Dept of brass rings

Among the winners of MacArthur Foundation grants for 2005 were rare book presevationist Terry Belangerand novelist Jonathan Lethem. But check out all the winners for a bunch of happy faces. You'd be happy too if you just won half a million dollars.

This SF Chronicle article looks at local 2004 winners a year later. Even a "genius grant" has its downside:

"You have to deal with a lot of 'genius jokes,' " he said. "Anything you do that's not right -- like having trouble turning on a projector -- you get the remarks: 'What's wrong, genius?' ... It never ends."