no thanks - I'm sticking with Newman's Own here.

Although I hear the market for the new Ann Coulter baseball-bat shaped suppositories is brisk as well.

If people wanted me to wear clothes, they'd sew them.

They...sent models marching down a zigzagged runway to emphasize their unwillingness to be swayed.

Errr....we show we're not swayed by walking in a swaying pattern? OK, whatever. I know if there's one thing that makes me admire the total independence and self-direction of the empowered individual, it's a bunch of teenage-ish models prancing around in a high-priced fashion show with an ill-understood conceit.

Ayn Rand has to be very, very high on the list of authors that the most people act like they've read, but haven't really read.

I loved that part in the Fountainhead when the architect was all, "They're coming in too fast!" and his wise senior partner with an edge was all, "Don't get cocky, kid!"

Ayn Rand writes great adventure stories.

I've read "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged". Fashion isn't something I thought of after reading them. But, then again, I don't have much interest in fashion.

Since the commentary really isn't about the subject, I'll add that getting your philosophy from a novel isn't really a great tactic. I mean, L. Ron Hubbard for example. Or, I think most of the hippie generation that idolized "On The Road" missed much of the point.

getting your philosophy from a novel isn't really a great tactic.

Completely agreed. Did you ever see that AskMe thread about 'books people are an asshole about?'

I loved that part in the Fountainhead when the architect was all, "They're coming in too fast!" and his wise senior partner with an edge was all, "Don't get cocky, kid!"

Dominique jumped into the sky blue roadster her successful lawyer father, Carson Drew, had bought her for her sixteenth birthday. "Don't worry, Hannah!" she called to the good-natured old housekeeper who had raised her like a mother. "I'm just going to pick up George and Bess, and check on that clue about the monument we got from that strange Howard Roark fellow!"

I keep thinking that I should read her books just so that I can argue with my randoid friends but I just don't have the guts to slog through them. Is there like a classic comics version of Atlas Shrugged that I can read?

Here's the first page of a comic biography of Ayn Rand. Some parodies are listed in this MeFi thread, but unfortunately Three Easy Steps to Objectivism has been taken down.

Here's 'Three Easy Steps'.

Miko, I never saw that thread. Interesting. Funny because some of the books mentioned there I picked up and read without realizing there was some kind of cult following for them, like "Confederacy of Dunces", which I liked. I also liked "On the Road", and I read it fully knowing it's history and status, I just took a different message from it than others did I guess. And, honestly, I did like the Ayn Rand books I read, though they certainly got sloggish for parts of them. If they were edited to remove, or at least work out the belabored preachy parts, I think they'd be pretty entertaining novels for the masses. I never got into the whole objectivism thing though.

I guess context is really important when evaluating books.

I keep thinking that I should read her books just so that I can argue with my randoid friends...

I forced myself to finish Atlas Shrugged with this in mind. I'll never do that bullshit again.

I was hoping this was going to be something I could put on salad.

ikkyu2 - the Worcestershire thread is next door.

I've also thought that I should read her books so I know what the big fuss is. The best I can figure is objectivism is "live for myself, only my happiness counts and fuck everyone else" and that subjectivism doesn't exist - what's is is and my perception doesn't enter into it. Amirite?

The closest to Rand I've been willing to get is to read Two Girls Fat and Thin

I seriously thought there was going to be a recipe for salad dressing involved.

Now that people mention it, this would have been much better had it been about salad dressing.

Okay you jokers.

Facets of Ayn Rand: Whenever Eloise prepared dinner, there was never a salad at Ayn’s place. She once referred to salads as “grass”—which I’ve since learned is a Russian way of viewing salad.

Letters of Ayn Rand...give us a new, improved Ayn Rand....A dinner guest received a note that sounds like Mrs. Clinton in campaign mode: "Here are the recipes for the Beef Stroganoff and the salad dressing."

Here's a red wine salad dressing made by an Objectivist blogger, who says "Since I am going back to a primal diet, I decided to start making my own salad dressing for salads so I can be in control and aware of exactly what I'm eating."

I still want to do a cabaret act where I just read passages from the Romantic Manifesto until someone drags me off stage.

Ayn Rand fashion? Wouldn't everyone just look like Rachel from Blade Runner?