How Much for the Whole School?

While listening to the radio the other day I heard a reporter refer offhandedly to the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. An exclamation point went off in my head immediately. First, back in the antediluvian days of my yout', when student legend had it that only the Pentagon had more miles of corridors, it was just the UCLA Medical School, so there's that. But more to the point, I have some idea of what it takes to get your name on a university building. Back at Irvine, one of our emeritus faculty was dying of cancer, and decided to leave a biggish donation to the department. It took a million dollar bequest to the university to get single building named after him.

But I'd be willing to bet that UCI, with a lot of un-named buildings and a less prestigious name, is a cheap date compared to a 500 lb. gorilla like UCLA. And the entire medical school is rather a lot more than just a humanities office building. So here's props to David Geffen, who is clearly a mensch, to the tune of millions if not billions for medicine.

Holiday Greetings

Happy New Year, for those who observe the Gregorian version of a solar calendar. May it be prosperous and healthy and full of good cheer for you and yours. And since I have now successfully missed marking all of them: Merry Christmas, Good Solstice, and Happy Channukah, also. Next year, I may try to do cards. Better start now...

ETA: The New Year's blessing I wish I'd penned, from Neil Gaiman, via liveavatar:

I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you dream dangerously and outrageously, that you make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked. And most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now) that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

Be wise. Be kind. Make stuff. (Do good. Avoid evil. Throw a party.)

(Did you enjoy your leap second? Yeah, I missed it too...)