"To Whom It May Concern"


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I recently received another request for To Whom it May Concern. Since we haven't really been using the Yahoo group since upgrading our software, I am attaching the scans to this post for our members only.

Kat

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What did marriage mean to Rand (initially, not after she had an affair) if not an official, public declaration of an exclusive romantic relationship? [...]

We shouldn't forget that, among a host of other reasons, one that loomed large for her was that of getting past her potential legal difficulties.

Alissa Rosenbaum was in the United States illegally at the time of her marriage, having overstayed her tourist visa. She obviated her being a target for prosecution by marrying Frank, going to Mexico, and re-entering the country as the wife of an American citizen. That moved her far down the list as to her status being paid attention by the authorities.

Whereupon she applied for citizenship, receiving it by 1932 (she voted for FDR), any visa transgression apparently being seen as immaterial. As Barbara wrote, she "felt politically secure for the first time." (I don't remember if that was WiAR or Passion.)

I'm not saying that she was primarily motivated by wanting to get the 1920s equivalent of a "green card." Yet given how she'd had to work around bureaucrats from her Petrograd days onward, it seems obvious that she readily added this to her judgment calculus.

Objectivist types seem to rarely rage about immigration issues — certainly when compared with the excess of attention paid to them by conservatives, both paleo- and less-rational varieties. Yet anyone who does ought to remember that Rand herself was, for a couple of years, an "illegal immigrant."

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[...] I had read in other forums that Rand saw Patrecia as the lowly "shop girl" type.

Whenever I run across references to Rand raging or fuming about Patrecia, my mental referent isn't from the Showtime movie of Passion.

It's from "Sunset Boulevard," where Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) fulminates at the mere suggestion by Joe Gillis (William Holden) that he could have a girl that he wants to see — apart, that is, from his status as a ghostwriter and gigolo for the aging silent-film star. "Who is she? A dress extra?! A carhop?!"

The *ahem!* obvious parallels between Miss Desmond in 1950 and Mrs. O'Connor in 1968 (or, as to her isolation, say, 1978) are left as an exercise for the film buff. {rueful smile}

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[...] I had read in other forums that Rand saw Patrecia as the lowly "shop girl" type.

Whenever I run across references to Rand raging or fuming about Patrecia, my mental referent isn't from the Showtime movie of Passion.

It's from "Sunset Boulevard," where Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) fulminates at the mere suggestion by Joe Gillis (William Holden) that he could have a girl that he wants to see — apart, that is, from his status as a ghostwriter and gigolo for the aging silent-film star. "Who is she? A dress extra?! A carhop?!"

The *ahem!* obvious parallels between Miss Desmond in 1950 and Mrs. O'Connor in 1968 (or, as to her isolation, say, 1978) are left as an exercise for the film buff. {rueful smile}

Heh.

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  • 6 years later...

I recently received another request for To Whom it May Concern. Since we haven't really been using the Yahoo group since upgrading our software, I am attaching the scans to this post for our members only.

Kat

Here, now there's no reason to wonder if a word has been changed or a sentence dropped.

--Brant

from the thread Ellen linked to (you need to scroll up the thread to #26)

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[...] I had read in other forums that Rand saw Patrecia as the lowly "shop girl" type.

Whenever I run across references to Rand raging or fuming about Patrecia, my mental referent isn't from the Showtime movie of Passion.

It's from "Sunset Boulevard," where Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) fulminates at the mere suggestion by Joe Gillis (William Holden) that he could have a girl that he wants to see — apart, that is, from his status as a ghostwriter and gigolo for the aging silent-film star. "Who is she? A dress extra?! A carhop?!"

The *ahem!* obvious parallels between Miss Desmond in 1950 and Mrs. O'Connor in 1968 (or, as to her isolation, say, 1978) are left as an exercise for the film buff. {rueful smile}

Heh.

This contains all the posts on the old thread. Go to #26 for the photocopy of "To Whom it May Concern."

--Brant

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