How perfectly cool is this bit of news from the NYT?

Oliver Sacks Joins Columbia Faculty as ‘Artist’

The new appointment will allow Dr. Sacks, the author of 10 books and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, to range freely across Columbia’s departments, teaching, giving public lectures, conducting seminars, seeing patients and collaborating with other faculty members. Many of the details of his appointment have yet to be worked out, but among other things, he will be teaching in the university’s creative writing department as well as at the medical school.

Hearing about this new interdisciplinary position makes me happy. My two life goals: philanthropy and (more importantly) creative leeway.