Apologies in profusion to Shel Silverstein, wherever you are
Tip of the old scrub brush to New APPS: Art, Politics, Philosophy, Science. That site attributes the quote to John Rogers, via Andrew Sullivan. It may be so.
Shorter Ayn Rand
May 14, 2011
6 Comments | 
Humor, Politics | Tagged: Ayn Rand, Humor, Objectivism, Objectivist Tree, Politics, Shel Silverstein | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Quote of the moment, on shaping lives: Lord of the Rings or Atlas Shrugged
May 13, 2011Good donkey quote of the day candidate:
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
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
hobbitsorcs.
Attributed to John Rogers, whoever that is. (Got a better source? Let us know in comments.)
Tip of the old scrub brush to Kent commenting at PennLive.com.
Lord of the Rings trilogy, by J. R. R. Tolkien
34 Comments | Albert Einstein, Books, Literature, Politics, Quotes | Tagged: Ayn Rand, Books, J. R. R. Tolkien, Literature, Politics, Quotes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Typewriter of the moment: Ayn Rand
July 15, 2010
Ayn Rand at her typewriter
Ayn Rand at her typewriter, in an undated photo (do you know the date?).
Contrary to a popular myth, Rand did not take her name from the typewriter. From the website of the Ayn Rand Institute:
What is the origin of “Rand”?
[From ARI’s monthly newsletter Impact, 06/2000]
“Ayn Rand, born Alisa Rosenbaum, based her professional first name on a Finnish one [see above]. The source of her last name, however, has been a mystery.“Although its origin is still uncertain, recent biographical research by Drs. Allan Gotthelf and Michael Berliner has eliminated one possible source. An oft-repeated story claims that Ayn Rand took her last name from her Remington Rand typewriter while she was living in Chicago in 1926. This is false and we would like to put the error to rest.
“While still in Russia, c. 1925, and long before Remington-Rand typewriters were produced, Alisa Rosenbaum had adopted the name ‘Rand.’ Letters written in 1926 from Ayn Rand’s family in Russia already refer to the name ‘Rand.’ These were sent from Russia before Ayn Rand had communicated from America. The Remington and Rand companies did not merge until 1927; ‘Rand’ did not appear on their (or any) typewriters until the early 1930s.
“One lead to the actual source of the name comes from Ayn Rand herself. In 1936, she told the New York Evening Post that ‘Rand is an abbreviation of my Russian surname.’ Originally, we thought that this was a red herring in order to protect her family from the Soviet authorities.
“In 1997 Dr. Berliner noted an interesting coincidence when looking at a copy of Miss Rand’s 1924 university diploma. On the diploma was the name Rosenbaum in the Cyrillic alphabet:
The last three letters clearly look like the Roman letters ‘ayn.’ Richard Ralston then noticed that by covering those letters—and dropping out the second and fourth letters—what remains bears a strong resemblance to the Roman letters ‘Rand.’
“Although far from certain, it appears that the quote in the New York Evening Post may not have been a decoy.”
Her most often used typewriter was a Remington, I’ve read (but can’t find a reference now that I need it). So far as I have found, however, typewriters were always manufactured under the “Remington” marque, and never as “Remington-Rand.” Contrary to the implications from the ARI, Remington typewriters were produced from Reconstruction times (circa 1870), originally by the Remington Arms company. Typewriter manufacturing was spun off from the arms producer in 1886; that company merged with Rand, forming Remington-Rand in 1927.
Leave a Comment » | Books, History, Literature, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Ayn Rand, Books, History, Literature, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Odd connections: Franklin, Rand, and a great kid
January 17, 2007
Ben Franklin on the cover of Time
Ben Franklin’s birthday is January 17. He was born in 1706.
The drama department at Pleasant Grove (Utah) High School put on Ayn Rand’s play, “The Night of January 16th” when I was an underclassman there. It’s an interesting play — a murder mystery played out in a courtroom, with a jury drawn from the evening’s audience. The play’s ending differs almost every night, with a different jury coming to slightly different conclusions. Suggested posters for the play asked, “Where were you the night of January 16th?”
Ayn Rand
Years later that question came back to me as I rushed my wife to the maternity room at Charlton Methodist Hospital with contractions coming in quick succession, with a few minutes left in January 16th. The question made a good mnemonic to remember the date of the birth of our second child. Only later did I recall that the day is also Ben Franklin’s birthday — Ben being an object of some study and significant space on my personal library shelf. Read the rest of this entry »
7 Comments | Ben Franklin, Family, History, Personal | Tagged: Ayn Rand, Ben Franklin, Family, History, James Darrell, Personal, Tooth of Time | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 