There will be no Ms. Rand, either



Dick Cavett on Ayn Rand:
CAVETT: … You can piss away valuable hours of your life reading Ayn Rand—her wretched appeal to the young, her wretched writing, her wretched person.

She was supposed to be on my show; I was kind of sorry she wasn't, because I was kind of laying for her. I did not succumb, as a kid, to being enthused by Ayn Rand, and that sense of power, as every kid was at one time until they outgrew it. The old bag sent over a list of fifteen conditions for appearing with me, or for appearing with anyone, I guess. One of them was, 'There will be no disagreeing with Ms. Rand's philosophy.'

GREEN: You're kidding.

CAVETT: No! I wrote at the bottom of the list, to be sent back to her, 'There will be no Ms. Rand, either.'"


Dam


Dam
by Robert Rauschenberg
1959

Oil paint, photomechanical reproductions, cloth, and metal on canvas.

© Estate of Robert Rauschenberg/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
From the Hirshhorn’s collection

Childish fantasy



"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." — [Kung Fu Monkey — Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009] ― John Rogers