever that is; Brant said something about it being the kitchen; interesting, isn't it, that people often like to gather in the kitchen at parties, this probably has to do with agreeable feelings (dating back to our stone-age ancestors) connected to a hearth where one is being fed - to taste the "real thing", the golden barley juice ("Gerstensaft") as we sometimes call beer in colloquial German. Okay, I'll bring some Munich beer (all brands are excellent really) and Weißwurst (white sausage) for you then. I see you already have mastered the basic Munich phrase. ;) (Often also written in cruder Bavarian phonetic transcription as "Oans, zwoa, g'suffa"). Free translation: "One, two, swig it!" When there is a live brass band playing, the lead singer shouts these words to the guests at regular intervals and they then all raise their tankards, clink them and "swig it". Tochter aus Eilysium! Can we have the Bavarians in shorts who slap themselves silly too? I love the tuba.

Weeks: where do they come from, where do they go, lurking and striking, they ceaselessly flow.....Hunh? No, we weren't asleep...just resting our eyes from OBJECTIVEST AS FILM REVIEW The award goes to Noodlefood: "It was garbage...it gets an F.. "I could have written a far better script and formatted a far superior film. There are dozens of Objectivist writers out there who could have done the same." Why was it so bad? "Because Aglialoro is a Kelleyite fool." Objectivism Online comes up strong this week with two winners: I AM NOT NOW NOR HAVE I EVER BEEN A COLLECTIVIST AWARD "[Collectivists] seem nice enough on first contact but underneath the surface is a cauldron of incandescent rage ..hope this thread is relevant and in the correct section" BENEVOLENT UNIVERSE AWARD Incandescent Rage division "My grandmother sent me this [Rand=bashing email]and if she gave it to me in person I would of (sic)slapped her face. This is a good example of why I HATE the great majority of humanity." When contacted to comment on her grandson's honour, Grandma shared, "I'm changing my will." HOTTEST NEW FASHION TREND Civility Rings, Objectivist Living. Exquisitely designed by the House of Riggenhandel, these prized accessories are surpassing gold dollar-sign eyebrow piercings as the must-have Spring bling for the brandian Randian!

Wicked, wicked good stuff. In my top thirty-five. I was looking at the world's top best-selling books list at Wikipedia today, and was sobered to realize that Eco hit 50 million with Il Nome della Rosa and Rand did not rank at all. You mean there isn't an Umberto Eco Society and nobody has to read him in high school?

Got my voting card today. "you're in safe hands with..." Everybody's message. We'll carry on carrying on, agreeably argumentative, belligerently baffled, demographically defensive, seraphically smug.

Contessa perdona, but that's Count Almaviva talking there. You're not dying to know where the other two names come from? They're each doctors, from L'elisir d'amore and Don Pasquale, respectively. Dulcamara's not really a doctor of course, but Nemorino thinks he is.. Yes I was dying to. I don't know Don Pasquale at all and l'Elisir only from una furtiva lagrima (which I think Flores does better than Pavarotti). Here's one for you since you also know VF, my Victorian jewel: it is often said that two heroes emerge in this novel without a hero, do you agree? Who are they? Myself I think there are more than 2.

What, exactly, is this earnest effort to prove a negative supposed to achieve? That Obama, for good or ill, was born, to an American mother and from all hithero-produced evidence, in the United States, is incontestable. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, in the mind of any doubter, is Donald Rumsfeld territory, he has still not denied his extraterrestrial cannibalistic origin.

One big difference. There would not be a Fatwah declared on a Christian by Christians. Ba'al Chatzaf There’s never been a Christian abortion doctor murdered by a Christian protester? I honestly don’t know, but I bet there has. This might be a good place for Xray to weigh in (perish the thought!). I’ve spent some good vacation time in Germany but she lives there. I particularly remember being in Cologne when Turkey won a major soccer game, and it was pandemonium on the streets all night long. There’s a lot of Turks there and best I know they’re well assimilated, law abiding, and there aren’t major problems. Their restaurants are the best places to get fast food, that's really the only interaction I had with them. Did you (or Angela) read John Le Carre's latest novel which is set in the Turkish community in Germany? I can't remember the name.His absolute sense of place with Berlin, at least, has always impressed me in his books. And his agony over ethics.

Actually I did, but the reference didn't click. To tell the truth I didn't make the connection with Bartleby the Scrivener until PDS made the "prefer not to" reference. If you hadn’t included Casaubon, who is the narrator of Foucault’s Pendulum, I’d have blown right past your little exercise in cleverness. Dulcamara Bartolo di Malatesta. Ma mi chiamano Il Dottore. Piace e gioia, gioia e pace! I haven'I haven't read Foucault's Pendulum even - I did read the Name of the Rose. Love Sean Connery but thought he was miscast in the movie. {MSK, to be clear and precise, as Leonard Cohen would say, kindly rescue the flowers of this thread from the garbage. PDS, suitably dressed, will second this I am sure.}

I feel like y’all are going overboard on Francisco. I thought the actor was ok, he just didn’t have much to do. He may yet prove himself in the later installments. The actor might have been ok. (I should have said the "portrayal" of Francisco, rather than the "casting.") He might have been able to do it if the directing had been good. It's the directing and the "look" (scruffy and facial-haired) which I object to. I sure hope so. Good quip. I didn't see it. Ellen If you ever do see it I would love to know your reaction. It was actually one of 3 s. set in modern NY - The Marriage of Figaro in the Trump Tower, Cosi fan Tutti in Little Italy, and Don G in Harlem. Giovanni and Leporello were played by twins as gang leader and lieutenant. I know how it sounds. Before I saw it I disdained "modern productions" and knew I could never fully enjoy my favourite opera except in its original context. Afterward I knew that art is timeless and the artists who re-conceive and re-present them know a whole lot more than I do. I could hear Mozart applauding with me.