But he's not a jolly little elf

Over at the Atlantic, Barton Gellman has a long profile up of long-time lord of Ithuvania, Peter Thiel. The good news is that it appears to be one of those credulous, fawning pieces that produce such a wealth of fodder for mockery. The bad news is that it's behind a rather solid paywall. The additional good news is that, over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money, Shakezula has collected some of the highlights.

Here are my favorites.

Thiel grew up reading a great deal of science fiction and fantasy—Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke. But especially Tolkien; he has said that he read the Lord of the Rings trilogy at least 10 times. Tolkien’s influence on his worldview is obvious: Middle-earth is an arena of struggle for ultimate power, largely without government, where extraordinary individuals rise to fulfill their destinies. Also, there are immortal elves who live apart from men in a magical sheltered valley.
...

    Did his dream of eternal life trace to The Lord of the Rings? I wondered.

    Yes, Thiel said, perking up. “There are all these ways where trying to live unnaturally long goes haywire” in Tolkien’s works. But you also have the elves. “And then there are sort of all these questions, you know: How are the elves different from the humans in Tolkien? And they’re basically—I think the main difference is just, they’re humans that don’t die.”
    “So why can’t we be elves?” I asked.

    Thiel nodded reverently, his expression a blend of hope and chagrin.

    “Why can’t we be elves?” he said.