A cheaper Nobel?

Most Nobel peace prize winners have used the money for their own various good works. Lech Walesa spent it on a national rebuilding fund,Al Gore put it into an Alliance for Climate Protection. Others have blithely blown the money for their own purposes. Literature awardee Sinclair Lewis told reporters: It will be used to help a deserving American writer and his family. Economist Franco Modigliani got himself a sailboat. Albert Einstein,in fact,bought his divorce with the Nobel prize money and his wife clearly had faith in him,to demand he sign the deal two years before hed actually won it.

Unlike the more lucrative X Prize,the Nobel doesnt spur new work,it rewards a glorious record. It is a career-capping bonus for most winners,who are unlikely to care about 2 million krona one way or the other. For the rest of us though,its depressing to watch austerity encroach even this one last,bountiful space.