Apparently, Atlas Shrugged, the book that one was living by several years ago (I know, so embarrassing...), was first published this day fifty years ago:

...the book attracted a coterie of fans, some of them top corporate executives, who dared not speak of its impact except in private. When they read the book, often as college students, they now say, it gave form and substance to their inchoate thoughts, showing there is no conflict between private ambition and public benefit.

It is often the case that Ayn Rand really converts one at age 17 or 18 turning one into the perfectly egoistic cynic with a totally warped idea of one's exclusivity. Some, thankfully, snap out of the spell in a few years. For the rest, the power of individualism and the attendant vainglory remain lifelong illusions.

It appears that Ayn Rand might be the most influential female writer of the last fifty years {Shudder}

You know, sometimes it is such luck that you don't meet a Howard Roark when you think he's God.