Distinguished Lists

If I Ran the National Endowment of the Arts

The highest award bestowed by the nation on an artist. Rather inconsistent, compared to when achievements took place: Aretha Franklin got hers before Bob Dylan, Wynton Marsalis before Sonny Rollins, Ray Bradbury before Harper Lee. Here’s who I would give it to for 2012:

Sid Caesar, Television pioneer and comedian (88 years old)

Gary Snyder, Poet (82 years old)

Toni Morrison, Novelist (81 years old)

Gordon Willis, Cinematographer (81 years old)

Oscar de la Renta, Fashion designer (80 years old)

Wayne Shorter, Jazz saxophonist (79 years old)

Philip Glass, Composer (75 years old)

Carollee Schneemann, Performance artist (72 years old)

Liza Minnelli, Actress and singer (66 years old)

Annie Leibovitz, Photographer (62 years old)

2012 Nobel Prize Predictions

They're a month away!

Physics – 2:1 odds on Peter Higgs

Literature – 3:1 odds on Haruki Murakami, BONUS: 6:1 odds on Bob Dylan

Peace – 3:1 odds on Mursi, El-Keib, and Jebali, individually or any combination thereof

Chemistry – 7:1 odds on Richard Zare or W.E. Moerner, or combination

Physiology – 5:1 odds on Joseph Vacanti and Robert Langer

American Scientists Who Should Have Statues Made of Them

Sometimes a statue is needed. Only those without statues were considered (unlike Goddard, Millikan, Tesla, the Wrights, etc.) Maybe we could have these guys in the Capitol? Or a science park?

Jonas Salk – Cured Polio

Linus Pauling – Chemist and Peace Advocate

Thomas Hunt Morgan – Geneticist

Edwin Hubble – Cosmologist

Gregory Pincus and Margaret Sanger – Contraceptive Pill and Revolutionary

Rachel Carson – Environmentalist

Willis Carrier – Air Conditioning

Richard Feynman – Physicist

John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, William Shockley – Pioneers of the Information Age

Glenn Seaborg – Chemist

Willard Libby – Radiocarbon Dating