caroljane

Daunce I assure you I'm doing this for purely altruistic reasons, I swear on my mislaid copy of The Virtue of Selfishness! ;) Now that gave me quite a shock, Daunce! I just ran to the mirror because Leonard Zelig came to mind, remember that guy Woody Allen played in his film where Zelig morphs, chameoleon-like, into resembling the people he happens to be with? Could I have started to look like Dennis Harden, or George Smith or Ayn Rand (I've intensely studied many photos of her in the past two years, and some Zelig-like effect might have occurred, by mysterious osmosis!)? I can't see any signs yet, so everything still seems to be okay. I just realized though when looking in the mirror that it's time to 'fake reality' a little and color my hair again (I always tend to put that off too long). We can't just go by looks, though. In real life I already looked like Ludwig von Mises, so it's the "Stockholm Syndrome"psychological effects we have to watch out for. Just yesterday I paid my subway fare even though the collector was fast asleep, and when a panhandler asked if I could help him out, I said no without even apologizing for not having any money. Just a hint: when you retouch your hair, don't go redhead.We do not want to drive Adam over the edge.

Shayne, You think his core interest is civility? I don't. I think you identified it correctly above. Scolding people in all contexts over civility is the most effective means I know of to piss off the maximum number of people in the smallest amount of time, in other words, to "keep coming back to the same subject: Phil." And, yes, I think he knows this and does it on purpose. I wish I had been around when he was growing up. I would have given him some hugs. Now there is this craving for attention we all have to deal with. Michael I don't mind giving Phil some attention till his cheque clears. I think he is really trying. I even sent him my magic maple leaf thinking socks, and after the usual evasions and rationalizations that they didn't fit, were too heavy for 100 degree weather, symbolized socialism etc., he agreed to don them and presto, he was pledging his commitment to civility and reaching out his hand to former foes. I would not have parted from those socks except in such an extreme case as this so I expect to see further benevolent results. If he backslides we will know he is taking them off in the shower.

It isn't "C.E. Nun Malady" either. Since your tries were quite improper and funny I will give you a hint. It is three words of which the last two are names. The first word is another part of speech and it is a dialect word, not standard English. It's a tribute to a favourite underappreciated author of mine. And no, it is not "Lame Ayn Educ." or anything with Ayn.

Hi Carol, Sorry for the slow response. I've been looking at art by the Group of Seven now and then since you asked, and I've got to say that I've been oddly conflicted about their work. Like you, I get an "all's-right-with-the-world feeling" from much of it, but there's something about the artists' painting technique which really seems to clash with that feeling, and I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it's something about the posterized style that seems out place for the subject matter. The style is similar in many respects to that of Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, but there's also something different about it. Maybe I'm seeing it as being more similar in style/technique to Pop art and therefore as clashing with the homespun or great outdoors content. J "Daunce Lynam" = Mundane Clay? Layman Dunce? Cane Man Duly? Lunacy And Me? My Nude Canal? Calm Any Nude? Deny Anal Cum? Lay Maced Nun? 1. Art - Ta, J. 2. Guesses- Nah, no.

"Capitalist Swine" is a woman. At least she looks like..." I just had another look at the Swine and he looks like a man to me, and it says male on his profile. There must be two of them with the same cutting-edge sense of humour. Maybe they have to be paired over there, like nuns on an outing or detectives grilling the suspect.

Michael has just mentioned on another thread that OL is growing, without promotion and without the automatic feeds that the ARI sites get. Besides being a point of affirmation for Michael and Kat, this brings up some thoughts relevant to our discussion on gender imbalance here. The proportion of male to female regular posters is easy to discern: heavily male. What about the silent majority - members who join out of interest and never post but presumably read the forum? Are there are many more silent men than silent women, as there are in the posts? Remember Jenna who apparently joined only to complain about an old post on Albert Ellis, got it off her chest, and was never heard from again? Does this sort of thing happen regularly enough to be factored in as essential non-membership? Has the male/female ratio remained constant throughout the life of the forum? How does it compare with other forums? ( I know properly it is fora but it feels weird to write) I am not asking for a breakdown of board statistics and realize that this is a kind of internet marketing question-but a guess at the answers would be good fodder for a guess at the motivations of the audience.

A room? Well there's the parlour of course... and rooms are always going vacant here in the Home, poor Grandpa McAloon isn't looking too well...I'd have to ask Matron. Xray, we are supposed to be in this together. Now you are trying to palm me off on George and hog Plutocratus Anonymous all to yourself. Are they turning you into an Objectivist or something? All aflutter, Carol

I think everybody misspends their youth in some way or other. "and let the day be time enough to mourn the shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth" -Samuel Daniel, 1562-1619

The point being you don't even realize you yourself are a slave driving parasite? A grey life-form with tentacles should not be so quick to cry parasite!

Yes, I agree with Xray on the other thread that "our" Phil is far, far preferable to Dr Hambone or Dr No-Bone. PS Thanks for the cheque, Phil.

It was a historic night in Toronto; the long-awaited debut of rookie Andy Lynam, who scored his first goal as a TTCloc13 centre at 14.22 of the first period, sliding the puck past the aging kneepad of LeafsVets goalie Mark Balzia. "It was a great feeling," said a jubilant Lynam. "I always played left wing before, but Sal and Lou have seniority on me.I coulda scored more goals but we weren't supposed to take slapshots." The union stalwarts lost the game by the narrow margin of 12-9(4 of the Leafs' goals were slapshots by Claude Lemieux, they don't play fair). Lynam's mother also copped two free Local 113 T-shirts bearing the proud logo, "We move the world"*. You can keep your silly old motor, Johnny Galt. Elsewhere in the city, those newer Leafs managed to beat Boston, with hometown rookie Nazem Kadri getting his first NHL goal. All in all,for tonight in the Great White North, Gord's in his heaven and all's right with the world. *Actually it just says "We Move Toronto." Same difference.

C'mon, you know you want Phil to stay, whatever his reasons. It would not be the same without him. When I was lurking before I joined, half the conversations were about this mysterious Phil who was not even here, and obviously his return was longed for. MEM, there are other Oish sites,but this is the most interesting one. I personally could never bring myself to join a site to be moderated by someone who calls himself Capitalist Swine, however cute he thinks that is. I also don't think many participate in the forum just out of loneliness. I am not lonely and I'm on here all the time.

No female affinity for Dagny? No desire to emulate her? I'm not sure I understand what's wrong with being a producer, a first-hander and wanting to worship your husband. Or are you agreeing with X-ray that Rand's message about the essence of being a female heroine was contradicted by Dagny's submissive sexual cravings? I genuinely believe that the problem with a lot of women is that they have never been "kissed properly" (so to speak). . . Dennis, You genuinely believe wrong. As I recall Dagny herself was not "kissed properly" for years at a time.

I didn't know he was "kind." Head on a "steak'? "Consecrate the marriage"? Should I reread this more slowly? --Brant Consecrate is a very apt word here, and kind Arthur is a great typo. Sometimes we're wittier in our mistakes than in our intentions. Michael, that is brilliant. You should put it in Creative Writing now and pin it. Here's another year-to-find-the-answer story in case anyone hasn't heard it: An evil depraved king was judging a batch of criminals, whimsically as was his wont. He hanged some, he burned some, he enslaved some. Getting bored, he contemplated a wretched thief who had stolen bread to feed his family. "Ah, a thief. Why are my subjects so miserable and stupid? None of you is worth a hair on the hide of my noble horse Incitatus. He is beautiful and he is intelligent. If only he could talk, he would be my closest advisor. I know! Thief, I will give you a choice. You can die now, mercifully by the rope or sword. Or you can live for a year, which you will spend in the stable, trying to teach my noble horse Incitatus to talk. If at the end of that year Incitatus is not talking, you will die slowly from the most dreadful tortures I can spend the year thinking up. But if you teach him to talk, you shall marry my daughter and inherit my kingdom. I'll kill off my other children, just for you." The thief did not hesitate. "Lead me to the stable", he cried. "Does Incitatus like lullabies?" "You fool", grumbled the guard as he dragged the thief toward the royal stables. "We'll be lumbered with a year of room service at the damn stable. What kind of idiot would spend a year with nobody but a horse to talk to and nothing to think about but the slowest most painful death in our history?" "You are the fool," said the thief. "Think about it. In a year anything might happen. The king might die, or be overthrown. I might die, or be rescued. The horse might die. "Or the horse might talk." PS Incitatus was a real horse of Emperor Caligula's, who made him a Roman Senator. According to Graves, when the soldiers were debating who to make emperor after Caligula's assassination, there was a strong minority in favour of Incitatus.

Please, Mr. Smith, such unaccustomed flattery is not good for my Condition. I have turned an unbecoming shade of mauve and am rocking furiously in my chair. What are you wearing? B) Ghs As you could already see if you were not wearing sunglasses indoors, I am wearing my widow's cap with lappets and sober matriarchal gown as befits a Mother of Geniuses.

[quote name='Aristocrates' timestamp='1300512512' post='} There's another expirement you might like to try.. Expirement is the word all right.

Occasionally I troll OO.net, where this quote will get you nailed for not being roidian enough. Ah, my son, you have repeated your sin since your last confession. That's fifty Hail Dagnys this time.

The ten worst things you can say to someone in grief? I don't think so. I quickly came up with five things that are much worse: Beautiful funeral. Who's the dead guy in the casket? I'm sure you will miss your wife tremendously. I know I will. Did your husband ever get that promotion before he died? I'm sure your father had a good reason for killing himself. I can think of several. I was devastated when I heard about your husband's untimely death. Do you plan to start dating soon? Ghs "The choir will now sing "Amazing Grace" followed by a personal favourite of the deceased, "My Way". (This next actually happened) On the road to the cemetery; Pickup truck driver: "Where you all goin'?" Pallbearer: "we're going to bury Betty Stuart" PUD: "I got a shovel in the back". You are winning my heart, slowly but surely, you...you...socialist...you. Please, Mr. Smith, such unaccustomed flattery is not good for my Condition. I have turned an unbecoming shade of mauve and am rocking furiously in my chair.

The ten worst things you can say to someone in grief? I don't think so. I quickly came up with five things that are much worse: Beautiful funeral. Who's the dead guy in the casket? I'm sure you will miss your wife tremendously. I know I will. Did your husband ever get that promotion before he died? I'm sure your father had a good reason for killing himself. I can think of several. I was devastated when I heard about your husband's untimely death. Do you plan to start dating soon? Ghs "The choir will now sing "Amazing Grace" followed by a personal favourite of the deceased, "My Way". (This next actually happened) On the road to the cemetery; Pickup truck driver: "Where you all goin'?" Pallbearer: "we're going to bury Betty Stuart" PUD: "I got a shovel in the back".

Well OK, I'll further confess to hating jazz and thinking mean, sarcastic things about it.

George and Dennis' More unsolicited Housman for you I'm afraid. In my case AElchohlism is not recoverable from. "Therefore, still the world has still Much good, but much less good than ill, And while the sun and moon endure, Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure, I'll take it as a wise man would And train for ill and not for good. ..... It should do good to heart and head When your soul is in my soul's stead And I will friend you, if I may In the dark and cloudy day." I can actually recite the whole poem. There's no getting over it, I tell you.

XRay, I agree with all of your excellent post and especially with this last part. However impersonal the discussions, personalities always emerge vividly. That is part of the fascination of internet forums. "Like all geniuses, he had no sense of humour". Thornton Wilder made this remark about one of his characters in The Eighth Day, which was about a family of geniuses. His point was that humour serves no purpose in the higher workings of the advanced mind towards an intellectual goal. Of course we know that real geniuses are often so funny that they could do standup. But as is well-known, Rand's sense of humour was so minimal that she felt it was an area she needed to develop, so she worked at it. I think that is one of the saddest things I ever read about her. For the rest of us, there are people with no sense of humour, but few of them are so self-aware as to admit or even believe it.

Carol--I am puzzled that you would say the message in a novel like Atlas Shrugged clashed with the rise of feminism. You would think that a strong female character like Dagny Taggart would be idolized by feminists, even while the liberal elite despised Rand's pro-capitalist theme. At least Dr. Phil has made a positive contribution to our contemporary culture. Look at all the great material he has provided for Frank Caliendo. (I wonder if Caliendo can do Peikoff?) That is so funny! I never heard of Caliendo before, I will watch out for him. His take on Peikoff would be a joy. Though Stephen Colbert would be a better physical match - has he ever had a go at Pope L? Yes, on the surface Dagny is a strong role model, and not unrealistic - there have always been real-life Dagnys "doing a man's job" and doing it better than, or equally as well as a man. Elizabeth I comes to mind. The clash is that her singularity, combined with the AS message, gives the female reader an either-or choice: be a producer, a first-hander, or be a Cheryl, longing to worship the first-hander in the form of a husband. Otherwise you're a looter or moocher. That was the impression I took away from reading AS. I admired Dagny and Cheryl - you have to - but I felt no female affinity with them and no desire to emulate them.

Aristo: Way to go. We'll all try to keep your guilt as pleasurable as possible. Rich: I said No porn please!! I predict you will soon again be hosting the self-invited in enthusiastic numbers. Seriously, have a great gig. Dennis: kekeke. No, after admitting to Judge Judy and tiara-itis, self-respect dictates that I hide even more unsightly predilections from the public eye. They're under my chair.

Beautiful and sobering, all at once, Carol. That is a great poem. After this and the indeed remarkable passage of H.T.Buckle, I have something very prosaic: Men at fifty Learn to close softly The doors of rooms They won't be going back to. Not a great one, but it stuck with me. (And one can make it fit any decade that suits one. ) I don't remember the author. Tony Ah, Tony. Haven't you heard that fifty is the new forty ?(decade-adjustable). And then there's there's April Inventory: "Though trees turn bare and girls turn wives We shall afford our costly seasons There is a gentleness survives That shall outspeak and has its reasons There is a loveliness exists. Preserves us, not for specialists." -WD Snodgrass