scholarship epitome of incomprehensibility A link to a site listing opportunities for scholarships (many in the US, some international) led me to this: "Are you a high school senior, undergraduate, or graduate student with a passion for reading, writing, and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand?" Why yes, my three main passions in life are reading, writing, AND Altas Shrugged by Ayn Rand! How did you know?? What's more, I can combine two of these passions by reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. But alas! I cannot write Altas Shrugged by Ayn Rand because I am not Ayn Rand. Anyway, yes, it's from the Ayn Rand Institute and it offers prizes for essays. I was semi-seriously tempted: how hard would that be? But Julia read that book (or was it The Fountainhead?) and reported it to be wordy and overwrought. Well, she was 17. She didn't say it like that. She said it better. She pointed to her parents' fireplace and said, "If she was describing that fireplace, she wouldn't just call it 'a fireplace with a greyish frame.' She would be all, 'the ancestral marble frame of the fireplace glistened in the sparkling light of the flames which reminded me of the generations of my ancestors...'" Anyway, the essay award deadline is Nov. 6. While I obviously have gobs and gobs of free time and a stellar instinct for managing it, I don't think Atlas Shrugged is on the books, soda speak. 231102 what's it to you? who go blather from