I think I'll weld a statue of a nude Ayn Rand. Welding goggles! Must wear welding goggles!

Since I'm 6'2", I think I will get to work on my essay and get my $1000.

Too bad I didn't know about that in my college years.
Too bad I didn't go to college, for that matter.

I thought the Ayn Rand high school scholarship was a well known thing. I remember all four years of high school, I'd see posters for the scholarship posted on every single english class door.

For girls, I had a bad yen....

/When I was young.

Ayn Rand The Fountainhead Scholarship - If you enjoyed the book The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and are in the 11th or 12th grade, you could receive up to $10,000 in scholarship money by writing the best essay concerning the novel.

I am a brilliant person who works harder than everyone else. No one understands my greatness, especially all of the girls at school who think that they are too good for me cuz they only date the jocks. In conclusion, Brittany, Caitlin, Madison, and the rest of the cheerleaders will be sorry someday that they don't know who I am.

Jonathan Hohensee: I thought the Ayn Rand high school scholarship was a well known thing. I remember all four years of high school, I'd see posters for the scholarship posted on every single english class door.

I tried to read Atlas Shrugged. Failed.

no grammar Nazi comments yet? I will be leaving this thread disappointed..

doublesecretprobation: why is it so weird that there are trade-related scholarships?

Because people don't know that tradesmen make pretty good jack for minimal education. Instead, they drank the kool aid and believe that a college liberal arts major is going to rise higher than the fry station.

David Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship - Students attending Ball State University

I assume there will be internship opportunities.

Typical high-schooler's idea of Ayn Rand:



/sorry, needed to get that out of my system

Have difficulty spelling "scholarship"? This greenlight might be for you.

What a Scholars Hip may look like:

Michigan Llama Association (MLA) Scholarship - Being an MLA member or being the child of a member is all you need to qualify for this scholarship.



Most irritating song ever (new window)

Ayn Rand was a terrific fark. That's what I hear.

schattenteufel: What a yen may look like:

Oh man I love that album

Ayn Rand The Fountainhead Scholarship - If you enjoyed the book The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and are in the 11th or 12th grade, you could receive up to $10,000 in scholarship money by writing the best essay concerning the novel.

Perhaps they could pick a sociopathic murderer (new window) in whom Rand would have found an even better inspiration than William Edward Hickman.

In her journal circa 1928 Rand quoted the statement, "What is good for me is right," a credo attributed to a prominent figure of the day, William Edward Hickman. Her response was enthusiastic. "The best and strongest expression of a real man's psychology I have heard," she exulted. (Quoted in Ryan, citing Journals of Ayn Rand, pp. 21-22.)

At the time, she was planning a novel that was to be titled The Little Street, the projected hero of which was named Danny Renahan. According to Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra, she deliberately modeled Renahan - intended to be her first sketch of her ideal man - after this same William Edward Hickman. Renahan, she enthuses in another journal entry, "is born with a wonderful, free, light consciousness -- [resulting from] the absolute lack of social instinct or herd feeling. He does not understand, because he has no organ for understanding, the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people ... Other people do not exist for him and he does not understand why they should." (Journals, pp. 27, 21-22; emphasis hers.)

"A wonderful, free, light consciousness" born of the utter absence of any understanding of "the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people." Obviously, Ayn Rand was most favorably impressed with Mr. Hickman. He was, at least at that stage of Rand's life, her kind of man.

So the question is, who exactly was he?

William Edward Hickman was one of the most famous men in America in 1928. But he came by his fame in a way that perhaps should have given pause to Ayn Rand before she decided that he was a "real man" worthy of enshrinement in her pantheon of fictional heroes.

You see, Hickman was a forger, an armed robber, a child kidnapper, and a multiple murderer.

Other than that, he was probably a swell guy.

In December of 1927, Hickman, nineteen years old, showed up at a Los Angeles public school and managed to get custody of a twelve-year-old girl, Marian (sometimes Marion) Parker. He was able to convince Marian's teacher that the girl's father, a well-known banker, had been seriously injured in a car accident and that the girl had to go to the hospital immediately. The story was a lie. Hickman disappeared with Marian, and over the next few days Mr. and Mrs. Parker received a series of ransom notes. The notes were cruel and taunting and were sometimes signed "Death" or "Fate." The sum of $1,500 was demanded for the child's safe release. (Hickman needed this sum, he later claimed, because he wanted to go to Bible college!) The father raised the payment in gold certificates and delivered it to Hickman. As told by the article "Fate, Death and the Fox" in crimelibrary.com,

"At the rendezvous, Mr. Parker handed over the money to a young man who was waiting for him in a parked car. When Mr. Parker paid the ransom, he could see his daughter, Marion, sitting in the passenger seat next to the suspect. As soon as the money was exchanged, the suspect drove off with the victim still in the car. At the end of the street, Marion's corpse was dumped onto the pavement. She was dead. Her legs had been chopped off and her eyes had been wired open to appear as if she was still alive. Her internal organs had been cut out and pieces of her body were later found strewn all over the Los Angeles area."

Quite a hero, eh? One might question whether Hickman had "a wonderful, free, light consciousness," but surely he did have "no organ for understanding ... the necessity, meaning, or importance of other people."

What's so weird about welding? It's a very necessary and common job.

Nudity please...

I didn't win the Fountainhead Scholarship.

First line of my essay -

"Today we consider The Fountainhead - Ayn's Rand's facile festering mound of pus."

They told me I wasn't cool enough to get the scholarhip.

My favorite recent quote:

"I tried to download The Fountainhead to my Kindle and all I got was a file that said 'grow the fark up'"

My life: Won some cash for the 9th & 10th grade Ayn Rand contest (it was on Anthem). Then I discovered the herb. Couldn't finish the Fountainhead. Never entered the 11th & 12th grade contest. Was no longer exceptional.

/Just say no, kids. Just say no.

RockyMountainSigh: My life: Won some cash for the 9th & 10th grade Ayn Rand contest (it was on Anthem). Then I discovered the herb. Couldn't finish the Fountainhead. Never entered the 11th & 12th grade contest. Was no longer exceptional.

/Just say no, kids. Just say no.

This just in: Pot provides Rand immunity. Stoner students overjoyed. Film at 11.

/really, that's a reason TO smoke it...

Nightsweat: I didn't win the Fountainhead Scholarship.

First line of my essay -

"Today we consider The Fountainhead - Ayn's Rand's facile festering mound of pus."

Tee hee, aren't you progressive? Mommy would be proud.

Telephone Sanitizer Second Class: Have difficulty spelling "scholarship"? This greenlight might be for you.

I can haz speeling scolarhip?

I'm just under 6'3", time to start a writin about how being taller than my entire family is life changing.

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

RockyMountainSigh: My life: Won some cash for the 9th & 10th grade Ayn Rand contest (it was on Anthem). Then I discovered the herb. Couldn't finish the Fountainhead. Never entered the 11th & 12th grade contest. Was no longer exceptional.

/Just say no, kids. Just say no.

Another life saved by MM.

FunkOut: Weaver95: revrendjim: Nudity and welding are not two things that go together well.

but nudity and ayn rand, on the other hand....

Atlas shrugged, then got sparks all over his junk and started crying.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!

RockyMountainSigh: My life: Won some cash for the 9th & 10th grade Ayn Rand contest (it was on Anthem). Then I discovered the herb. Couldn't finish the Fountainhead. Never entered the 11th & 12th grade contest. Was no longer exceptional.

/Just say no, kids. Just say no.

That's just like, your opinion, man...

Nightsweat: I didn't win the Fountainhead Scholarship.

First line of my essay -

"Today we consider The Fountainhead - Ayn's Rand's facile festering mound of pus."

That's just funny.