The MacArthur Foundation just announced the recipients of their 2007 "Genius Grants," and for yet another year, those fuckers screwed me over. I really thought I had it wrapped up this year, what with the blog and all. In my mind, I had already spent the $500,000 for this year.
As the article details:
[Recipients] include a biomedical scientist, a blues musician, a forensic anthropologist, an inventor, a medieval historian, and a spider silk biologist. All were selected for their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future. Each received a phone call from the Foundation with news of $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.
It should also list, "an English professor who occasionally blogs about comics and other stuff he likes." Bastards.
Seriously, though, congratulations to all the deserving recipients, especially Jonathan Shay, whose book Achilles in Vietnam is one of the best books I ever read on the subject of war trauma and has been a significant influence on my own research (research, apparently, not deserving of notice by the big shots at the MacArthur Foundation).
That is maybe--maybe--the best opening sentence you will ever write.
ReplyDeleteBy pure coincidence "a biomedical scientist, a blues musician, a forensic anthropologist, an inventor, a medieval historian, and a spider silk biologist team up to fight crime" is going to be my next comic book pitch.
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