Sep 212002
 

Sasha Castel mused on the difficulty of telling the characters apart when reading royal history, since all the players marry their cousins and have the same names in the first place. She also wrote “Sasha’s Ketchup” on the ketchup bottle in indelible magic marker. Jim of Objectionable Content explained why Francisco D’Anconia is his favorite character in Atlas Shrugged. Megan McArdle stood up in front of me and I said, “Oh my God, you really are six two!” She really is, too. This got a big laugh but maybe you had to be there. Clay Waters and I agreed that what counts is not just what your convictions are, but how you arrive at them. He claims to like Light in August but has forgotten the plot. Fortunately he has an extra month’s reprieve before he has to leave town, and I hope it’s enough. I argued to Orchid of the Daily Dose and Allan of Rough Days that alleviating envy is a profound psychological force behind religion in general and Christianity in particular. Orchid agreed; Allan didn’t. Allan tried to sell me on an E.M. Forster essay on anonymity, with some success, and fantasy fiction, with less success. Ken Goldstein claimed that a WTO protestor told him, seriously, that “property is theft,” and further, even less believably, that he didn’t answer him “Theft of what”? He made it sound convincing. Asparagirl got Pejman on the cell and passed him around the room but I didn’t talk to him. Many silly name tags were worn.