Or, hearing, to be precise.
Imagine my surprise this morning when I turned on NPR and heard, "...Ayn Rand argued the value of such buildings..." etc, followed by a clip of unmistakable dialogue.
Then the program ended. It was Marketplace Morning Report, and the feature was called "Trophy Buildings"â€"go here to listen to it on Real Player, as I did to get the full scoop.
Essentially, with the three-year anniversary of Sept. 11, Marketplace was asking questions about the real estate prospects of so-called "trophy buildings," such as the Citigroup Building in New York.
At the beginning, the feature included a clip from the film The Fountainhead of Gail Wynand describing his lifelong vision of the Wynand Building: "It will be the tallest building in New York...a monument to my life."
It ended with (paraphrased):
Ayn Rand argued the value of such buildings over half a century ago in The Fountainhead. [roll clip]
[Wynand] "This will be the last skyscraper ever built in New York, the last achievement of man on earth before mankind destroys itself."
[Roark] "Mankind will never destroy iteself, Mr. Wynand, nor should it think of itself as destroyed so long as it does things such as this."
[Wynand] "As what?"
[Roark] "As the Wynand building."
The feature ended there. Pretty cool, huh?