What's in a name?

[wolf]

Originally posted by Dagney
Anywayyyy this particular name comes from a novel by Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged - The character's name was Dagny Taggart,

I suspected that!

I read Atlas Shrugged for the first time within the last year, on the suggestion of my boyfriend. I also identified strongly with Dagny's character.

I spent a LOT of time being pissed off while reading that book ... I would scream "BUT THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!" at particularly tense moments.

I'm trying to read some more of Ayn Rand's books. I just finished Anthem which also affected me strongly. Any other suggestions? I think I have a copy of The Fountainhead in my book closet, but I haven't seen it in a couple of years, so I may have to buy another one.

[SteveDallas]

Duh---I didn't see this before I posted about it on the Chariot Racing thread.

Anyway, I hadn't been checking in on this thread... I really should do better at getting through ALL the cellar messages. ("Daddy, I'm Hungry!" "Be quiet, I'm reading The Cellar... we'll have dinner before bedtime, I promise.") But it's an appropriate place to mention this. The nickname I have even as I write this is in fact derived from my first initial and my last name. At the time I first signed up for The Cellar (probably 1991), I had no reason to worry about using my real name, and I didn't feel like coming up with an alias. I have now decided that I need to restrain the use of my real name online, and so I am changing my nickname. I'm not sure what the new one will be, but at any rate, you won't have this particular nick to kick around any more.

[wolf]

I was always hesitant to use my legal name in online communications. The first time I went to log in to the cellar, and that cursor was blinking at me, demanding a name ... I just up and typed "wolf" ... dunno why for sure. Well, there was this recurring dream image, and that DID have something to do with it ...

But dat's me.

[Dagney]

Originally posted by wolf
I'm trying to read some more of Ayn Rand's books. I just finished Anthem which also affected me strongly. Any other suggestions? I think I have a copy of The Fountainhead in my book closet, but I haven't seen it in a couple of years, so I may have to buy another one.

Atlas Shrugged is one of those books I had to force myself to read..the first time. The first 100 pages is somewhat slow, but after that, I couldn't put it down. It truly made me think. Of course, at the time, I was working for a company called Galt Controls, owned by a man who also owned a company called Rearden Metals *chuckle*.

I just looked on my bookshelf, and I've got a few copies of Rand books that have gone among the missing (ugh..a peeve of mine!)

Anyway, The Fountainhead is another good one. - I've got it on my list of books to 'replace' since it's wandered off. We the Living is another one that makes you think.

But if you're interested on doing any research into the philosophy of Objectivism, I have some links around here somewhere I could send you privately.

Glad to hear you liked it...I've never been disappointed in any of her books.

Dagney

[Whit]

     You're actually suggesting We the Living ??? That's a wonderfuly written and well crafted book. Only read it if you like pain. To my knowledge those are the only four fiction books Rand wrote.

     As for my name, I use my real name, sort of. Whit is short for my middle name, Whitman. It's the name I answer to in daily life. It's an odd enough name that I can often use it online. Even my primary s/n is WhitoftheHills, because I live in the Ozarks. If you've ever been here you should know that the Ozarks aren't quite mountains as much as really big friggin' hills. I also was frustrated with trying to came up with one that someone else didn't already have...

[Elspode]

Hey, I live in the Ozarks, too! Well, the extreme northern Ozarks. Okay, I live in Kansas City, but damn it, I'm still a hillbilly!

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by Elspode
Hey, I live in the Ozarks, too! Well, the extreme northern Ozarks. Okay, I live in Kansas City, but damn it, I'm still a hillbilly!

Absolutely. Anyone in Missouri outside the St. Louis area* is indeed a backwards, inbreeding, two-tooth hillbilly.

(*--Sycamore, a native St. Louisan, saw this as a perfect opportunity to harrass a resident of Western Missouri...all in good fun, of course )

[Elspode]

Hey, even we here in Cowtown call St. Louisians 'uppity Easterners'... :p

All in good fun, though. So, why did you actually leave St. Louie for the backwaters of Pennsylvania, anyway?

[slang]

Originally posted by sycamore
Absolutely. Anyone in Missouri outside the St. Louis area* is indeed a backwards, inbreeding, two-tooth hillbilly.

I've been waiting for a good place to post this hillbilly baby. Did your kids look like this Ep?

[Elspode]

Hey! Where the hell did you find that picture of my kid?!!

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by Elspode
Hey, even we here in Cowtown call St. Louisians 'uppity Easterners'...

Truth be told, I've never been to KC...the closest I got was Whitman AFB in Knob Noster. I hear KC is actually a relatively nice city.

So, why did you actually leave St. Louie for the backwaters of Pennsylvania, anyway?

I was sick of being in St. Louis. I love St. Louis and Missouri, and am proud to be from there, but I had just had enough. I graduated from UM-St. Louis in January 1999, and just couldn't find a decent job afterwards. (I worked for Commerce Bank prior to graduating, and wound up being stuck there for most of '99.) So, on August 15, 1999, I packed my life into a U-Haul and drove east to Washington, DC. Spent a year there, then Rho (my fiance) and I moved to Philadelphia, where we've been since.

I'm ready to move again though. Philadelphia's alright, but neither of us is having good luck with the job market here. Can't go back to Missouri though...they don't offer the type of dialysis Rho uses, and that would just be too close to my mother. I want to move to Chicago, Rho wants to move to Baltimore...we may have to compromise on Delaware. We'll see.

[elSicomoro]

I take that back...I got one good job offer, just before I moved out this way: As a personnel analyst with the State of Missouri. But it would have required me to move to Jefferson City. No thanks.

BTW, the backwaters are griff and slang territory, though I've been in those parts a few times. It's actually scary how similar PA and MO are:

--A large city on each side of the state
--The city on the western side of the state is looked upon as being "lesser"
--Lots of mountains (though the ones here are slightly larger)
--Rivers of national importance
--Lots of hillbillies

Differences (other than foods):

--MO is larger, but has fewer people
--MO's gun laws are more restrictive than PA's
--The roads are better in MO (and no tolls)
--Beer and liquor are easier and cheaper to buy in MO

The things I miss most are generally food items...no Jack in the Boxes or Sonics in these parts. Cheesesteaks take away some of the pain though.

[slang]

Originally posted by sycamore
The things I miss most are generally food items...

Do you eat the Pizza here? Hoagies? How does it compare?


Do you have White Castles out in Mizurah?

(I'm asking a lot of questions)

[Elspode]

Originally posted by sycamore
The things I miss most are generally food items...no Jack in the Boxes or Sonics in these parts. Cheesesteaks take away some of the pain though.

We had Jack in the Boxes here in the 70's, but they faded away. Sonics we have in glorious abundance...my wife and I hit 'em a lot in the summer for the groovy variety of drinks.

I'm a St. Louis fan...been there many times. There's about twice as many cool things to do it St. Louis as there is in KC, but KC is a beautiful city. More parks than you know what to do with, The Plaza is a gas even if you have no money, Westport can be fun and kitchy, blah, blah, blah.

The single greatest thing about MO is the fact that in two hours, you can be camping the middle of nowhere; in five hours or less you can be in an outdoor recreational mecca people frequent from all over the country.

I would love to go to PA, though...I've only been East of the Mississippi twice in my whole life, once to do the Dizzy World/Fla thing, once to go to Indianapolis, of all places. I've been West a lot, and I love the mountains, but I'm not real sure I could live anywhere but here. Well, maybe Hawaii.

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by slang
Do you eat the Pizza here?

I do, but only on occasion. As a whole, I don't care for it though. There are definitely some good places here in Philadelphia, but I prefer thin-crust pizza to thicker crust. (You may recall my post regarding Imo's in St. Louis and Ledo in the DC area.)

Hoagies?

Absolutely...the hoagies here are great! Though back home, we generally call them "subs" or "poor boys." We have a neighborhood in St. Louis called The Hill, which is the Italian part of town, and features many excellent restaurants and sandwich shops. Though the best shop in St. Louis is a little spot called Mom's Deli, on Jamieson Ave. in the Lindenwood Park neighborhood. That was one of the first places I hit when I was in town 2 years ago.

Do you have White Castles out in Mizurah?

Lots of 'em. We used to have 2 here in Philadelphia, but they closed down about 2 years ago. There's still one in the area, over in Palmyra, NJ (just across the Tacony bridge).