Saw a girl reading Atlas Shrugged in a restaurant.

[dawg]

She was sitting alone with a big hardback copy, holding it up to eye-level for everyone to see. Normally, I would lay a book that large on the table to read it. I thing she was "showing it off". I wanted to go drop two dollars on her table so she could go somewhere and buy a clue.

[Swede]

1. _

:shrug:

[Deep13]

28. Exactly what I was thinking. nt

[HughBeaumont]

2. "Atlas Shat"

[keroro gunsou]

19. "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."

[Haole Girl]

3. There may be another explanation

I have to hold books, up at eye level, when my neck hurts.

She might have felt a lttle conspicuous dinning alone? I know I used to...before my "I don't give a shit about society" phase I'm going through.

It's not really a good idea to make assumptions about people. And, just what kind of assumption do you think she might have made about you if you'd thrown money at her?

[Aristus]

7. I hear you, HG. I hate the fact that there's some kind of societal stigma attached to dining alone.

Sometimes, if it's just me and I want a nice meal out, I don't like being conspicuous for sitting at a table alone.

OTOH, I always bring a book with me. If people think "Oh, he's studying; how diligent", I feel a little better.

That's assuming people even care, but what the hey... B-)

:hi: HG!

[Haole Girl]

8. I realized, in Florida, when I went to a breakfast buffet the last day...

all by myself... I really don't care anymore. And I like that. Because there is no reason a woman alone (or man, alone) shouldn't enjoy a good meal, just because they don't have anyone to join them.

And, you know what? I don't think most people care... and that is a realization I'm glad I have.

:hi:

[RagAss]

29. I love the bar myself...but that's just me.

[dawg]

9. I hadn't thought of that...

And of course, I would never have really said anything mean to her. Dining alone can be difficult, and I am going to have to learn to deal with that myself soon.

But this girl looked like the spoiled sorority girl type to me. I still think she was showing off her "Ayn Randism", to the rest of us parasites in the place.

Of course you are correct, though. You really should never judge by outside appearances.

[retread]

26. My assumption would not be based on where she held the book. n/t

[Orsino]

4. Make it more than two bucks, and wait a little while.

'Cause something tells me she's not a big tipper.

[Orrex]

5. Tell her that John Galt is secretly dead the whole time, a la Bruce Willis

[soleft]

11. DId you just spoil this book for me?

Damn you!

[Orrex]

13. No, Ayn Rand spoiled it for you

Spoiled it for you, spoiled it for me, spoiled it for all of us.

[soleft]

20. But all the characters on Mad Men think she's so cool!

[PVnRT]

12. John Galt is a socialist replicant fundamentalist Muslo-Christian

[Fleshdancer]

6. Atlas Shrugged was a book club selection a few months ago....

The entire club hated it so much, we ended up switching books that month at the last minute.

[Rhiannon12866]

22. I'll bet they couldn't get through to the end.

I couldn't, and I read all her books when I was 14-16 years old.

[gmoney]

10. Bodybuilding

Holding that hardback book at eye level for any length of time would develop the arm and shoulder musculature, as the content erodes the mind.

[KamaAina]

14. You could have saved your two bucks

and siad "Rrrrringggg!!! Clue phone! It's for you." :P

[unpossibles]

15. I prefer Atlanta Hope's

Telemachus Sneezed, the Randian parody found in The Illuminatus Trilogy

[Ian David]

16. She should exercise the personal responsibility to keep you from stealing it from her. n/t

[av8rdave]

17. The guy I'm flying with this trip is reading it

I asked him if he knows the premise of it yet, and he said he doesn't. I just told him to be prepared for an avalanche of stupid.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. How can someobody be old enough to be an airline pilot

and never had tried to read Ayn Rand? Most of us got over that phase by the time we were high school seniors, college sophomores at the latest. You might mention to your FO at some point that Ayn Rand's hero was the serial killer William Hickman. Though that might make the rest of your trip a little tense.
http://www.alternet.org/books/145819/ayn_rand,_hugely_popular_author_and_inspiration_to_right-wing_leaders,_was_a_big_admirer_of_serial_killers

[av8rdave]

27. I guess I have to at least give him the excuse if ignorance....

He's reading it only because Neal Boortz recommends it.

I know....unfriggin' believable!

[jobycom]

18. I've been in restaurants like that.

The server takes so long you could read Ayn Rand and Tolstoy and still wonder where your food is.

[Rhiannon12866]

21. How old was she?

I read it when I was in high school, but I never got through the several-hundred-page speech at the end... x(

[dawg]

24. She looked like a college student to me.

Maybe she'll learn better, someday.

[Rhiannon12866]

40. It's possible she was reading it for a course...

My uncle was a huge Ayn Rand advocate, and he was pleased when I read her books while I was in high school. But then I brought home "Walden II," which I had to read for a college course, and he didn't approve at all... ;)

[Ikonoklast]

23. I never read Atlas Shrugged In a Restaraunt.

I wonder if it's as laughable as that Ayn Rand screed about selfish people.

[miscsoc]

59. it's a recipe book

uh...god, i'm going to have come up with a pun here.

Prawn Galt? (as in Lobster Thermidor?) A lot of fancy recipes sound like one of Rand's ridiculous character names anyway.

[Mendocino]

30. Were you at Applebee's?

or maybe the Olive Garden.;)

[dawg]

44. No.

I was actually at a pretty good local burger joint.

(I do, however, love the Olive Garden)

[Zomby Woof]

31. I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic's

And his hair was perfect.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

32. Clues are cheaper than that where I live

:)

[jmowreader]

33. Somehow part of your story doesn't jive...

namely, the part about holding a copy of Atlas Shrugged up to eye level. You need a forklift for a book that large.

[Zomby Woof]

34. Jibe

Jibe jibe jibe.

Not 'jive'. x(

[gmoney]

35. J-J-J-Jibe Talkin'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVjITlgqlHo

[gmoney]

36. "Oh stewardess, I speak jibe."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bhTxvzrUFo

;)

[Zomby Woof]

37. LOL

Funny stuff - but jive and jibe are tow different words. I never said "jive" wasn't a word, just not the right one in the context the above poster used. :-)

[gmoney]

38. Oh, I know it... one of my pet peeve words, too.

Just thought I'd have a little fun with it...

"Out with the jive, in with the love..." -- Monty Burns

[HughBeaumont]

42. I just can't believe Barbara Billingsley is still alive.

Just turned 94 this past December. She outlived 3 husbands.

[dawg]

45. That is what made me notice.

It was a big-ass hardback copy and it looked brand new like it had just come from the bookstore.

[hunter]

39. She was waiting for a strong handsome man to happen by and take her...

... book.

"Why are you reading that crap?" he'd ask.

"I don't know, it is truly horrid," she'd answer.

Then they would fall in love and have sex and disrupt Objectivist gatherings with pie throwings, nude bicycle rides, loud music, and other random acts of joyful chaos.

[dawg]

48. You could be right ...

If it happens again, with a woman closer to my age, and many months (years) from now when I've got my crap together and could attempt such a maneuver, I may have to try that approach.

I don't know if I'll ever be ready for the sex, but I do like throwing pies.

[JCMach1]

41. Dude, you really need to quit the Olive Garden habit

[dawg]

46. In my best Jerry Seinfeld voice, "It wasn't the Olive Garden!"

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

[JCMach1]

51. Just pickin' at ya anyway...

how was she staying awake?

Atlas Shrugged= Snoozefest

[woo me with science]

43. Yeah, I saw someone holding up Howard Zinn's book in a cafe the other day.

What a turd. I almost poured my orange juice on him.

[dawg]

47. I don't know why this incident resonated with me so much.

She was young attractive woman - the kind who will have many opportunities placed before her in the upcoming years, some of which she will deserve and some of which she will not. Of course, I don't know her real situation. She could have been feeling just as depressed and broken as I was at the time, but with that damn book held up for all to see, she seemed to symbolize something else.

Sometimes, it seems like there are born winners and born losers in this life, and the losers are nicer people who don't deserve it. But the winners are smugly certain that they deserve everything that's coming to them and more. They don't realize or appreciate how lucky they are, and how much their success depends on the "collectivist" efforts of other people, many of which are among the "losers" like me.

[Crabby Appleton]

49. Maybe she has bad eyesight

and needed to hold the book close to her eyes

[Richardo]

50. ...her hair was PERFECT.

Yip!

[guitar man]

53. WIN!!

:rofl:

[Maine-ah]

52. I read some pretty thick books

sometimes I will bring them for my break at work. I can't put it down on the table to read it because it hurts my neck to read that way. My C3 is fucked up from a car accident.

[DFW]

54. I saw a girl shrug while listening to Alice's Restaurant

That's about as close as I got........

[Taverner]

55. "Atlas Shrugged" is the book teenage girls use to piss off their liberal parents

Trust me, I have seen it happen.

[miscsoc]

58. yup, here's an interesting article on that phenomenon

http://web.archive.org/web/20070212184856/http://www.incharacter.org/article.php?article=93

[Taverner]

60. Ayn Rand was a piece of work I tell ya!

[bluedigger]

56. You are too harsh, dawg.

She just didn't want the other patrons to see her lips moving.

[miscsoc]

57. tell her "i am john galt"

then ask her if she'd be interested in joining you for some rough objectivist sex just like in the books. ayn rand had some serious sexual complexes regarding rape fantasies, which informed her whole demented philosophy w/ its fetishisation of callous ubermenschen and all that.