Fran

Nathaniel's argument misses the point that it takes more than one meal to help an abondoned, starving child. What would the man do, feed the child and then walk on, knowing that the next day the child would be in the exact same predicament? Is it a case of hoping that everyday another passer-by will do the same thing, essentially feeding the child for a decade or so until he/she is an adult? A child is fairly helpless and would require an adult to take care of it for many years, something the man with the knapsack may not feel that he is willing to do. He could take it to a home for children, if one such exists close-by, and hope that it was the sort of home that treated children kindly (but again this would need to be run by people who want to spend their life doing this sort of thing). I'm not intending to be callous, I wouldn't want to see starving children in the street, but neither would I want to spend my life looking after them.

David It takes self-responsibility (discipline) to practice and hone a talent that you have. You could show talent as an artist, but if you never paint anything, your potential will never be realised. It's like Ayn Rand didn't suddenly sit down and write Atlas one day having never written any fiction before in her life, she had to work at her skill as an author, and only then after many years of practice had she acquired the level of skill necessary to write Atlas. Fran

I momentarily grew horns and a forked tail the other day. I wrote a review for NB's Six Pillars on Amazon.co.uk, gave it 5* and said how excellent I thought it was and why. I wanted to use a pen name and the example given for pen names was "Mark Twain"... ...which got me thinking about female authors... ...and then it came to me, I could use 'Ayn Rand' as my pen name... ...then it would look like Ayn Rand was now writing rave reviews for Nathaniel Branden's books, presumably having forgiven him for all his past sins... Oh the temptation to be mischievous! However, I figured it would annoy more people than it would make smile, so I didn't. My halo has returned.

I love being an Aunty - it's like all the joys of being a grandparent without having to go through the parent bit first! I enjoy sharing some of the funny things my now 6-year-old nephew, Eliot, has said over the years. [sadly, my sister is not an Objectivist or even close. They live in the UK] Last September Eliot was at school and his class were mixing different coloured paints together to see what new colours they made; they could then paint a picture with these colours and give their painting a name. Eliot painted a swirling, orange mass and called it "The Circle of Morality" by Eliot, aged 5. When he was 2 (nearly 3 and talked really well for his age) he came downstairs one morning and my sister asked him: "Eliot, would you like some breakfast," to which he replied: "No. I'll just have a glass of wine." When he was 4, he was going through a phase of telling everybody that he was 33. He said this to a lady visitor, who said: "Oh, are you, you've worn well." Eliot then patted the back of his head and responded: "Well, I've just had my hair done."

Are there any dog-lovers around here??

Well, I'm really glad to hear that you're all going to the TOC summer seminar as it means I will get to meet all you guys in person. I went for the first time last year and had a wonderful time.

I didn't know Branden was planning on remarrying. Is that Leigh Horton he's marrying? - she was at the 2005 TOC conference and she seemed really lovely. Congratulations to them both.