Thread by @AlexandraErin

It turns out yesterday was the last day you could say "Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is a real person who exists." and have it be true, and no one knew it.

I feel like there's a lesson here about making the most of the opportunities we have, in the time that we have.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with his name. Exactly the opposite. It's the perfect name for a larger-than-life oil tycoon, in the same way that David Brooks is the wrong name for an opinion writer.

David Brooks has a name that obviously belongs to a middling but relatively successful author of very dry, creepily misogynistic fantasy books with names like "The Bromeliad of Reshalaharala". I have no idea how he has the gall to continue using it.

But T. Boone Pickens? If you were told that was the name of a character on The Beverly Hillbillies, a swaggering oilman who was out to somehow get one over on the Clampetts, or the wealthy but boisterous landlord from a golden age radio show, or the Rich Texan from the Simpsons?

That's all I have to say about T. Boone Pickens today.