Horsmanistan

The recipients of the 2003 MacArthur Fellows (the so-called "Genius Grants") have been announced. This is my favorite prize that a person can receive, because it's basically $500,000 with no strings attached that you receive for doing something that one of the apparently hundreds of anonymous nominators found interesting. No applications are sought or accepted. Sculptors, blacksmiths, academics, knitters: anyone doing something creative can potentially get one out of the blue. Lovely. It's like the lottery but actually based on merit.