Perks

Almost 30 years ago, I heard someone ask Czeslaw Milosz, "What's the best thing about winning the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature?"  Milosz, who taught at the University of California at Berkeley, said it was getting his name on a parking space at the university!

Today I listened to the show "Science Friday" on WHYY-FM.  The host, Ira Flatow, asked guest Saul Perlmutter what was the best thing about being co-winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics.  Perlmutter, who also teaches at UC Berkeley, said essentially the same thing as Czeslaw Milosz: the best thing about being a Nobel Laureate was that he got a personal parking space in the middle of the campus!

Apparently the parking in Berkeley hasn't improved in the past 30 years.