Publisher's Weekly (fwd)

[the Robot Vegetable]

From: Sojourner <sojourner at vt.edu>

Possibly you feel that way because deep down inside the question we
all ask is "Why does everybody else WANT so much publicity?".

If it were a question of publicity to make more money, sure I'd understand.
But after that, why would you want such absurdity?  Stephen King isn't
a monstrous murderer, so why do you want to know about HIM?  

	There was a story on public radio last night reporting on
a research project done on if attractive people are more successful.
Their results said that they were.  They make more money, and the
companies they work for are also more successful.  I felt this was
intuitively likely, although I have many doubts.  Then my biggest doubt
raised itself from their study group: advertising executives.  They used
this group because there were pictures available for them over a
twelve year period.  It seems to me that picking an industry whose
success depends on being attractive begs the issue.
	There was no mention made of this potential difficulty,
which makes me think that the researchers were biased from the start.
	Fame works on a local level.  I think most people still
live in the small 100 person tribe, and base their actions on this.
	I grew up watching famous people shot.

	veg